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Supercharger - Needles, CA (4 V2 stalls)

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A few photos!
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I approached the Needles supercharger from the southwest (i.e. Indio). It was very, very difficult to find even when I was within 1/4 mile.

I've found that the location on the Nav screen to be very precise, but the presentation of roads, parking lots, buildings, etc to be poor in the "map" mode. In addition, the turn by turn instructions can be useless in a parking lot.

If you turn on "Sat" mode (the aerial view) and zoom in, that often gives you great visibility in the end game of finding the Supercharger Site.
 
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I stopped in Needles on May 1 around 5 PM, and 2/4 spots were ICEd. One of the ICEholes came out of the DQ, and looked at me like I was from Mars before she climbed into her SUV and left. At least Needles is likely to be just a short pit stop between Kingman and Barstow (we were there only about 12 minutes), so Tesla turnover will be faster than most other SC locations.

And, on the subject of locating the stalls, I have found that if I look for the enclosure instead of the stalls themselves, it is easier to navigate to where the pods are. The large enclosure is easier to spot from a distance.
 
Used Needles for the first and second times on a trip over past few days. Kinda eerie, parking under that big sign.

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Especially when you look straight up through the sunroof window..... looks like a guillotine.

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A bit disconcerting, with that thing hanging over the car.

While I was charging, some bedraggled homeless-looking guy, smoking a nearly-spent cigarette, and looking like he'd not bathed in a month or more, comes over and begins asking me questions. Lots of questions. All the usual ones. How long does it take to charge, how much does that car cost, how fast does it go, etc. I figured I could be ice cold with him or just friendly and enthusiastic, and I chose the latter. Tried to sell him on the whole concept of Tesla. Educated him about the batteries. He knew about the Gigafactory. After a while he got tired of hearing about how cool the car was and he left.

Ok, here is the weird thing. I sat there and charged for another half hour. Then I drove on to the next supercharger, at Kingman, AZ, which is in the parking lot of a Carl's Jr.

Guess who is leaning by the wall of the Carl's Jr, right next to a pay-phone attached to the wall. Same effing guy. Smoking a cigarette. Leaned against that wall and watched me the whole time I charged.

Twilight Zone, man.
 
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Alert... Set suspension to VERY HIGH when approching/exiting the Needles Supercharger. The driveway does not look bad but the geometry is perfect, ripped my lower bumper and defuser right off. All the screwtabs shered off. I was able to press the lower bumper back on to make it home. The Chrome defuser is bent/ripped too far to salvage.
Man, I've been there several times and never had a problem. I'll pay closer attention when I go through later this month.