Vermont Foliage Driving Thanks to Brattleboro North KOA

[seanmccutchan]

Just wanted to spread the word that the folks at Brattleboro North's KOA were very helpful to enabling a VT foliage tour. We were able to cover southern/central VT quite well by charging at this KOA (note that we have only a MS 60). I offered to rent the one of the Nema 14-50 (50Amp) sites, which they kindly gave us a 10% discount...~$44/night. The taxi fare was $11 each trip to get to our accommodations in Putney. I also rented a bike from the West Hill Shop in Putney for the Sat/Sun for $30 which aided in picking up the car both mornings (if I had been in better shape I would have done the 3 mile run both days). I'm sure it was slightly more expensive than driving the ICE, but the miles were far more enjoyable. Even with the VT hills, and some spirited driving, we averaged very 297 Wh/mile over the 483 mile trip. We also took advantage of public chargers in Lenox and Northampton to add a few miles during lunchtime stops. Next year we definitely want to leave time for the Mt. Equinox scenic drive, and we're hoping for less rain !

 

[Sparky]

Love the shot of the fall colors on the Midnight Blue.
How was the foliage?
I expect to be in Manchester-Bennington area next week (sans Model S tho).

 

[seanmccutchan]

The foliage is spectacular (just uploaded a pic). Our vehicle is actually black, but the road grime from the rain might have changed the appearance. There must be someone on this forum willing to take you up Mt. Equinox (btwn Bennington and Manchester) in their Tesla! The roadster in our picture lives in Putney and saw us downtown. Had a very nice impromptu visit with him.

 

[aaron.s]

Great Story and pictures! My dad has a place just outside of Manchester. Love Vermont! But Southern vermont is a charging wasteland! Not a good image for the Green State - hope this changes in the near future

Aaron

 

[EdA]

Hmmm, I charged at a campground in NH for $10/night last month.
Is the campground full this time of year?

 

[djp]

Hmmm, I charged at a campground in NH for $10/night last month.
Is the campground full this time of year?

KOA doesn't seem to have a corporate policy for EV charging, each site owner has their own approach. I've charged at three different KOAs. One charged me a flat $10. Another was free but they asked that I donate $10 to their charity (which I was more than happy to do). Another charged me the standard overnight rate (ouch). I've heard of others charging by kWh used, and some refuse to let EVs charge at their sites.

I'd recommend calling ahead and speaking to the owner to avoid any surprises.

 

[seanmccutchan]

I can see paying less than full price for charging a few hours, but since I planned to occupy the spot all night the full going rate seems only fair. I booked the spot ahead and told them I was driving an EV that used the 50Amp outlet. Fall foliage season is very busy in VT, and the site was completely full when I arrived.

One other point, I recommend charging at as low a rate as you can to avoid over-taxing the KOA circuit system. I used 30 AMPs, and even so something seemed to trip on the first night. If I hadn't been checking the Tesla App periodically I wouldn't have noticed it stopped charging after ~30 minutes for an unknown reason (I'm suspicious the main feed breaker tripped and someone reset it). Fortunately, pressing the "start charging" option was enough get things going again for the remainder of the night (avoiding the midnight trip back to the campsite). No such glitch occurred on night 2 when it was less busy.

Expect some curious looks from the other campers! Then again if you can't stand attention the Model S isn't the right car to be driving!