My Trip to Florida August 31 - September 3

[Father Bill]

I had a couple of days off work before I was released by my physicians to return to normal duties. I decided to take a short trip to Florida. Now a short trip to Florida from south central Illinois via car is just a little bit nuts. I really do not like to fly, not because of flying but because of the nonsense that is the Transport Safety Administration (TSA). I have made this trip to Florida in about 17 hours straight using an ICE(Internal Combustion Engine) vehicle. This time though I was going to use my Tesla Model S. Below you can see the route I took. Unfortunately the Supercharger network has not yet been built out on the I-24 corridor. Thus I had to go a little north and further east than in a normal trip.



For once I wasn't going to Iron Man the drive. It is really amazing to me what difference a year makes but I didn't think I had a Florida in a single hop trip in me. Looking at the Supercharger(SC) route provided by EV Trip Planner I figured it would take around 24 constant hours not including charging stops to get from my house to the SC at thee Turkey Lake Service Plaza on Florida's Turnpike. The Tesla Route Planner figured it would be about 26 hours with Charging stops included. More details of the trip can be found on my blog. As I write out the full story I will post condensed details here for your perusal.

 

[ZachShahan]

Thanks. But I'm not clear -- where's your blog?

 

[Father Bill]

Supercharger Journey to Florida : Part 2 ( Effingham, IL to Lexington, KY)

I just posted Part 2 of my journey to Florida at sparksroad.net. This portion of my trip is from the Effingham, IL SC to the Lexington, KY SC.

I realized something about my "overnight" stop and explain what I was up to after that.

 

[caddieo]

Too bad they don't have Paducah yet. That would have shortened your trip considerably.

 

[Brit4864]

I've just completed a 4000 mile round trip from South FL to NJ, MO and back in 10 days. Most of it was using the Supercharger network but there's nothing much except Level 2 and a few CHAdeMO's once west of St Louis, MO area down through Memphis and Birmingham. I did buy a CHAdeMO adapter before I went and found it very useful where those chargers were available.

 

[FlasherZ]

Hey Father Bill, we did the same trip in June to Florida, to the very same place you went. We were bummed that we had to take that route.

There is an option along I-24, but for us it involved a NEMA 14-50 stop near Paducah for an hour or two, then a CHAdeMO charge at Matthews Nissan in Clarksville, TN, before continuing on to Chattanooga. From my calculations, it would have saved an hour or two but I traded a known supercharger route for the unknown route when it involved my wife and kids in the car.

 

[Father Bill]

Supercharger Journey to Florida : Part 3 ( Lexington, KY to Orlando, FL)

The final leg of my journey to Florida. I am sorry it took me so long to post again but life has a way of getting busy once school is back in session. This part of the trip saw me from Lexington, KY to the Turkey Lake Supercharger in Orlando. This was the longest one hop drive I have ever made. If not for some poor planning on my part, the journey would have been much easier. You can read more about the trip at sparksroad.net