Hampton Inn has always been very welcoming when we charge at Gallup. I think the bathrooms are just closed for COVID-19 safety. A few other hotels and restaurants were doing the same the past few weeks. I managed to hold it from Scottsdale to Albuquerque. Holbrook, AZ Burger King was drive thru only, no customers inside. The Gallup Hampton Inn lobby and restrooms were closed to non-guests. I don't remember any problems farther east, but we stayed at the Holiday In Express in Albuquerque, so didn't need the lobby restrooms there.
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Supercharger - Gallup, NM
- Thread starter airj1012
- Start date
IdaX
Member
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
Watering the bushes is an option if it can be managed discretely — I'm definitely not at an age that I can make it from Scottsdale to Albuquerque! Filling a bottle is an option for guys; not so easy for gals.
Another option for avoiding restrooms, or dealing with closed ones, is this attachment that fits snugly over a standard 5 gallon paint bucket:
Emergency Zone Brand Honey Bucket Emergency Toilet Seat
Still need to find a reasonably private place to use it, however, so it's not going to work well in urban areas. More practical for tent camping I suppose. (Camping is my preferred lodging on road trips — I can charge my car using the campsite RV pedestal; I particularly like state parks.)
DeepBlueMN
2019 AWD Model 3
Tesla really needs to get the future Supercharger in Grants NM done and open ASAP, just so that we have an additional option for this roadway segment.
This has proved to be a controversial topic on this forum as of late, but for those who want to be as discreet as possible, I recommend a large bottle (I use a one gallon crystal geyser water bottle), creative parking, and using a car door for some additional cover. The cover of night also helps a lot, but this method can be fairly discreet even in broad daylight if you pick a good location. And no, I don't cap it up and carry it with me. Just dump it out and water the nearby bushes immediately, then put it in a plastic bag in the frunk or wherever. One nice thing about the Covid era is I always have hand sanitizer in the car so cleaning up afterwards is not much of an issue.
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
I guess I haven't come across the threads with the controversy. As you know I camp a lot, versus use hotels, to save money and to charge my car overnight on the RV pedestal. However, I'm at the age when I can't go all night without a restroom visit (those who are younger: just you wait until you get older!). The venerable bottle technique makes nights camping a lot more pleasant than getting up in the middle of the night when the temperature is in the 30s. There is a reason RVs are more popular with older folks than tents.
I realize that most of the Tesla road warriors are males but females have more issues when restrooms are not available or safe, for obvious reasons. The preferred technique for women is to open both passenger side doors to act as a screen and sit on the front door sill. Wouldn't work with the Model X, however! Damn falcon-wing doors...
I realize that most of the Tesla road warriors are males but females have more issues when restrooms are not available or safe, for obvious reasons. The preferred technique for women is to open both passenger side doors to act as a screen and sit on the front door sill. Wouldn't work with the Model X, however! Damn falcon-wing doors...
Yep... both doors - open the back door fully and then the front door to almost meet outer edge of the back door - forms a little cubby. Pretty much hidden from view. Perfect for guys and pretty much works for the ladies.
Bill the Cat
Member
The net nearest restroom is the Love's to the west. It's a little hike though. We went to the next gas station to the east (also a little hike). I don't recommend it. The restroom area had day laborers hanging out waiting for work. Not good for social distancing and almost all were without masks.
An “update” is being applied. Two Urban chargers look to be newly installed. There’s a small forklift on the other side of the big Tesla van. Ugh I hate sharing a supercharger!!! Pulling 49kW like a chump.
Also, Verizon’s cellular service here is horrible on both an iPhone and a newer Samsung
Also, Verizon’s cellular service here is horrible on both an iPhone and a newer Samsung
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Looks like two pallets so 4 new urban stalls for a total of 8 stalls.
Yeah and as we left one of the techs tossed a cone in our spot. We didn’t chat as they looked busy but they were doing a bunch of work in the shed thing.
Really not looking forward to coming back this way come this weekend with even more cars hitting it.
Also this is the first really windy trip we’ve had in a couple years of ownership, holy crap the wind eats range! That and 80+mph...
reddy
Active Member
Found the permit when I was searching for something for Clayton, NM supercharger.
Seems that they got started right away after the permit was approved.
Seems that they got started right away after the permit was approved.
IdaX
Member
So bizarre — why urbans and not V3’s. Maybe they just had some lying around so this was a cheap fix. Few locations less “urban” than Gallup! (tho Lima, Montana strikes me as the least urban supercharger of the lot)
These are temporary stalls. They are probably worried about crowding over the holidays. Usually sites that get temporary superchargers get a permanent expansion (or a new nearby supercharger) shortly thereafter.
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
My fingers are crossed.
My impression is that the location infrastructure is sub par. I don't know how much it can be improved.
Exactly this. Back before the Quartzite location got mega-upgraded to V3, they had a bunch of Urbans on pallets temporarily until construction completed.
This is really exciting news to hear that this site is being upgraded prior to my upcoming trip from Phoenix to Telluride in February! Anything they do here is an improvement over the current site.
If you check this site on PlugShare, I found someone's check-in that says this:
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
Just a clarification to that Plugshare post: two pallets is four urban style Superchargers, typically 50 kW or less each, not six. The pallets have three each but only two are active at any location, which ones depending on how the site is oriented.
The "new" chargers are just palletized Urban chargers. So the max will be about 72kW, not sure if two vehicles pull up to them if they'll still provide 72kW but I'm sure someone will chime-in.
I attached a picture of them from when I went through 22 Dec. They were fully functioning when I came back through on the 26th
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