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October 14, 2023 will include being just on the edge of an annular solar eclipse (but Midland, Ozone and Junction will be in the heart of it). But maybe by then a San Antonio Supercharger will be open and we can celebrate it with the eclipse. If not, then April 08, 2024 will include a total solar eclipse in Junction and clipping the edge of San Antonio.

Might even enough time to to get the other existing Superchargers in West Texas working!

Seriously, Feb 2 works for me, I care nothing about the NFL. Feb 9 is probably OK, too. August - who knows? Too far in advance :)
 
I kinda feel for the good folks of Iraan, having been there with that friendly L2 for Tesla drivers passing through. Hope they continue to see some traffic even now.

Here's a little history about the L2 in Iraan. It was written in late 2013, by an early cross country Tesla S 'road tripper' :

Iraan | The Frunk Is My Suitcase
 
October 14, 2023 will include being just on the edge of an annular solar eclipse (but Midland, Ozone and Junction will be in the heart of it). But maybe by then a San Antonio Supercharger will be open and we can celebrate it with the eclipse. If not, then April 08, 2024 will include a total solar eclipse in Junction and clipping the edge of San Antonio.

Might even enough time to to get the other existing Superchargers in West Texas working!

Seriously, Feb 2 works for me, I care nothing about the NFL. Feb 9 is probably OK, too. August - who knows? Too far in advance :)
I’ll be coming in four years then!
 
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Just spoke with Troy from he FJ. He is amazed with the number of calls he's been getting. I assured him the call frequency will go down as word gets out. Hope I am right!

Golden Spike: will start firming up dates with the locals in Fort Stockton, Fort Davis, Alpine, Marathon, and Marfa today.

I propose two events:

1) Official I-10 Golden Spike event on Saturday, February 2nd (Super Bowl on Sunday) or on Saturday, the 9th. Almost no moon on the 2nd - outstanding star views (read a newspaper by star light), waxing crescent moon sets at midnight if we choose the 9th. Your preference please? Slow time for the hotels - so they want us. Hotels with fireplaces: Hotel Limpia (Fort Davis), Hotel Paisano (Marfa), Gage Hotel (Marathon). The Reata restaurant in Alpine and the White Buffalo (Gage Hotel) have fireplaces, too.

2) Tesla EV Rally - August 24, 2019: the monsoons start around July 4th, so by the end of August the desert will have her pretty clothes on. Rainbows, lush vegetation, all the restaurants and bars will be open and happy to have us. This would be a good trip for kids and families.
Spring-fed pool at Balmorhea should be open by then.

Please vote on your favorite days (of course not limited to the above) and I'll start work out here.
If anyone wants to help, or even take it over, just let me know.

How about counting the votes and firming up the date by Monday, October 29? (Don't have to worry about hanging chads.)

Might take a couple of research field trips to really nail this down, eh?

My official vote: February 2 and August 24
I vote for August 24th, weather will be cooler than Austin in the high ground near marfa , should be fun
 
August 24 is out for Fort Davis, the Hotel Limpia is booked for the Hummingbird Festival.
We could still do that weekend but not in FD. I'll check the Hotel Paisano in Marfa.

Why August you ask? Height of the desert monsoon season, rainbows in the day and stars at night.
(And, since the tourists are swarming about, all the seasonal bars and such are in full bloom, like the desert.)

Summer weather in west Texas compared to other Texas towns. Source is something obscure from Google:
Houston: 91° / 76° 7 days of rain
Austin: 96° / 74° 3 days of rain
Fort Davis: 88°/ 61° 7 days

The real attraction is the low humidity. Ironic, since that is the height of the monsoon season out here.
This is from Average Weather in August in Fort Davis, Texas, United States - Weather Spark.
Feel free to look up Austin and Houston at the site above.
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Early voting favors February 9th for the Golden Spike ceremony - early start in Pecos for some, then FS, then on to FD and the Hotel Limpia, with Marfa area activities through Sunday lunch.

Imagine a slight change in headlines and pics, but here is what I would love to emulate at our summer rally:
Mustangs take over Big Bend - Sierra La Rana

Is August 24 still good? Better participation if earlier or later?

Charlie
 
Great info as always, Charlie. Yanno, I miss the desert monsoons and the smells of the desert after a good rain.

I do lean a bit toward August for that reason, but can make it to either. If it is going to be February, I'd like to get word to the clubs by mid-November anyway. Otherwise, maybe April for that as a first invite, with followups thereafter seems good for August. Whaddayouse think?

In any case, painted/dipped spikes don't rust, and my top hat isn't going anywhere - although it almost did the other day; damn thing went airborne with the pano open.
 
Guess what? Now there’s an EA Supercharger under construction in Fort Stockton!View attachment 346592
If you look at their planning map it's a real head scratcher because of how out there it is. They think sometime they'll put one at Midland and then going West one in El Paso, then others. But that's a really big gap to get to Fort Stockton from anything they've got slated for now.

They've finally got map on their site you can use to look at current phase in some sort of detail:

Locate a charger | Electrify America

Then there's this data behind it that they aren't showing but some enterprising individual has pulled up with a hack:

Electrify America Locations - Google My Maps

Yellow is stuff on the first map (with a few extras, that seem to match to ongoing work, like in Waco). Red are Walmart/Sam's store that appear to be candidates. Grey are vague "need something here some day". Curiously they've got a Red in Columbus that in another thread here that's spotted their gear on site, so at least some Reds are real and soon.
 
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I find $18/hr to be high. I think I'm getting spoiled on cheap electricity. Then again $18 is only 6 gallons of the liquid fuel. So maybe $18 is not actually that bad.
Don't forget the $1 connection fee. So, $18/hr of juice + $1 connection fee. And if your charging session experiences any hiccups and you have to reconnect, do you get charged another $1? Or is there some way that they can figure out that there was a problem and waive that extra fee?
 
Don't forget the $1 connection fee. So, $18/hr of juice + $1 connection fee. And if your charging session experiences any hiccups and you have to reconnect, do you get charged another $1? Or is there some way that they can figure out that there was a problem and waive that extra fee?

On the web page, says introductory pricing. Wonder what’s to come?

On the reconnect fee, hopefully they don’t pull an EVgo and restart sessions ever 30 min.
 
This is $18/hr at a maximum rate of 50kW for Teslas, correct? Assuming you have a ChaDEMO adaptor, and it's only for Model S & X right now because Model 3 doesn't do ChaDEMO yet.

On the web page, says introductory pricing. Wonder what’s to come?
VW execs have been clear [to investors] that they expect customers to pay "gasoline prices". Expect at least 25mpg gasoline prices, roughly double Supercharger prices. Which is where the 50kW rates fall right now. That's 36c/kWh drawing at full rate (not including the $1 connect but that's not a big deal when the charging is this slow).

That compares to 10c to 20c/kWh on SC in TX. Exactly how much depends on how long you spend at 62kW rate (very close to 20c/kWh), below 30kW (which is 20c/kWh and up), as opposed to 120kW and 60kW (both of which are 10c/kWh).

Currently EA is also pricing the 150kW at the same per min rate as 50kW .....with no vehicles on the road that can use that. The few I-Paces out there are the closest, at 100kW peak. That's actually into Tesla SC price range. Expect them to raise that when they actually get vehicles that can use it.