Wiki Superchargers Visited

[Bighorn]

i will say that the Seattle area has the best weather in the country right now and would implore all to head there, post haste

 

[FSP381]

Well, I don't know how to start this post... I suppose I'll go with the good news. The good news is that I'm home, I'm alive and I broke into the 400 club by hitting Bethany, St. Joseph, KC, Osage Beach, St. Charles (Streets), Mehlville, Mount Vernon, Indy, and Zionsville on the way here as I was travelling yesterday. I made all the updates.

Now the bad news...

I got robbed by someone with a gun when I stopped to charge my car at the charger in Topeka, Kansas.

He just wanted my cash, I didn't have much, but I gave it all to him and he went on his way and I unplugged and went on mine. I had stopped in to charge the car at about 3AM and I had been there for about 20 minutes. These chargers are in an Arby's parking lot...so nothing was open around there I was driving the bottom of the battery a bit and I arrived there with only about 40 miles of range. No one was around when I plugged in and I even set an alarm on my phone so that in case I fell asleep it would wake me up in 25 minutes. The alarm went off five minutes after I left... The guy came up to the car and knocked on the window and indicated I should roll it down. He had a gun in his right hand which he never actually pointed at me at any time, but he did rotate it in his hand so that I could be certain he was carrying one. He was wearing a hoodie, a hat, and a bandanna over his face. He even had gloves on, so there's no way I could identify him or much of anything about him. But like I said, he just asked for my cash, which I gave him and then he left.

A few things have ran, and are still running through my mind... First, things could have went much worse. Second, I feel like an idiot a bit for putting myself in this situation. I think I got a little too complacent with regards to my personal safety when traveling at these late hours of the night. If I was thinking more soundly I would have charged up longer in Wichita and then totally skipped this charger where everything is closed and went on to one of the other ones that are located at a Hy-Vee which is at least open at 3AM. But in fairness, this all happened so fast that I don't think the specific location would have mattered all that much.

Also, I really feel like we're a bit of a captive audience when we're charging. The car won't move when it's plugged in. So the flight part of "fight or flight" isn't really an option.

Anyway, I did contact the Topeka police and filed an incident report with them so perhaps they will patrol this location more in the late hours...and they are also going to see if they can pull any video from Arby's. I also felt a certain obligation to notify the community here so that we all perhaps ratchet up our level of awareness a bit.

I also contacted Tesla and notified them about this issue. I tried to ask them about getting access to any video that my car might have captured...unfortunately the software update version I have on my MS requires that the Sentry Mode be turned on prior to each use...which I didn't realize...so I don't have any video from the car.

This has been a significant "lesson learned" for me. I'm certainly going to rethink many of the things I was taking for granted when traveling in unknown locations and charging my car. We're all playing this game for fun...and we all want to make it back home safely at the end of our trips. Thankfully I am...and I'm certainly going to make some changes to how I've been doing things. That's for sure.

Lesson for all of us. Glad you are ok and I’m going to keep sentry on

 

[SeminoleFSU]

That’s why many pack. And I’m not talking about an overnight suitcase.

Get ready for the dislikes. A lotta folks on this forum think we need to be defenseless victims handing over our security to our completely untrustworthy governments... Mind boggling as it is.

 

[PLUS EV]

Get ready for the dislikes. A lotta folks on this forum think we need to be defenseless victims handing over our security to our completely untrustworthy governments... Mind boggling as it is.

The dislikes are for an off-topic political rant from two guys who never post in this thread. Never mind that saying "you should have done this instead!" to a guy who just got robbed is kind of rude. You're not only in the wrong thread, you're on the wrong forum

Lastly, if you think reaching for his own gun when he was awoken by a criminal who already had a gun in his hand improves his expected outcome, you are sorely mistaken.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

The dislikes are for an off-topic political rant from two guys who never post in this thread. Never mind that saying "you should have done this instead!" to a guy who just got robbed is kind of rude. You're not only in the wrong thread, you're on the wrong forum

Long answer: I defend and bring up the ability to defend ourselves whenever possible to combat the insanity from the mainstream... If you agreed with me you would probably click like. If you disagree with the sentiment (no matter what the tread) you'll prob click dislike. So try and spin it about staying on topic and giving unsolicited advise all you want but most of us know what those dislikes are really about.

Short answer: I really don't care what you think.

PS. As for political, some of us have to put up with the constant Trump bashing on every thread so deal with it like we do.

 

[Bighorn]

@PLUS EV
Have you no gratitude for the patriots mustering a militia?!

 

[dgpcolorado]

Sorry to break up the political diatribe but:

105. Big Timber, MT.
106. Billings, MT.

Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone.

 

[Half Dollar Bill]

This is what we get when TMC does us the favor of making sensational thread content part of their "trending post" blast.

 

[Darren S]

Long answer: I defend and bring up the ability to defend ourselves whenever possible to combat the insanity from the mainstream... If you agreed with me you would probably click like. If you disagree with the sentiment (no matter what the tread) you'll prob click dislike. So try and spin it about staying on topic and giving unsolicited advise all you want but most of us know what those dislikes are really about.

