Tesla moments

[CalBlue 85D]

Last Friday we were on the final stretch of a 14-day, 3300 mile road trip when we arrived at the supercharger at Mt. Shasta in the early afternoon. I've heard stories of long waits at superchargers along I-5, but I've been lucky and never waited more than 5-10 minutes to get a stall....until today. There were 15 cars waiting for 4 superchargers and the charge rate was not optimal for anyone.

Here's the Tesla moment....our fellow owners had already created slips of paper with numbers to keep track of who was next. No one complained. No one jumped the line. We shared the duty of tracking numbers so people could go eat etc. We met new people and shared stories beyond our cars. We bought ice cream and shared it with the others while we waited in the hot weather. By the time we left, we had just handed out #25 to the latest car and it appeared that things were not slowing down anytime soon.

What could have been a bad way to end a road trip actually ended up being one of the enjoyable parts of the trip. No rush, no hurry, we will get there when we get there. I love road trips in this car!

 

[dedicatedtek]

This . When people want to know 'why tesla ?' or 'what makes tesla different?' . this right here.

 

[wdolson]

Last Friday we were on the final stretch of a 14-day, 3300 mile road trip when we arrived at the supercharger at Mt. Shasta in the early afternoon. I've heard stories of long waits at superchargers along I-5, but I've been lucky and never waited more than 5-10 minutes to get a stall....until today. There were 15 cars waiting for 4 superchargers and the charge rate was not optimal for anyone.

Here's the Tesla moment....our fellow owners had already created slips of paper with numbers to keep track of who was next. No one complained. No one jumped the line. We shared the duty of tracking numbers so people could go eat etc. We met new people and shared stories beyond our cars. We bought ice cream and shared it with the others while we waited in the hot weather. By the time we left, we had just handed out #25 to the latest car and it appeared that things were not slowing down anytime soon.

What could have been a bad way to end a road trip actually ended up being one of the enjoyable parts of the trip. No rush, no hurry, we will get there when we get there. I love road trips in this car!

On the solar eclipse thread and Mt Shasta supercharger threads there has been some discussion of the backlog at some of the Northern California SCs.

We have a house full of guests tonight. My SO's cousin is from San Jose and went to Salem for the eclipse additionally a friend who is a retired petroleum Geophysicist from Houston came up here separate from the eclipse. I took the Geophysicist friend out to the garage and the first thing he said was "right color" (white) and the next thing he did was say I was killing off the oil companies, which he thought was a good thing. He thought the Model S was too large for him, but he's definitely interested in the Model 3. A friend of his got a reservation for the M3 the first day and he said he will definitely check it out when the friend gets his.

We almost had more house guests, but people's plans changed.

My SO's cousin didn't get here until late. I-5 between Salem and Portland was very slow. He was talking about how nice it was to drive his Prius on this trip and how quiet it is and my SO outed me and told him I had a Tesla and how great the quiet is. He and his girlfriend are going to Seattle tomorrow morning and then Spokane after that, but now they are now going to stop here for a night on the way back so we can go to dinner in my Model S.

 

[evp]

Coming back from the eclipse I stopped in Cheyenne to charge. Four cars in line for the four chargers. I waited for my turn about an hour, which passed quickly due to the dual Tesla/Eclipse nature of the conversations between owners. Two guys had SpaceX shirts. One was given to the guy for his birthday. The other was worn by a member of the propulsion team for the Dragon capsule, visiting a fiend from Colorado to attend the eclipse. We had great fun talking rockets. I told him I was definitely driving to Florida for the Falcon Heavy launch. He said I should look him up when I get to KSC. Woo Hoo!

 

[MaxYoda]

I have a blue 90D from late 2016. I was stopped at a light on an uncrowded local 4 lane street when a policeman pulled up beside me and motioned for me to roll down my window. Several thoughts flitted by: Was I driving too fast? Was I driving too aggressively?

