Perfect timing, I was just planning a road trip to Gonzanga University in Spokane in July and I was looking for a hotel with charging. And I happen to see this. Now, I have a lot more hotel options.
It would be really nice to see some progress from the South Dakota end to narrow the gap, I'd like to jump the divide and drive cross country with the kids along the northern route as soon as is reasonable. it's already easier to drive across than down through southern CA. I'm figuring I can already make it to Missoula on SC's, do an overnight L2 charge and jump another 280 miles, but then it would be a long wait, which gets really tricky with a 3 and a 5 year old!
A while back there were rumblings that Tesla was doing site selection in Gillette, WY and Sheridan, WY. I haven't heard anything in a while though.
Ritzville to Missoula is really stretching it according to EVTripplanner. Lincolns Silver Dollar Bar in Haugan, MT has RV sites with power but I am not sure if they have 50A 14-50. I will be going by there Thursday and will try to remember to check out the power.
Just wondering. I think Pricee2 was the one who discovered the permit for this Ritzville SC then we followed thru the construction on this forum. I don't remember TESLA making any comment until the site was live. Do you think they are just letting us play Sherlock Holmes to find the permitted sites rather than spoon feeding them to us? Maybe some of the sites along I90 in MT & WY just haven't been discovered by owners yet due to the low population density??
I don't think it's a question of "letting us play Sherlock" but rather an utter lack of communication about supercharger construction status. Not exactly Tesla's strong point.
I am sure going to keep my eyes peeled as I pass though all of that region this week, but without any intelligence, it is going to be tough to spot anything on the fly. I have also tried to search for permits in Coeur D'Alene at both the state and city levels with no success. - - - Updated - - - Yes, and looks like they matched the big equipment enclosure to the hotel architecture. We will probably see more and more of that.
I took a little run last weekend thru Ellensburg to Ritzville and back. I also was impressed in the Ritzville big charger enclosure which matched the design of the hosting facility. Really heavy duty hardware on the enclosure. There were some signs on the charging spaces that I had never seen before. 4 charging/parking spaces. Two of them had the usual TESLA signs but the other two on the left side had these - signs which said "30 minute general parking". I hadn't seen that sign in SC locations before. But nice trip and all SC's worked perfectly. No ICED charging spaces. I had been to Ellensburg SC previously but hadn't noticed that the same parking lot also had a single Clipper Creek J1772 (40amp breaker/30 amp output) directly opposite the SC's. Now if they will just fill out the I90 route from Ritzville to Rapid City I'll use it. :biggrin:
They must have been forced by the site host to open up two spots like that. If someone stays longer than 30 min in their ICE who would you even call?
Stopped at the Silver Dollar Bar in Haugan, MT on my way to Lincoln, MT. Could only find one 14-50 outlet (last one at east end of camp area) it looked to be in pretty sad shape, could not test it as I was in my ICE. I would not rely on it for a charge. Maybe someone will have a chance to try it and post the results. Stopped at the Ritzville SC on my return trip. Also noticed the signage but no slots were ICEd. No Tesla's either. The pedestals did not appear, to me, to be the lighted ones. Ate at the Taco Del Mar, food OK, noise system (muse-ick) sucked, probably won't eat there again. Now waiting for the Coeur d'Alene SC so I can make a trip to Kalispell, MT this summer.
Anyone have any issues with the Ritzville chargers? Stopped to charge today on my way home to the Tricities. I had to unplug and replug in multiple times to get a good charge going. There was another Tesla in one of the other stalls who said he experienced the same behavior when he initially got there.
It’s been marked closed a lot when I’ve driven past, although I did charge there once. There must be an ongoing issue here.
Been a few weeks, but I charged there with no problems - from 161 odo to 271 odo in 22 minutes - initial power was 119 kW. Sole user.