I’ve been wanting to go on a long road trip in my Tesla Model 3 and have been watching the videos of people crossing the country with some interest. It’s made me want to make a long trip out of state to visit more chargers. So I headed east from South Texas to the Alabama Gulf Coast.
Leg 1 (Tuesday Feb. 21) was from McAllen TX to Houston TX, a trip I have made several times before in the last two years. But this time there was a new stop along the way, Buc-ee’s Wharton about halfway from Victoria to Houston. Charger is in the BACK of the building (unusual) so I was able to find it. It’s a good little walk to the front entrance of this large building.
I was struck by how few cars were at the chargers and, as I continued east, I noticed now few Teslas there were on the road at all. I guess that the market has not penetrated the Deep South plus there are many Tesla drivers who do not want to use the Supercharger network and tend to stay close to home.
Thursday Feb. 23, I drove to Beaumont TX to get a jump on the long drive Friday to Alabama so as to not get in too late. I visited three new Superchargers at Houston (Galleria @ West Alabama) - tricky to find on Lower Level 2 of the parking garage.
Then Baytown TX at a new Buc-ee’s and finally Beaumont TX off Interstate 10 East (Walden Rd. exit) - in a shopping center plaza. My grandparents lived many years in Beaumont TX so I visited their old neighborhood and saw the old house and the park across the street. Both seemed smaller than I remember from the 1970s.
Friday I headed east at 6 a.m. as I must have been excited to get going. First charging was in Iowa LA at the Henry’s Travel Plaza. That was a interesting place with boudain balls and a regular crowd of coffee drinkers. A recommended stop. After a big detour to the historic town of Abbeville LA, I headed north to Lafayette LA Supercharger and topped off.
Then I went to an early lunch in Cajun Country at a place called Poche’s Market in Breaux Bridge, LA. I was looking for an authentic Cajun spot and I found it. It was so authentic that there was a man drinking a beer out of a paper sack in line. When he got to the register, he noted he had already paid for the beer. “But put this food on my charge account”. So they produced a notebook and he signed for it and left at 10:45 a.m!
Next stop Baton Rouge LA. This is where it gets really interesting. The navigation routed me away from Interstate 10 (?) to US 190, the old bridge across the Mississippi River to downtown. That was actually interesting to see the old route. Circling back to Interstate 10, there was traffic, and the navigation not so easy to read, and I made a coin flip of a decision, I went back WEST and ended up going back across the Mississippi River all while seeing the bumper to bumper traffic that I was supposed to avoid.
So I had to circle back and crawled through the traffic to the Supercharger Perkins Rd. It was in a nice upscale shopping center (surprisingly so- most chargers were in nondescript plazas or hotel parking lots) with a Trader Joe’s so that was a good stop while I charged up. There were 4 cars charging and that was the most I saw on the entire trip.
After all these stops, I needed to get to my destination. So only 1 more charging stop in D’Iberville MS (Academy parking lot) and then it was about 1.5 hours to Fairhope AL on the “Eastern Shore” of Mobile Bay. It’s like the Scottsdale to Phoenix. I also had my first experience using the ChargePoint station and that was pretty easy.
We did go down to the famous Flora-Bama beach bar on the state line and got into the surf on a nice afternoon. People flock across the Florida state line for the lottery tickets and cheap liquor, neither of which is available in Alabama.
Monday Feb. 27 I left about 8:00 a.m .for the longest drive of the trip from Fairhope AL to Houston TX (500 miles). The trick for 1 person driving is more stops and less time to charge (e.g. 1 hour driving with a 10-15 minute charge rather than 2+ hours driving with a 30 minute charge). There is a disadvantage to driving solo in that you can’t read the nav as easily, you can’t easily double check on the fly and you are more limited in how far you can drive without getting tired.
I made it to Slidell LA for a charge, then to Baton Rouge (Airline Drive) - much easier from a freeway driving perspective, then back to Lafayette LA where I knew there was a tasty Chick-Fil-A)
Then a stop in Lake Charles LA (not on the freeway, off the I-210 loop south of town, near the obiligatory Target). Then back to Beaumont just to top off since it is close to the freeway and then to Houston. I was able to plug in and get a few miles from the 120 outlet at the house I stayed at.
The following day, I headed the final 350 miles home to McAllen, TX. The same stops as before: Wharton, Victoria, Kingsville.
Total miles = 1,790.