The policeman was in his mid-fifties (I guess), and he asked, "I have heard those things are pretty fast. Is that true?" I replied "yes", after which he asked me to show him. When the light changed, I pressed the accelerator to the floor and left him far behind. I relaxed at about 60 MPH (in a 45 zone). He roared up to me a few seconds later, flashed his lights and gave me the thumbs up. We stopped again at the next light and discussed the car further. I offered to let him try it out, but he would not as he was on duty. I think it made an impression, though, as he indicated that he would stop by a showroom soon.

 

[ThisIsTrue]

The policeman was in his mid-fifties (I guess), and he asked, "I have heard those things are pretty fast. Is that true?" I replied "yes"

(Demonstration ends...) "...though this isn't one of the particularly FAST ones, mind you."

 

[Peter Greis]

It keeps happening.... I am stopped at a busy crosswalk and more often than not a small child stops dead in their tracks to look at the car. Next step is the adult nearby tugging at their hand to get out of the street before the light changes

 

[henderrj]

It keeps happening.... I am stopped at a busy crosswalk and more often than not a small child stops dead in their tracks to look at the car. Next step is the adult nearby tugging at their hand to get out of the street before the light changes

Exactly! What all the GM's and Daimler's of the world do not understand is they have already lost the next generation.

 

[phibetakitten]

We had a fun Telsa Moment at Badlands National Park (South Dakota) about a month ago when we spotted our car's twin at a pullout. Of course we stopped and chatted with the owners. We'd started out in Los Angeles and they'd started in Florida.

 

[Tompilot]

Blue x. Three week of ownership
It seems that Kids are much more likely to see and comment.
Two weeks ago took some friends to a rural restaurant that we like.
After dinner the owner and entire staff followed us outside for a tour of the car.
We had not even discussed it in the restaurant

The day I got the car I went to my Rotary meeting and was walking in when a lady in the parking lot jumped up to tell me that I hadn't closed my doors. On cue they then closed. Her comment Oh. It turns out she was our speaker and told us about a new mini golf that they were opening that day. That afternoon I took my grandkids and friends to the course. It seems ever kid there had to see the car. After the demo we headed to the check in. Of course all the doors were open and some people on the course started reminding me that the doors were open. The owner popped up and yelled out. Don't worry they will close themselves.

Kind of fun

 

[RogerHScott]

Badlands National Park

Badlands is most excellent. Probably one of the most underappreciated parks. But where's the nearest SpC?

 

[phibetakitten]

Badlands is most excellent. Probably one of the most underappreciated parks. But where's the nearest SpC?

It really is a cool park! We had no idea. It wasn't actually part of our original planned itinerary (a 5000-mile loop through 10 western states).

Charging was no problem for the Badlands detour. We started and ended at the Rapid City SC.

 

[tccartier]

This is phenominal... just realized that i'm posting to the forum FROM MY CAR !!!

 

[Btrflyl8e]

This is phenominal... just realized that i'm posting to the forum FROM MY CAR !!!

Then you've found the one thing teslas can't do... Spell!

Just messing with you!

 

[tccartier]

Then you've found the one thing teslas can't do... Spell!

Just messing with you!

Bwahahaha!! Well I guess I'll have to get used to a keyboard in my dash! lol!! Now when is that "auto correct" update coming ???
No wait.... That might be worse lololol!! This car is STUPID FUN to drive and tinker with!!

 

[ThisIsTrue]

Small World Tesla Moment:

Our last charge on the way home from the eclipse was in Grand Junction, Colorado -- we live about 90 miles south of that. When the car was ready, we came out and found a white Model S there charging too, with a California family on their way home from a similar trip.

Enjoyed talking with the gentleman, and naturally he asked where we were from. When he heard the name of our town of 800 folks, he said "Oh, do you know ____?" Why yes, yes we do: @dgpcolorado is a neighbor. I asked the man if he was a member of TMC. Sure enough, he's @abasile

It's a small world, but even smaller for the Teslarati!

