First time drove out of the comfort zone.

[Plu1357]

It was reported that northern New England can see some aurora. During the Labor Day weekend, my friend and I decided to have an impromptu 5-hour trip to Millinoket ME to test our luck where there is the least light pollution in the whole eastern US. Tesla planner advised me to charge in Augusta ME

I did that.

Our luck was not bad, we did get a glimpse of northern light.

and some great shots of the Milky Way with the famous summer triangle.

But later I realized on our way back would be fairly tight to recharge in Brewer ME which is 77 miles away while we had less then 100 miles range left. Luckily the hotel we stayed has a few 110v outdoor sockets.

One of them barely could reach to my car without extension cord. The charge rate was poorly 5 mile/hour.

However, it gave us about 50 extra miles when we were ready to leave.

The charge station in Brewer has one great spot which is very easy to pull in and get charged

. Other spots require careful back up due to the short cable of all superchargers. For we stopped in Kennebunkport for a short break and getting more juice as well

. We spotted couple bad chargers


. I think it was some users stuck some masking tape to tell other users.

After all, it was a pleasant trip and we tested the autopilot feature quite a bit. My friend took a 10-second video clip for me.

;-)

 

[Fossil Fool]

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[Plu1357]

 

[Plu1357]

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Sorry about that. I cannot go back to edit after 10 minutes. I had to append images as reply.

 

[Fossil Fool]

Beautiful shots. A memorable adventure!

 

[Rottenapplr]

Wow!!!!!! That’s amazing

 

[ewoodrick]

77 miles with a 100 remaining? Heck, that would have done that on my 88 mile range Leaf! Just got to slow it down a little.
But hotel charging certainly does help.

 

[MrMassTransit]

Great shots and looked like you had a fantastic trip! Per your description, you stopped in Augusta to charge on the way up. My personal preference (if I have time) is always to hit the last supercharger possible before I head out into an area where I'll need to make a roundtrip without another supercharger close (unless I'm 100% sure I have destination charging). So I would have made a quick stop at Augusta to get enough power to make it to Brewer, and then stopped in Brewer and charged to 80-85%. That way I have a little extra in case I take some unexpected detours or decide to explore something else at my destination. Just how I do it though, there's no right or wrong way . I always take advantage of overnight charging if I can, even if it is just 120v. Anything I gain overnight is time saved at a charging stop the next day.

 

[KenC]

Nice! What camera did you use?

I'm just outside Augusta, and didn't see much. Just the Big Dipper!

Then again, my iPhone and my eyesight aren't all that good.

 

[Plu1357]

Nice! What camera did you use?

I'm just outside Augusta, and didn't see much. Just the Big Dipper!
View attachment 452464
Then again, my iPhone and my eyesight aren't all that good.

SONY RX10 M4. It's a very versatile bridge camera. The low light performance exceeds my expectation. I wish it had wider angle so I could take the Milky Way in larger scale.

 

[Plu1357]

Great shots and looked like you had a fantastic trip! Per your description, you stopped in Augusta to charge on the way up. My personal preference (if I have time) is always to hit the last supercharger possible before I head out into an area where I'll need to make a roundtrip without another supercharger close (unless I'm 100% sure I have destination charging). So I would have made a quick stop at Augusta to get enough power to make it to Brewer, and then stopped in Brewer and charged to 80-85%. That way I have a little extra in case I take some unexpected detours or decide to explore something else at my destination. Just how I do it though, there's no right or wrong way . I always take advantage of overnight charging if I can, even if it is just 120v. Anything I gain overnight is time saved at a charging stop the next day.

You are absolutely correct. If I did like what you said, I would have explored a bit more closer to Mt Katahdin. I kept watching the battery status and missed the opportunity to enjoy more. Thanks!