Short answer: I really don't care what you think.

PS. As for political, some of us have to put up with the constant Trump bashing on every thread so deal with it like we do.

Post has been reported to Forum Admins

@SeminoleFSU, please take the suggestions and recommendations from others to keep posts here pertinent to the thread

 

[l4sythe]

Well, I don't know how to start this post... I suppose I'll go with the good news. The good news is that I'm home, I'm alive and I broke into the 400 club by hitting Bethany, St. Joseph, KC, Osage Beach, St. Charles (Streets), Mehlville, Mount Vernon, Indy, and Zionsville on the way here as I was travelling yesterday. I made all the updates.

Now the bad news...

I got robbed by someone with a gun when I stopped to charge my car at the charger in Topeka, Kansas.

He just wanted my cash, I didn't have much, but I gave it all to him and he went on his way and I unplugged and went on mine. I had stopped in to charge the car at about 3AM and I had been there for about 20 minutes. These chargers are in an Arby's parking lot...so nothing was open around there I was driving the bottom of the battery a bit and I arrived there with only about 40 miles of range. No one was around when I plugged in and I even set an alarm on my phone so that in case I fell asleep it would wake me up in 25 minutes. The alarm went off five minutes after I left... The guy came up to the car and knocked on the window and indicated I should roll it down. He had a gun in his right hand which he never actually pointed at me at any time, but he did rotate it in his hand so that I could be certain he was carrying one. He was wearing a hoodie, a hat, and a bandanna over his face. He even had gloves on, so there's no way I could identify him or much of anything about him. But like I said, he just asked for my cash, which I gave him and then he left.

A few things have ran, and are still running through my mind... First, things could have went much worse. Second, I feel like an idiot a bit for putting myself in this situation. I think I got a little too complacent with regards to my personal safety when traveling at these late hours of the night. If I was thinking more soundly I would have charged up longer in Wichita and then totally skipped this charger where everything is closed and went on to one of the other ones that are located at a Hy-Vee which is at least open at 3AM. But in fairness, this all happened so fast that I don't think the specific location would have mattered all that much.

Also, I really feel like we're a bit of a captive audience when we're charging. The car won't move when it's plugged in. So the flight part of "fight or flight" isn't really an option.

Anyway, I did contact the Topeka police and filed an incident report with them so perhaps they will patrol this location more in the late hours...and they are also going to see if they can pull any video from Arby's. I also felt a certain obligation to notify the community here so that we all perhaps ratchet up our level of awareness a bit.

I also contacted Tesla and notified them about this issue. I tried to ask them about getting access to any video that my car might have captured...unfortunately the software update version I have on my MS requires that the Sentry Mode be turned on prior to each use...which I didn't realize...so I don't have any video from the car.

This has been a significant "lesson learned" for me. I'm certainly going to rethink many of the things I was taking for granted when traveling in unknown locations and charging my car. We're all playing this game for fun...and we all want to make it back home safely at the end of our trips. Thankfully I am...and I'm certainly going to make some changes to how I've been doing things. That's for sure.

Guess there needs to be an emergency disconnect toggle button for cases like this. I’ve charged before in questionable places and had thoughts of how to escape. This story should be directed to Tesla HQ. Scary!

 

[Bighorn]

We do feel tethered, but a car or pick up could easily block egress as well. I don’t think an emergency ejector function gets us past someone with ill intent.

 

[GHammer]

Sunny and warm British Columbia

5/21/19
Vancouver Pacific Centre
Victoria

Hit the Vancouver one today about lunch time, what a pain.

 

[JSergeant]

We're in Salina, KS tonight. Added Colby, KS, bringing my total to 624. Spreadsheet updated.

We came the closest to charging disaster that I've had in a while, maybe ever. We all know that Salina has been reporting as 'Reduced Service', but Big Earl had reported that at least 3B was working fine. We had a hotel reservation at the Holiday Inn Express at the Supercharger. When we set off for Salina from Hays, it was not only reporting 'Reduced Service' but also Temporarily Closed. Nonetheless we headed here - my backup plan was to use the Electrify America CHAdeMO at the nearby Caseys. When we got here, we found that the reason for the temporary closure was that the access road to the hotel and Superchargers was flooded and blocked off by barriers. We looked at the map and it appeared there might be a long way round, so we set off on that. It was a dirt road and unfortunately on the final stretch there was a sign saying 'Impassable when muddy' and in the distance we could clearly see that it was muddy, so we decided not to risk it. Anna had tried to call the HIE but all she got was a busy signal. We watched a couple of pick up trucks going through the flooded road and it looked a bit too deep for comfort in a Model S.

So off to Caseys. When we got there, the charger screens were all blank, and when I called their support number, they confirmed that they were off-line. The had reported it to their maintenance people but didn't know when it would be back on line.

