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Epic Road Trip

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I went on an epic road trip with my model Y to pick up my Roadster that was in Seattle at Carl Medlock’s shop. 4774 total miles, 49 supercharger stops for at total of 2344kWh of energy at a cost of $741 for the charging at the superchargers. Here are the highlights of the trip. Click the links for each day to see more pictures.

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Day 1 – Tuesday March 1
Left my hometown Frisco TX early in the morning and made the following supercharger stops.
Henrietta TX, Childress TX, Amarillo TX, Clayton NM, Trinidad CO.

Day 2 – Wednesday March 2
Departed from Trinidad CO and made the following supercharger stops.
Poncha Springs CO, Montrose CO, Green River UT, Price UT, Draper UT, Burley ID

Day 3 – Thursday March 3
Departed from Burley ID and made the following supercharger stops.
Twin Falls ID, Boise ID, Ontario OR, Baker City OR, Pendleton OR, Kennewick WA, Cle Elum, WA
The first three days were largely uneventful. I had nice clear weather and made good time through the Rockies. I ran into some light rain, mist/fog, and intermittent drizzle in Oregon and Washington states.

Day 4 – Friday March 4
Picked up the Uhaul trailer in the morning. Met Carl at his shop in Seattle. Got a nice tour. Visually inspected my roadster and loaded it up on the trailer for the trip home. As you can imagine, my range was drastically reduced by pulling the trailer. I could “easily” make about 100 miles range on a 90% charge. I only made two supercharger stops for Day 4. Federal Way WA, Kelso WA.

Day 5 – Saturday March 5
Very long day. I woke up early and hit the road with the trailer. 8 Supercharger stops.
Woodburn OR, Salem OR, Springfield OR, Myrtle Creek OR, Medford OR, Klamath Falls OR, Alturas CA, Susanville CA. Temperatures really started dropping after sundown, and I was a nervous wreck on the last leg to Susanville. The temps were in the teens and totally affected range. I had to slow down to 50mph to make it to Susanville.

Day 6 – Sunday March 6
Reno NV, Gardnerville NV, Hawthorne NV, Tonopah NV, Beatty NV, Las Vegas NV, Henderson, NV
Seven charging stops, and I had to unhook the trailer in Reno and Las Vegas. Temperatures were cooler than I anticipated, but my range is ok to make it to my charging stops.

Day 7 – Monday March 7
I decide to go south to I-10 and I-20 instead of cutting across I-40. The gaps between superchargers are too big with the trailer. And the temperatures were forecast to be in the 30’s and 40’s (Fahrenheit).
Kingman AZ (West Andy Devine), Wickenburg AZ, Phoenix AZ (Agua Fria Freeway), Casa Grande AZ, Tucson, AZ (West River Road).

Day 8 – Tuesday March 8
Willcox AZ, Deming NM, El Paso TX, Van Horn TX
Spent a lot of time charging to 100%. There were some big gaps on Day 8. 134 miles between Wilcox and Deming. 130 miles between El Paso and Van Horn. I had to go 55-60 mph to make those legs and most of the time the speed limits were 75 mph.

Day 9 – Wednesday March 9
On the home stretch, I thought it would be pretty easy. The biggest gap between superchargers was 113 miles between Midland and Sweetwater. But from Pecos to Midland, the wind started picking up, and I had a strong crosswind. I saw the trip computer eating away at the predicted range, and I was forced to slow down. My progress became even slower as as I was forced to charge near 100% to make it between superchargers. The crosswind finally let up after sunset when I left the Cisco supercharger. My range estimates started to increase, so I was able to skip the Fort Worth supercharger and go all the way to the Arlington supercharger for my last charge before getting home.
Pecos TX, Midland TX, Sweetwater TX, Cisco TX, Arlington TX, and finally back home in Frisco TX.

In hind sight, I was pretty lucky throughout the whole trip with very decent weather with minimal precipitation and minimal winds except on the final day of my journey. If the wind suddenly picked up during one of the long 130 mile gaps, I would have been screwed. I tried to keep a backup plan going at each charging stop. I would pull up PlugShare and RV-Parky to look for Level 2 chargers in case I needed them on the way to my next charger. But that would have been disastrous if I had to pull over in the middle of the day to get an emergency charge at a Level 2 charger. It would pretty much add an extra day to my trip. If you made it this far, thanks for reading my post.

Edited to insert links.
 
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Day 6 Photos
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It was cold in the morning in Susanville. Some frost on the roadster.

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Reno NV. I had to unhook the trailer. The charging stations were in a gated parking lot that was only accessible via the casino parking garage. I had to park the trailer about a block away in an empty surface lot.

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Gardnerville NV

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About halfway through my charging session at Gardnerville, I had to unplug and back up to the next charging station to make room for two more vehicles that showed up at the same time. About 5 minutes before I had enough charge, more vehicles started to show up, but before I got done, the other vehicles completed their charging and the line was moving along.

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Hawthorne NV

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Several people took pictures of the roadster throughout the trip, but this is the only one I was able to catch on camera. I put the fender down so I could open the door and show the guy inside.

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Tonopah NV
 
Day 7 Photos
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Kingman AZ

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Wickenburg AZ. I had to unhook the trailer.

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Wickenburg AZ. The trailer was parked a short distance away in a cul de sac at the end of the parking lot.

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Phoenix AZ. I had to drop the trailer again. There were lots of slots, but the cars were all spread out that I didn't have any room to pull through with the trailer.

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Phoenix AZ

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Casa Grande AZ. Unhooked the trailer again.
 
I went on an epic road trip with my model Y to pick up my Roadster that was in Seattle at Carl Medlock’s shop. 4774 total miles, 49 supercharger stops for at total of 2344kWh of energy at a cost of $741 for the charging at the superchargers. Here are the highlights of the trip. Click the links for each day to see more pictures.

What a fantastic trip with great photos!

The average gas price today, according to Gas Buddy, is $4.34 for regular gas. Assuming you could use regular gas in a car you might have, and assuming a gas mileage of 20 miles per gallon (probably would be less pulling a trailer), you would have used 239 gallons of fuel at a total cost of $1,037.26. By driving a Tesla, you saved about $300! My guess is that you saved more because I doubt one would have gotten 20 mpg fuel economy, so the estimates I've given are generous, I think.

The BMW X1 is rated at 26 mpg combined city and highway. I suspect a trailer, and particularly a trailer with a load, would get below 20. Plus I think it requires a higher octane than regular gas, so the savings would be substantially better than what I calculated.
 
Awesome trip and great documentation. I’d like to invite you to join the Wiki - Superchargers Visited thread and document your trip (copy and paste of your charging stops is sufficient).

Following on @IslandRoadster ‘s post, had I done this trip in my (ex) 2003 Ford F-350 diesel, I would have expected about 15 MPG for a total fuel cost of nearly $1,600 at $5/gallon. Probably would have saved a day on the return trip.
 
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Wickenburg AZ. I had to unhook the trailer.
Did you get a chance to speak with the VW owner? It doesn't look like he/she was charging here, but possibly parked in a Supercharger spot?

Great photos overall, and it shows how low the Roadster's roofline really is (from its Lotus DNA.) On the trailer, it looks to be an inch or two lower than the roof of the Y.
 
Just running the math on my highly fuel efficient Sienna Hybrid, which gets about 28 mpg pulling a trailer using regular 87 octane gas. Cost-wise, that’s a push, but I would much rather do this with my Y. :)

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that a Sienna hybrid isn’t going to get 28 MPG on the highway while towing a U-Haul auto transport with a car. ;)