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Flora-Bama road trip

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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.

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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
 
Glad a fellow Beaumonter (?) liked it. The park I mentioned is Caldwood Park and I was able to walk thought it. Back in the 70s there was a swimming pool there and a baseball field with a chainlink backstop. Both are long gone and only the elders would remember such things.

Down the street from Central Caldwood, there is a true mansion (called Stonehaven) which had peacocks roaming the grounds at one time. It's at least 15,000 square feet with a 7 car garage and grounds. It appears that someone was renovating it . Quite a project. It is kind of funny that my grandparents who were humble middle class people would like in the same neighborhood as a mansion.
 
Glad a fellow Beaumonter (?) liked it. The park I mentioned is Caldwood Park and I was able to walk thought it. Back in the 70s there was a swimming pool there and a baseball field with a chainlink backstop. Both are long gone and only the elders would remember such things.

Down the street from Central Caldwood, there is a true mansion (called Stonehaven) which had peacocks roaming the grounds at one time. It's at least 15,000 square feet with a 7 car garage and grounds. It appears that someone was renovating it . Quite a project. It is kind of funny that my grandparents who were humble middle class people would like in the same neighborhood as a mansion.
 
Hello from Fairhope.
I’ve got a new M3 and looking forward to my first long road trip.
Any idea how much time you spent charging?
Use ABRP for route planning.
 
Hello from Fairhope.
I’ve got a new M3 and looking forward to my first long road trip.
Any idea how much time you spent charging?

Like @charlesoris said, ABetterRoutePlanner.com is great for getting a sense for how long a particular route should take. I always check it first when planning long trips, especially multi-day trips, to get a sense for what realistic driving distance is each day. I don't use it during a drive, because the built-in Tesla nav is better in the moment, especially for how busy nearby chargers are, or if one is temporarily closed--things like that.

In comparing ABRP to Google Maps, I've decided a good rule of thumb is to take the Google estimate, which includes no stops at all, and add 20% time to it for charging breaks.

Some that 20% extra time would occur with an ICE car, too, because Google Maps does not factor in stopping at all (as if you're taking turns driving and sleeping with another driver, Cannonball-run style). If you can combine bathroom, snack/coffee, and at least part of your meal time with charging, it's really probably more like 10% more time than road-tripping in a gas vehicle.
 
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Any idea how much time you spent charging?
Unlike the guys quoting A Better Route Planner (ABRP), I just used the car. Tell it that you want to go to a city on the other side of the country and you'll see how it thinks you should drive it. It'll give you a list of stages that tell you how long you'll be driving to reach each Supercharger, and how long you'll be charging at each stop.

It's not perfect, which is why I guess people use ABRP. Tesla generally has you drive for 2 hours and charge for 15 minutes (I drive a Model 3 Long Range). Sometimes it will, inexplicably, say to drive for 3.5 hours and charge for 55 minutes at a 150 kW Supercharger when there's a perfectly good 250 kW charger only 2 hours down the road. Fortunately, you can touch the preferred Supercharger on the screen, add it to your trip, and the car rejiggers everything.

By the way, when I say "tell the car", I mean that literally. I started in DC. I pressed the right button to issue a voice command and said "go to austin texas". And it worked everything out. My first ever road trip around the country involved something you old timers might remember: AAA TripTik map books. We've come a long way.

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What made you decide to use a ChargePoint station in Fairhope, AL instead of the on-route and close by Supercharger at Bucee’s in Robertsdale, AL?

I’m a local so just curious.
Good question - the route was actually just down to Fairhope AL and that was as far as I drove in the Tesla. My friend drove us to the Flora-Bama and back to Fairhope in his car.

Leaving from Fairhope headed back west, it would have added some time to go NE to Robertsdale. Plus I had already been to several Buc-ee's on the big trip, I wanted to try out the ChargePoint (first time using the adaptor and the new app), I had the free time on Sunday to charge and park in Fairhope, and wanted to be fully charged for the drive home.
 
I love these road trips. Since I’ve had my M3 RWD now for just over 10 months I’ve road tripped from LA to

  • Phoenix - 3 Times
  • Las Vegas
  • Palm Springs - Appx 15 times
  • San Diego area - 2 Times
  • Grants Pass, OR
  • Spokane WA then Boise ID
  • San Luis Obispo
  • Santa Barbara
and a lot of other long ones around the area! Over 24K miles!

when you have a Tesla you can’t stop driving!

next I’m going LA to Ft. Lauderdale area then to NY then back to LA…. The last part hopefully without interstates

Great drive you took. Which M3 was it?
 
I love these road trips. Since I’ve had my M3 RWD now for just over 10 months I’ve road tripped from LA to

  • Phoenix - 3 Times
  • Las Vegas
  • Palm Springs - Appx 15 times
  • San Diego area - 2 Times
  • Grants Pass, OR
  • Spokane WA then Boise ID
  • San Luis Obispo
  • Santa Barbara
and a lot of other long ones around the area! Over 24K miles!

when you have a Tesla you can’t stop driving!

next I’m going LA to Ft. Lauderdale area then to NY then back to LA…. The last part hopefully without interstates

Great drive you took. Which M3 was it?
2021 Model 3 SR + Fully charged it is at 226 miles. On this trip there were plenty of chargers. I don't even drive this full range, but rather just hopped from charger to charger. It was usually time for a break anyway.

Enjoy the cross country trip - a bucket list item for sure.
GT
 
So glad you stopped at Poche’s Market. Great stuff, DH still talks about their smothered rabbit (rabbit stew). I just had the boring crawfish étouffée (not boring, delicious!)
That was a fun experience for sure - I still recall talking to the man drinking a beer at 10:30 in the morning while we were waiting in line. You know it's a good place when there is a line at 10:30 a.m.