Supercharging COVID-19 Restroom Availability

[Daniellane]

Anyone having issues with closed restrooms at Superchargers located at Restaurant Parking Lots?
Our normal route from Palm Desert, CA to SW Washington State has a few stops that are in this category.
Gustine (Santa Nella), Ca
(Andersen’s Pea Soup Restaurant)
also Black Bear Diner in Grant’s Pass, Oregon.

 

[Daniellane]

I didn’t get feedback here as I had hoped. I tried asking in forums specific to Superchargers Which were on our route. I cannot provide first-hand feedback as to restroom availability for our trip and I am reporting here for others if they are interested…

I drove the longest straight through road trip of my life, electric or otherwise on that Friday, 1100 miles straight through. Left Palm Desert California at 5 AM on Friday and arrived in Southwest Washington at 1:20 AM on Saturday. Didn’t want to stay in a hotel overnight as we usually do. Our biggest worry was access to restrooms. Fortunately we had no problems and were able to use the restroom at every charging stop. Listed below…
Tejon CA (restroom In the mini mart of the gas station)
Kettleman City CA (Tesla Lounge)
Gustin CA (the hotel across the parking lot)
Williams California (Restaurant restroom)
Mount Shasta California (Best Western Hotel)
Grants Pass, Oregon (Black Bear Diner)
Springfield Oregon (Hilton Express)

 

[EVNation]

Glad to hear at least those restrooms are open. I've been wondering that myself.

 

[DeepBlueMN]

Anyone having issues with closed restrooms at Superchargers located at Restaurant Parking Lots?
Our normal route from Palm Desert, CA to SW Washington State has a few stops that are in this category.
Gustine (Santa Nella), Ca
(Andersen’s Pea Soup Restaurant)
also Black Bear Diner in Grant’s Pass, Oregon.

I just drove from AZ to MN this week...
I had “restroom availability challenges” in AZ, NM, and CO. But, no issues in NE, IA, and MN.

 

[aliengar0]

I'm about to take a trip from Atlanta to eastern NC. Restrooms are my biggest concern. It looks like larger gas stations that cater to trucks have restrooms open such as Pilot / Flying J / Loves. Any other experiences?

 

[Valcine]

I just drove from AZ to MN this week...
I had “restroom availability challenges” in AZ, NM, and CO. But, no issues in NE, IA, and MN.

I am currently on a trip from Cali toTexas and back. I’m on the return trip now. I am currently parked outside of the Hampton Inn by Hilton in Gallup, NM, and apparently their restroom is “Out of Service.” I am here with another Tesla owner who is also charging, so we are both experiencing this issue. Perhaps I am naive, but I thought that facilities with chargers are supposed to have restrooms for Supercharger users to use...

 

[Daniellane]

I am currently on a trip from Cali toTexas and back. I’m on the return trip now. I am currently parked outside of the Hampton Inn by Hilton in Gallup, NM, and apparently their restroom is “Out of Service.” I am here with another Tesla owner who is also charging, so we are both experiencing this issue. Perhaps I am naive, but I thought that facilities with chargers are supposed to have restrooms for Supercharger users to use...

I don’t believe there is any agreement per se, however from my experience, Hotels and other businesses with superchargers in their parking lots have always been accommodating. However these are very unusual times and that is why I started this thread. At some point hopefully Tesla will consider providing some sort of restroom facilities and trash containers at Supercharging locations.

 

[gnelson]

I charged at the Salt Lake City South Supercharger at the Tesla dealer. The building was closed during business hr, and the walk to the Ramada Inn was not convenient.

 

[lottadot]

We encountered this problem going from Dallas to Little Rock. I wasn't surprised with the local business's being shutdown/no-in-{bar/restaurant}-traffic (just curb pickup) but the public restrooms in Sulphur Springs were shut down too.

Up until Covid shutting things down, this was never an issue. My assumption is no one ever really thought about it, and Tesla doesn't want much to do with such issues except to locate the super chargers in convenient locations that are around such amenities.

 

[Daniellane]

We encountered this problem going from Dallas to Little Rock. I wasn't surprised with the local business's being shutdown/no-in-{bar/restaurant}-traffic (just curb pickup) but the public restrooms in Sulphur Springs were shut down too.

Up until Covid shutting things down, this was never an issue. My assumption is no one ever really thought about it, and Tesla doesn't want much to do with such issues except to locate the super chargers in convenient locations that are around such amenities.

Definitely an unforeseen situation. Tesla may need to consider upgrading superchargers to have some amenities.
Outhouses and trash receptacles at a minimum. An air compressor for filling your tires would really be as well.
I posted this thread about my in-home solution for tire inflation.
Tesla Automatic Tire Inflation

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

When everything is closed, the world is your bathroom.

 

[Daniellane]

When everything is closed, the world is your bathroom.

Works for me but not so much for my wife

 

[totoro722]

I, for one, hope that Tesla does not try to implement bathrooms and trash services at the superchargers. The cost of servicing and maintaining restrooms and trash service can be quite high, especially as they are likely to be busy restrooms. I would rather that cost be born by the businesses adjacent to the supercharger who benefit from their proximity to the traffic the superchargers bring. Otherwise that cost will be passed on to users of the superchargers, us. The aberrations caused by the Covid problem will be undoubtedly temporary. No need to over-react.

 

[Daniellane]

I, for one, hope that Tesla does not try to implement bathrooms and trash services at the superchargers. The cost of servicing and maintaining restrooms and trash service can be quite high, especially as they are likely to be busy restrooms. I would rather that cost be born by the businesses adjacent to the supercharger who benefit from their proximity to the traffic the superchargers bring. Otherwise that cost will be passed on to users of the superchargers, us. The aberrations caused by the Covid problem will be undoubtedly temporary. No need to over-react.

Fair enough. Although an outhouse might be a good “temporary” measure until COVID 19 issues resolve by 2021 with any luck.

 

[Rocky_H]

I just got back from an approximately 3,000 mile round trip. I went from Boise to Kansas City, MO. On the way there, I went I-80 all the way along to Missouri, and then on the way back, I took I-70 all the way back into southern Utah, so a lot of different Supercharger stops. As @aliengar0 was mentioning, you may just have to split your stops less conveniently because some restaurants where you might normally have gone won't be eat inside kinds of places. But all of the truck stops and travel plazas are always open--they have to be. So you might need to have extra stops at those for bathroom breaks that aren't the same stops for Supercharging.

 

[JBT66]

We had some challenges this past weekend going from Tucson to San Diego and then back to Tucson.
Neither Yuma AZ nor El Centro CA had usable bathrooms with in walking distance.
Gila Bend AZ and Tacna AZ did luckily.

 

[jvmoore1]

my wife and two sons went from Alabama to Texas and they had no issues with bathrooms.

On the way to Houston they stopped at the Slidell rest area due to nothing being open. On the way back they went to Michaels before hitting the SC.
Lafayette SC they went to Ulta to use the restroom
Lake Charles SC they went to Target both times

 

[jboy210]

As a pilot and former plane owner, I have experienced the need at 20,000 feet. So when I travel I always have some of these with me.
These days, you never know when they might come in handy at a Supercharger.

 

[bmah]

Full bladders, closed bathrooms. Strategies for peeing while out during coronavirus

Bruce.

 

[Cape Coddess]

This covid has gone on a lot longer than the op and other posters thought. My problem is finding things open in the middle of the night. I go straight through from Massachusetts to Florida via I95 and end up somewhere in North Carolina. Usually everything next to the superchargers is closed during the night, particularly Sunday night.

Anyone know of any in that area that have open bathrooms in the middle of the night?