 

[RogerHScott]

Gee4ce made a second appearance at the local Hands on Transportation event here in Lafayette.

Great weather contributed to a bigger crowd than last year, and interest in the car was much greater than last year.

There's not enough Windex in the world to get all of the little kids' fingerprints off of everything , and I think I'm going to need to go through all of the settings to see what's been messed with (kids love that big display and fiddling with it!). I think all of the M3 hype has really increased public awareness of electric cars in general and Tesla in particular. Whereas last year it seemed like the average comment was "what's a Tesla?", this year many people were at least generally aware and more than a couple had fairly specific knowledge. I'm pretty sure there'll be piece on the local news about this event later; I'll post a link.

At the end I gave three guys from Purdue's formula racing club a ride. They were very impressed. Despite being immersed in the world of ICE they're pretty knowledgeable about electric vehicles and recognize that they're going to be really important in the future.

 

[abasile]

Enjoyed talking with the gentleman, and naturally he asked where we were from. When he heard the name of our town of 800 folks, he said "Oh, do you know ____?" Why yes, yes we do: @dgpcolorado is a neighbor. I asked the man if he was a member of TMC. Sure enough, he's @abasile

I enjoyed meeting you as well, and ended up subscribing to your newsletter!

One thing we appreciated about traveling outside of California and Nevada in our Tesla is that people tended to be friendlier at Superchargers. In California, our experience has been that most people keep to themselves while Supercharging. Colorado folks, and others from the rural West, seemed more apt to chat. That may in part be because there's still more of an "early adopter" mindset among Tesla owners outside California. Of course, our California plates made it obvious that we were long-distance travelers, which may have drawn more attention.

 

[RogerHScott]

the local Hands on Transportation event here in Lafayette

Although they didn't use the footage specifically about my car (showing Summon, of course ), it is visible in the background of a few of the shots: Imagination Station offers hands on transportation experience

 

[dgpcolorado]

Small World Tesla Moment:

Our last charge on the way home from the eclipse was in Grand Junction, Colorado -- we live about 90 miles south of that. When the car was ready, we came out and found a white Model S there charging too, with a California family on their way home from a similar trip.

Enjoyed talking with the gentleman, and naturally he asked where we were from. When he heard the name of our town of 800 folks, he said "Oh, do you know ____?" Why yes, yes we do: @dgpcolorado is a neighbor. I asked the man if he was a member of TMC. Sure enough, he's @abasile

It's a small world, but even smaller for the Teslarati!

@abasile and I were early adopters of the LEAF; he and his family were kind enough to put me up last year on my return trip home from a visit to San Diego. By coincidence he had just picked up his CPO S the day before, as I recall. Now that I think of it, it is quite rare for me to spot other solo drivers at Supercharger Stations; couples and families are more common IME.

...One thing we appreciated about traveling outside of California and Nevada in our Tesla is that people tended to be friendlier at Superchargers. In California, our experience has been that most people keep to themselves while Supercharging. Colorado folks, and others from the rural West, seemed more apt to chat. That may in part be because there's still more of an "early adopter" mindset among Tesla owners outside California. Of course, our California plates made it obvious that we were long-distance travelers, which may have drawn more attention.

I just got back yesterday evening from my eclipse trip to Oregon, 2806 miles. My sister's house was in the path of totality; my first total eclipse and well worth it! On my way there I shared the Supercharger Station at The Dalles OR with two other Teslas:

^ California, Michigan, Colorado. All of us a long way from home. This was the Thursday before the eclipse. I liked this picture because the cars were all different colors and side-by-side (all of us on different Supercharger pairings, by the way).

I'm usually willing to interact with other Tesla drivers at the Supercharger Stations but when doing 14-15 hour driving days I generally keep to myself unless someone else initiates the conversation. I have had Supercharger sessions last longer than planned because I got to talking with other drivers or was busy answering questions from the general public. Most of the time in the Intermountain West I am alone at a station, although on this last trip there was usually at least one other car.