Charging stations - all easy to find
Tesla - 18 stations with 11 new ones
ChargePoint - Fairhope AL - new account set up
Range anxiety = Zero
Leg 1 (Tuesday Feb. 21) was from McAllen TX to Houston TX, a trip I have made several times before in the last two years. But this time there was a new stop along the way, Buc-ee’s Wharton about halfway from Victoria to Houston. Charger is in the BACK of the building (unusual) so I was able to find it. It’s a good little walk to the front entrance of this large building.
I was struck by how few cars were at the chargers and, as I continued east, I noticed now few Teslas there were on the road at all. I guess that the market has not penetrated the Deep South plus there are many Tesla drivers who do not want to use the Supercharger network and tend to stay close to home.
Thursday Feb. 23, I drove to Beaumont TX to get a jump on the long drive Friday to Alabama so as to not get in too late. I visited three new Superchargers at Houston (Galleria @ West Alabama) - tricky to find on Lower Level 2 of the parking garage.
Then Baytown TX at a new Buc-ee’s and finally Beaumont TX off Interstate 10 East (Walden Rd. exit) - in a shopping center plaza. My grandparents lived many years in Beaumont TX so I visited their old neighborhood and saw the old house and the park across the street. Both seemed smaller than I remember from the 1970s.
Friday I headed east at 6 a.m. as I must have been excited to get going. First charging was in Iowa LA at the Henry’s Travel Plaza. That was a interesting place with boudain balls and a regular crowd of coffee drinkers. A recommended stop. After a big detour to the historic town of Abbeville LA, I headed north to Lafayette LA Supercharger and topped off.
Then I went to an early lunch in Cajun Country at a place called Poche’s Market in Breaux Bridge, LA. I was looking for an authentic Cajun spot and I found it. It was so authentic that there was a man drinking a beer out of a paper sack in line. When he got to the register, he noted he had already paid for the beer. “But put this food on my charge account”. So they produced a notebook and he signed for it and left at 10:45 a.m!
Next stop Baton Rouge LA. This is where it gets really interesting. The navigation routed me away from Interstate 10 (?) to US 190, the old bridge across the Mississippi River to downtown. That was actually interesting to see the old route. Circling back to Interstate 10, there was traffic, and the navigation not so easy to read, and I made a coin flip of a decision, I went back WEST and ended up going back across the Mississippi River all while seeing the bumper to bumper traffic that I was supposed to avoid.
So I had to circle back and crawled through the traffic to the Supercharger Perkins Rd. It was in a nice upscale shopping center (surprisingly so- most chargers were in nondescript plazas or hotel parking lots) with a Trader Joe’s so that was a good stop while I charged up. There were 4 cars charging and that was the most I saw on the entire trip.
After all these stops, I needed to get to my destination. So only 1 more charging stop in D’Iberville MS (Academy parking lot) and then it was about 1.5 hours to Fairhope AL on the “Eastern Shore” of Mobile Bay. It’s like the Scottsdale to Phoenix. I also had my first experience using the ChargePoint station and that was pretty easy.
We did go down to the famous Flora-Bama beach bar on the state line and got into the surf on a nice afternoon. People flock across the Florida state line for the lottery tickets and cheap liquor, neither of which is available in Alabama.
Monday Feb. 27 I left about 8:00 a.m .for the longest drive of the trip from Fairhope AL to Houston TX (500 miles). The trick for 1 person driving is more stops and less time to charge (e.g. 1 hour driving with a 10-15 minute charge rather than 2+ hours driving with a 30 minute charge). There is a disadvantage to driving solo in that you can’t read the nav as easily, you can’t easily double check on the fly and you are more limited in how far you can drive without getting tired.
I made it to Slidell LA for a charge, then to Baton Rouge (Airline Drive) - much easier from a freeway driving perspective, then back to Lafayette LA where I knew there was a tasty Chick-Fil-A)
Then a stop in Lake Charles LA (not on the freeway, off the I-210 loop south of town, near the obiligatory Target). Then back to Beaumont just to top off since it is close to the freeway and then to Houston. I was able to plug in and get a few miles from the 120 outlet at the house I stayed at.
The following day, I headed the final 350 miles home to McAllen, TX. The same stops as before: Wharton, Victoria, Kingsville.
Total miles = 1,790.
Charging stations - all easy to find
Tesla - 18 stations with 11 new ones
ChargePoint - Fairhope AL - new account set up
Range anxiety = Zero