musings on the strait and narrow.: not my first rodeo.

Here we go again. We drove from Chicago to Rochester, MN. In January. I must say, this time around was almost too easy.

I'm moving from Chicago to Los Angeles. We put all of our belongings into a POD, shipped it off and (practically) all that is left is us and Brutus, our Tesla Model S. We are leaving just a day after the Polar Vortex which has plummeted the temperatures in the midwest to well below zero. During the days before we left, I would sometimes get close to half of my rated range, trying to keep the cabin at a comfortably warm temperature in negative 15 degree weather and make it to work on the icy, windy roads. This did not help my last minute range anxiety. My husband on the other hand is all butterflies and rainbows in regards to our range. But, he has not really driven Brutus in the winter and he most definitely did not experience my last trip to Minnesota. Like I said, this is not my first rodeo.

We are basically taking Elon's proposed LA to NY supercharger route, backwards. We have been watching the supercharger map closely. The first part of our trip will be pretty straight-forward. We have one spot around Cheyenne, WY that is a little spotty and a lot of the last bit of the trip after Colorado. Other than that we're just hoping for good weather and clear roads.

Our first day was an easy day. We headed to Rochester, MN where we would visit with some friends and spend our first night. We stopped first at the Rockford Supercharger to top-off and then hit Mauston, WI. We could have made it from there, but we also stopped to fill-up in Onalaska. The lesson I've learned is to charge when you can, and give yourself as much of a buffer as possible -- especially when it's ridiculously fast and free!

The superchargers have basically revolutionized driving an EV. Well, driving a Tesla EV anyway. We made it to Rochester in just a little over 7 hours, which is almost as fast as an ICE (internal combustion engine). It was a leisurely drive without any range anxiety. I actually think I will really enjoy "needing" to stop every 3-ish hours. It's the perfect amount of time to get out, stretch your legs and not really get bogged down by the drive. I'm looking forward to the rest of the trip. Here are the stats so far. I'm still figuring out what stats I need to write down in order for this to make sense, so bear with me.

		Time	Charger	Temp *F	kWh	Miles	Wh/mi	Charge Time	Drive Time
Elgin, IL	Arrival	1/9/14, 0702	NEMA-1450	-5	start 8477.4	start 22752	373
	Departure
Rockford, IL	Arrival	748	Supercharger	0	15.1	38.6	390		46 min
	Departure					237 r-range
Mauston, WI	Arrival	1108	Supercharger	5	54.6	142.9 mi driven	382
	Departure
Onalaska, WI	Arrival	1241	Supercharger	5	25.3	65.2 mi driven	388
	Departure	137				226 r-range
Rochester, MN	Arrival	247	Chargepoint J1772	16	32.3	76.7	420	8+