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Going for speed today. Milwaukee to St. Louis (Wentzville to be exact)

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Ok.

So now that we have Superchargers to use to go to Milwaukee, we make a monthly trip up there and back to visit my grandma, who is 95. So, Friday we did a leisurely trip up. Took us about 10 hours, but we didn't rush the drive and made rather long stops at Normal and Rockford. Especially, Rockford as we toured around the mall and then ran into Jvonbokel just before we were going to leave. So we had to stop and have and drink and chat with him before taking off.

Today, however is different. We are going for speed today to see how fast we can make it from Milwaukee to Wentzville.

We left Milwaukee at 8:30 am on the dot. Had 201 miles of range and it was 49 degrees F out. Once we got out on the open highway set the cruise for 72 mph and except for a construction zone and toll held that speed all the way to Rockford.

Pulled into the Rockford Supercharger at 9:53am, temp was 57 degrees F. Had about 104 miles of range left. We went 87.9 miles used 27.5 kWh of energy and averaged 312 Wh/mile. Not bad. While we were charging had a nice conversation with kcveins, who had come over from Chicago to check out the Supercharger in Rockford. We also had a good conversation with a Rockford Policeman who stopped by while we were chatting with kcveins. The policeman said that they didn't think the Superchargers were going to be that busy, but that he saw them being used everyday. That's great news.

Anyways, after walking over to Schnucks to get some drinks, we stopped charging at 10:21 am and took off. In the 28 minutes we charged, we gained 92 miles of charge. So we left Rockford at 10:21 am with 196 miles of charge, temp was still 57 degrees and headed off to Normal.

Feeling pretty good about our charging speed, I set the cruise to 74 and held it the whole way to Normal, except again for a couple of construction areas. We made Normal at 12:18 pm with 63 miles of charge left. We went 127.2 miles, used 38/5 kWh of energy, and averaged 303 Wh/mile. Temp upon arriving at Norma was 66 degrees F.

Right now, we are relaxing at the Uptown sports pub, which has their own wifi, yeah. We need 240 miles to make it home. Will update once we get home. The food has arrived. :biggrin:

Well, we made it in 8 hours and 4 minutes. Not bad really. Probably could have left both Rockford and Normal about 15 minutes earlier than we did. So maybe next month I can shave 30 hour off the trip. Numbers for the final lag of the trip were:
Left Normal with exactly 240 miles of charge at 1:26 pm, temp was 66 degrees. Arrived home at 4:35pm with 47 miles of range. Temp was 75 degrees. Went 204.2 miles used 55.7 kWh and averaged 273 Wh/m. My husband was driving so we were only going 70 mph on the last leg of the journey.
 
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Thanks for sharing the details as we may soon be making that same drive plus another 300 miles home to Bella Vista, AR. Do you have any idea why the Rockford SC gave you a rate of about 197 mph and the Normal SC only about 156 mph?
 
Thanks for sharing the details as we may soon be making that same drive plus another 300 miles home to Bella Vista, AR. Do you have any idea why the Rockford SC gave you a rate of about 197 mph and the Normal SC only about 156 mph?

No, but I think we've noticed this one seemed to charge slow, but this is the first time I've been able to visit another SC to compare.

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That includes eating and such, right?

I'd like to point out that we had just enough time to walk down to the bar, order, eat and grab some water at a near by gas station and then get back to the car. So, stop would have been about the same even in an ICE.
 
Good post, Liz! I am looking forward to chancing across you in Rockford. Going to travel for Thanksgiving, are you?

Not sure. If we do we will be traveling Wed and Sunday. A lot depends on whether or not we have Superchargers in Milwaukee/Madison and Green Bay. With those we should be able to make the trip up and back in one day.

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Nope. When deadheading, eating not really done outside of car. I suppose a potty break, stretch and a snack can be done in less than 10 minutes.

You are right. The hard core gas up and go and eat in the car driving that I used to do in my youth cannot be done as fast, yet, in the Model S. But the more leisurely pace we set now with more frequent and longer stops, is very close between an ICE and Model S. Only difference is the stops in the Model S are defined vs the more random stopping previously done in an ICE.

Also, we actually live 45 mins west of St. Louis. So we are forced to do a near full charge on the way home every time, which as you know takes longer than if we could do multiple short stops. Once there is a charger just east of St. Louis, hopefully Litchfield or Belleville, then we would have 2 short stops one in Normal and one east of St. Louis that would reduce our travel time potentially. That's assuming we kick are traditional stop at Maggies. If we stop at Maggies to eat then we usually get enough charge during lunch to make it home.