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Day 14: Tigard to Issaquah 191 miles - Almost home! We left with 7 miles of buffer range and were convinced we would need to stop and charge somewhere. So I drove with traffic and the car performed very well as we arrived with 9 miles of buffer! Total of 3145 miles, 956 kWh and an overall average energy usage of 304Wh/mile 04-09-2013 at 09:43 AM We paid a total of $17 for an equivalent of $0.08/gallon had we drove a similar car (using $4/gallon average of premium and 17mpg average). We paid for charging 3 times. Once at a KOA ($10 overnight), once at a chargepoint station ($1/hour and 1.08 hours of charge) and once at a RV park (Yreka $5 for a 14-50 for 2 hours). With supercharging all the way to Vancouver coming by July we might not have paid anything! What an amazing car! Win8 + Outlook13

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Day 13: Ashland to Tigard 278 miles - 30AMP charging is really slow! With all the mountain passes this was by far the longest leg in our journey. We needed to stop in Springfield (Eugene) for 5 freakin hours! And we were parked right next to a fast DC ChaDeMo charger! If we had an adapter our wait would have only been 30 minutes! 10 times faster! We walked about a mile to the local mall where we killed as much time as possible. We left with 20 miles of buffer range and arrived with 21! Again, can't say enough about the car. And we arrived at the Tesla Tigard mall parking garage 14-50 outlet and plugged in for a few hours while we thanked Brian at the Tesla store and grabbed a bit to eat at Portland Seafood Company. Drove to the hotel about a mile away and I dropped off the family to bring the car back to the 14-50 and left it there overnight for a full max range charge. Win8 + Outlook13

[teslatrip]

Day 12: Rancho Cordova to Ashland - 312 miles, no supercharging equals long day! We left the supercharger with a full max range charge of 197 miles of rated range. With 4.3 firmware it should be noted that the range will show 197 miles for about 10 miles of highway driving. I believe this to be a bug since ideal range on a full max range charge shows 226 miles. We planned a stop in Chico and were graciously allowed to charge at Sun Valley Acoustical from a Tesla HPWC at 40AMP! With several mountain passes we needed to stop again at Yreka where we wished we had a Roadster to Model S adapter as the first RV park we asked about charging wanted $20 for an hour of charge. Thankfully the 2nd RV park was much more reasonable at $5. We stayed for about 2 hours to get about 30 miles of buffer range to get over the passes. We looked up elevation maps to see that our destination was about 500 feet lower overall so it was great when we arrived with 2 more miles buffer range than we started with!!! This car is amazing! We stayed at the Roadway Inn right next to the Aerovironment charger at the Texaco station. Woke up to a free max range charge! Win8 + Outlook13

[teslatrip]

Day 11: Stevenson Ranch to Rancho Cordova 363 miles - Full day of supercharging! Tejon Ranch supercharging! Win8 + Outlook13

[teslatrip]

We missed the new superchargers in Harris Ranch by 2 days! We used the old one at the Shell station but it was so easy to walk around for about an hour for a full charge. It is ridiculous how much energy is going into the car when it starts up! Win8 + Outlook13

[teslatrip]

We stopped at my best friend's house where Cooper got a chance to meet WALL-E! Win8 + Outlook13

[teslatrip]

Day 10: Rancho Mirage to Stevenson Ranch 172 miles - Supercharging and new UMC! Left the desert with 152 miles of rated range with our destination 130 miles away (22 miles of buffer range). Climbing out of the desert on I-10 is usually into the wind and today was no different. Temp was 63 degrees. With several options for charging on the way I decided to go with traffic which flows about &;80mph but there were several cars to draft as the traffic was thick at 9am on a work day. As we climbed the range ticked off faster than the miles actually travelled and by the time we crested through the pass we had 9 miles of buffer range. This would have caused concern if not for knowing how the car can coast and recover range through regen. So I stayed with traffic and as we reached hwy 60 we had 14 miles of buffer range. And as we turned onto hwy 91 we were at 19 miles of buffer range! The entire trip we flowed with traffic and as we passed Rocket Road we started supercharging with 18 miles of buffer range! Left the supercharger with ample range for our stop at the LA service center (where we picked up a new UMC), our overnight stay in Stevenson Ranch and further up to the next supercharger at Tejon Ranch. Win8 + Outlook13

[teslatrip]

We stopped at my best friend's house where Cooper got a chance to meet WALL-E! Win8 + Outlook13

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Noticed a neat little video showing which lane you should be in when GPS navigation was enabled Win8 + Outlook13

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Stopped off at Marriott Desert Springs to try their free charging. Wish they had a 14-50 too! Win8 + Outlook13

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Right before we left, met up with a friend who we could tell was very jealous, but he went ICE instead Win8 + Outlook13

[teslatrip]

Day 9: Anaheim to Rancho Mirage 100 miles and no traffic since we left around 9pm! Very easy drive and the most notable part was that we had a strong tail wind and while cruising at 80MPH past Cabazon the car was actually coasting without any energy usage. And right before our turn onto Bob Hope drive we were passed by a Model S at around &;120 MPH! As it was coming up from behind I thought it was a supercar. We were going 80 and it passed by in a split second like we were standing still. It went off into the distance and I never saw brake lights come on! Hope they didn't get a ticket! Cooper washing the car in Ranch Mirage[cid:image001.png@01CE50E7.3F47F170]

[teslatrip]

Our UMC died Friday, trying to charge from the La Quinta hotel's 14-50 (which is known good) and two other 110v outlets (also known good). The metal locking tab on the UMC failed and TM is going to overnight a new one that we should hopefully receive tomorrow as we are leaving on Wednesday morning to head back to Seattle. Thank goodness we have a J1772 fairly close by. If not we'd have been stuck. Thanks to Vince at the LA service center for helping us get back on the road! Since this event happened on Easter we relied on a free public charger at the Palm Desert City Park for 3 days [cid:image001.png@01CE50E7.51A7EC30]

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Day 8: Santa Ynez to Anaheim 150 miles to Cars Land! Another short day and exceeded rated range. Our first Supercharger stop at Hawthorne! [cid:image001.png@01CE50E7.2AEEE5D0] Used a free charger at the Convention Center and spent 12 hours in Cars Land!

[teslatrip]

Day 7: Santa Cruz to Santa Ynez 230 miles and our longest day yet...for good reasons! The morning started out very cold at 37 degrees and high speed driving so range went down quickly. We looked for a spot to charge in Monterey and found a chargepoint.com location at Hayward Lumber that was very close to a very nice beach. [cid:image001.png@01CE50E6.EF1453B0] We stayed for about 2 hours and got back to a full charge. Next stop Morro Bay for more free charging from J1772 and a short walk down to the warf and a very nice park where we saw sea otters and seals. We hung out there for longer than we needed, but it was so nice and relaxing we didn't notice the time going by. The walk back up the car was hot though. But the car had more than enough buffer range so it was worth it.

[teslatrip]

Day 6: Novato to Santa Cruz 110 miles and beautiful views Very uneventful day of driving as we had more than enough range and arrived early to a sun soaked campground with free 14-50 charging. Yeah KOA! [cid:image001.png@01CE50E5.FE020080]

[teslatrip]

We stuck out so as to partially block the exit from the parking lot. Parking control said they were ok with it, but we felt differently, so we drove just a bit further to the Solar Living Institute in Hopland to access their free 14-50 outlets. What a wonderful place for a stop and great/fast charging. Highly recommend stopping and patronizing this establishment! [cid:image001.png@01CE50E5.E46B8E70] With two hours of charging we had more than enough range to make it to Novato. Novato has lots of free charging, especially downtown by City Hall. Very nice!