Far West Texas Charging

[PLUS EV]

PLUS EV: Thank you for your report. The area is indeed hard to describe unless you have spent some time out here.
Seattle? Why are you out here in no man's land?

There's two bulls standing on top of a mountain. The younger one says to the older one: "Hey pop, let's say we run down there and **** one of them cows". The older one says: "No son. Lets walk down and **** 'em all".

458 superchargers and counting

 

[charliepmayer]

PLUS EV: 458 SCs! Are you writing a book or - oh - are you building them?

 

[tmoz]

There's two bulls standing on top of a mountain. The younger one says to the older one: "Hey pop, let's say we run down there and **** one of them cows". The older one says: "No son. Lets walk down and **** 'em all".

458 superchargers and counting

The sites you've charged at?

 

[BerTX]

The sites you've charged at?

Bwahaha, he's not in first place (yet).
Superchargers Visited

 

[BerTX]

I did a fairly thorough search of both Pecos and Fort Stockton a couple days ago (basically drove through the parking lot of every gas station and hotel) and found zero signs of construction.

Pecos seems nearly hopeless. Every hotel has a small parking lot that is clogged with work trucks and even the truck stops did not seem to have much extra space. Also the pavement/infrastructure is just terrible everywhere, but no one seems to care since basically everyone is driving a monster truck of some sort, many of which were provided by their work. Driving a new Tesla around that town was somewhat stressful. Also the town seemed to be booming. It was crowded everywhere at 10pm on a weeknight. I guess it's just all the oil workers or whatever. All in all, it was one of my least favorite places I have ever visited in this country.

Fort Stockton shows some more hope. Wasn't nearly as crowded and basically all of the hotels at exit 257 would have enough room for a supercharger. Fairfield, Candlewood, Hampton Inn, Best Western. And many of those have been host locations in other cities (Hampton Inn in Van Horn for example). I wonder what is taking them so long.

All the driving around forced me to make a stop in Iraan. I kind of wanted the Iraan experience that I have read so much about anyway. As usual, the charger there worked great. The only problem the Iraan stop created was having to drive through a sea of white-tail deer from Iraan to Ozona. I have literally never seen so many deer in my life. They also are much more skittish and prone to jumping out into the road than the ones I am used to back home. I must have seen a thousand of them and I had to go 40mph just to be sure I didn't hit any.

Thanks for doing the thorough search! Yes, there are a number of qualified places in Fort Stockton -- hence the conspiracy theories.

Your issues in Pecos, unfortunately, are getting more common throughout small towns in Texas. During the fracking boom in south Texas, lots of decent communities were ruined by the greed and environmental ambivalence. One of the unfortunate aspects of the concentration of uproar on Global Warming is the distraction from good old rape of the landscape and destruction of extremely limited water supplies. But social destruction is an aspect never even talked about. Those communities will never recover.

 

[tmoz]

Bwahaha, he's not in first place (yet).
Superchargers Visited

Now you've made me start my own spreadsheet of SCs visited. I hope I can avoid getting obsessed with upping the number.

I'm at a measly 38. Long way to go to hit the 100 milestone, but it gets easier as the number of SC locations increases.
States:
AZ, CA, CO, NE, NM, NV, UT, WY.

 

[BerTX]

I'm at about 70. I haven't checked, but that might be pretty high on the subset of drivers who have never Supercharged in California. Make up your own race, and it makes it easier to be in the lead, I guess?

 

[LCR1]

And another thread off the rails for 30 pages.

 

[DriverOne]

Please only count Far West Texas Superchargers visited (you can count individual stalls if you require a higher number )

 

[DriverOne]

Furthest west I've Supercharged is San Marcos! Though I should knock off Amarillo later this year, and would love to claim Lubbock too (hint hint SC planners).

 

[charliepmayer]

I met with the Balmorhea City Secretary today. Tesla did indeed contact her for a DC.
The Mayor put it off as a very low priority.
I offered to speak with the Mayor in person about the location on the street (pics around here somewhere).
I'll bring my spare HPWC to show him - if he agrees to meet with me.

 

[charliepmayer]

Pecos: will someone go snoop around the Home2 Suites under construction and let us know what you see?
If nothing is obvious, ask to see the electrical drawings. Good luck.

 

[charliepmayer]

Fort Davis: I made a presentation to the Jeff Davis County Commissioner's Court on Monday morning.
Proposed putting HPWCs at the Library on the square. A few more details to work out, but looks promising.
Tesla is on board helping a lot with this one.

 

[tmoz]

Fort Davis: I made a presentation to the Jeff Davis County Commissioner's Court on Monday morning.
Proposed putting HPWCs at the Library on the square. A few more details to work out, but looks promising.
Tesla is on board helping a lot with this one.

Did they believe you when you said you didn't work for Tesla? - that was supposed to be humorous.
Kudos for all of the initiative!
Are the Tesla employees not taken seriously when they make a pitch to the Government people?
Meaning a regular citizen asking for chargers carries more weight?
Curious.

 

[Dr. J]

@charliepmayer, is Clayton, NM too far off your path to be included in "far west Texas charging?" That's the one I need for trips to Colorado.

 

[TaoJones]

I met with the Balmorhea City Secretary today. Tesla did indeed contact her for a DC.
The Mayor put it off as a very low priority.
I offered to speak with the Mayor in person about the location on the street (pics around here somewhere).
I'll bring my spare HPWC to show him - if he agrees to meet with me.

The mayor would be well-advised that those of us with regular business on the other side of Texas and beyond are more likely to spend travel money in those communities that consider safer/more efficient travel to be a priority.

Balmorhea just went from a "will stop" to an "avoid" for now (pending your future discussions - good idea about the spare HPWC).

Tangentially, the last study of which I am aware pegged the financial add from each and every Tesla at an SC at ~$12. Not hard to figure given that up to 4 people are generally in those cars. If Balmorhea scores an SC (just saying), then odds are Fort Stockton will not, and that puts Balmorhea that much more ahead in the tourism dollar game. More noticeable after the current oil boom subsides, of course.

Lastly, I was in Phoenix over the weekend with every intention to head to Fort Stockton thereafter to, among other things, visit with their Chamber folks. But given the hassle (check out even Super 8 out the door nightly lodging costs, for starters), I postponed the trip - and when a longer coast to coast trip happens next, it looks like Midway to Ozona for me.

Not surprised at the shortsightedness. It adds 4 hours to my round trips. I will remember.

Good luck in your continued efforts to find a solution for the immovable object and the unstoppable force conundrum.

 

[charliepmayer]

Thank you tmoz - yeah, I've been around there for 10 years - they know I don't work for Tesla.
In another 10 years I might be considered "local" by half the folks here - maybe .

I might be wrong, but it seems that the only contact between Tesla and the West Texas folks has been by phone.
Hard or impossible to do business that way out here.

Yes - locals showing up in person makes a huge difference.

I've been working with Tesla Charging Infrastructure folks - they seem to be spread very thinly, but very supportive my efforts so far.

 

[charliepmayer]

TaoJones - thank you.

 

[Alphacrux]

Thank you Charlie for all your efforts!

Fort Stockton SP is hugely important for as, as are west Texas destination chargers.

 

[Dr. J]

I've been working with Tesla Charging Infrastructure folks - they seem to be spread very thinly, but very supportive my efforts so far.

This Project Developer-Supercharger position in Austin was open several months ago and still appears to be unfilled. Maybe there's more than one, but always one open. That would explain the long delays, etc. Anyone want a job in Austin with up to 80% travel?