So we decided to go back to the Superchargers and raise the suspension to the max height and drive through the flooded road. That was successful, and indeed 3B was working normally. I haven't tried any others, but another Tesla was charging on 3A so I assume that was working, although since I immediately got 75kW, either he was already done, or 3A wasn't actually working at full power and he hadn't noticed. I'll check them all out later.

Hoping there are no further flooding issues between here and NJ.

We had beautiful weather today from Trinidad, CO to Limon, Co and across to Salina, and we'll be out of Salina before the next storms hit tomorrow afternoon, heading to Independence, MO on another circuitous route.

PS One other note. I hadn't bothered bringing the UMC cable with me on this trip since I haven't needed it on any trip in the last couple of years, so if the Supercharger had truly been down, I wouldn't even have had the option of finding a 110 volt outlet to charge at, at the hotel. Maybe I'll make a point to bring it again in the future.

Now we have to brave the floodwaters again to get to a restaurant for dinner!

 

[tes-s]

5/21/19
Vancouver Pacific Centre
Victoria

updated

 

[tes-s]

105. Big Timber, MT.
106. Billings, MT.

updated

 

[Shesmyne2"]

As a supercharger game / Custer wrapup, did you manage to recruit some more competitors for the game?

Looking at the picture, my guess is not.

Well, some of us got a little bug I’m guessing Different Missions.

 

[Bighorn]

Looks like Topeka has some of the worst crime in the country. I knew Birmingham and St Louis were bad ones, so good to know.

 

[Big Earl]

Get ready for the dislikes. A lotta folks on this forum think we need to be defenseless victims handing over our security to our completely untrustworthy governments... Mind boggling as it is.

No, a lot of folks feel it’s inappropriate to discuss this in the Superchargers Visited thread, including the victim of the robbery. Start your own thread or take it to one of the several previous discussions.

 

[Melanie_S85]

Well, I don't know how to start this post... I suppose I'll go with the good news. The good news is that I'm home, I'm alive and I broke into the 400 club by hitting Bethany, St. Joseph, KC, Osage Beach, St. Charles (Streets), Mehlville, Mount Vernon, Indy, and Zionsville on the way here as I was travelling yesterday. I made all the updates.

Now the bad news...

I got robbed by someone with a gun when I stopped to charge my car at the charger in Topeka, Kansas.

He just wanted my cash, I didn't have much, but I gave it all to him and he went on his way and I unplugged and went on mine. I had stopped in to charge the car at about 3AM and I had been there for about 20 minutes. These chargers are in an Arby's parking lot...so nothing was open around there I was driving the bottom of the battery a bit and I arrived there with only about 40 miles of range. No one was around when I plugged in and I even set an alarm on my phone so that in case I fell asleep it would wake me up in 25 minutes. The alarm went off five minutes after I left... The guy came up to the car and knocked on the window and indicated I should roll it down. He had a gun in his right hand which he never actually pointed at me at any time, but he did rotate it in his hand so that I could be certain he was carrying one. He was wearing a hoodie, a hat, and a bandanna over his face. He even had gloves on, so there's no way I could identify him or much of anything about him. But like I said, he just asked for my cash, which I gave him and then he left.

A few things have ran, and are still running through my mind... First, things could have went much worse. Second, I feel like an idiot a bit for putting myself in this situation. I think I got a little too complacent with regards to my personal safety when traveling at these late hours of the night. If I was thinking more soundly I would have charged up longer in Wichita and then totally skipped this charger where everything is closed and went on to one of the other ones that are located at a Hy-Vee which is at least open at 3AM. But in fairness, this all happened so fast that I don't think the specific location would have mattered all that much.

Also, I really feel like we're a bit of a captive audience when we're charging. The car won't move when it's plugged in. So the flight part of "fight or flight" isn't really an option.

Anyway, I did contact the Topeka police and filed an incident report with them so perhaps they will patrol this location more in the late hours...and they are also going to see if they can pull any video from Arby's. I also felt a certain obligation to notify the community here so that we all perhaps ratchet up our level of awareness a bit.

I also contacted Tesla and notified them about this issue. I tried to ask them about getting access to any video that my car might have captured...unfortunately the software update version I have on my MS requires that the Sentry Mode be turned on prior to each use...which I didn't realize...so I don't have any video from the car.

This has been a significant "lesson learned" for me. I'm certainly going to rethink many of the things I was taking for granted when traveling in unknown locations and charging my car. We're all playing this game for fun...and we all want to make it back home safely at the end of our trips. Thankfully I am...and I'm certainly going to make some changes to how I've been doing things. That's for sure.

Holy crap! I'm glad you're okay. So far I've stayed in states that reciprocate my license to carry. You never know if it will make a difference, but I'd much rather have it than not. I'm aware but will try to be more cautious. I'm just trying to SSDGM. #Murderino

 

[Melanie_S85]

5/20/19
Lone Tree, CO
Colorado Springs, CO
Trinidad, CO
Las Vegas, NM
Santa Rosa, NM

5/21/19
Tucumcari, NM
Amarillo, TX
Childress, TX