California: Interesting Model S Roadtrips using Superchargers

My MS should be here in a couple of weeks & already started planning for a trip up to Moro Bay once Atascadero went live, its 187 miles to the supercharger :biggrin:

Good idea for a thread - I've been looking for an excuse to use the new 101 Superchargers...

We leave Orange County next Tuesday for a 10 day road trip to Ojai, Morro Bay, Carmel and San Francisco. We could have done it with a lot of backtracking to the 5 and using available public charging locations but Buellton and Atascadero make it much easier and a lot more enjoyable. Our longest segment will be from Atascadero to Carmel (130 miles).

AlisoJames said:

We leave Orange County next Tuesday for a 10 day road trip to Ojai, Morro Bay, Carmel and San Francisco. We could have done it with a lot of backtracking to the 5 and using available public charging locations but Buellton and Atascadero make it much easier and a lot more enjoyable. Our longest segment will be from Atascadero to Carmel (130 miles).

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If you have never driven that section of Hwy 1, you are in for a treat. There is a fair amount of up and down and expect to drive at a leisurely pace (not many places to pass on two lane road). I doubt there will be any charging infrastructure along the way, so make sure you are fully charged up. Please let us know the energy useage required to drive that section. Plan to take some pictures of your Model S with the ocean in the background. It will look amazing!

We're considering taking the Tesla from Phoenix to Saltspring Island BC over Christmas. About 3400 miles round trip -- likely 8 days in the car (with a week on SSI).

But Tesla will need to have the "Fall 2013" Superchargers online by the first week of November -- we have a 60, so will need to hit nearly all the planned SCs on the route. Both the AZ to LA gap and Northern CA to Oregon gap need to be filled before we'll commit to the trip though. If enough are open by then, we'll plan to drive instead of fly...

If "Fall 2013" turns out to be a bit optimistic, we'll fly at Christmas and then do that drive next summer instead...

Hey ZBB: Maybe we'll join you!

I am, in fact, trying to figure out how to do a mega-trip with the S. That is, the run between Paxson and Wickenburg. That's about 4,200 miles, and there very, very definitely are limited services of any kind even during the height of travel-season through vast stretches of AK, Yukon, and northern BC. But if I figger it just right, we could make the jump from 240V - 240V chargings at selected camp sites.

The way I figure it, from southcentral BC to AZ will be a piece of cake after that!

jeff_adams said:

If you have never driven that section of Hwy 1, you are in for a treat. There is a fair amount of up and down and expect to drive at a leisurely pace (not many places to pass on two lane road). I doubt there will be any charging infrastructure along the way, so make sure you are fully charged up. Please let us know the energy useage required to drive that section. Plan to take some pictures of your Model S with the ocean in the background. It will look amazing!

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We just arrived in Morro Bay this afternoon. We left Orange County on Tuesday and stopped at Hawthorne to top off before heading to the Ojai Valley Inn. Got there around 4:30 in the afternoon with 95 miles of rated range left. The bellman showed us their golf cart charging area and we plugged in for the night and were up to 135 by morning. We unplugged Wednesday morning, did a short drive into downtown Ojai for lunch and then left around 10:30 this morning stopping at the Buellton supercharger around noon. We were the only ones using the chargers there. I must say the new units are considerably faster. We were back to 80% in less than 20 minutes and on our way. We had coffee at the Starbucks in the Marriott. Tomorrow afternoon we will visit the Atascadero supercharger and decide if we will continue up the 101 to Carmel or double back to Highway 1.

I was in Solvang last week, but no Tesla yet (comes next week). Agree it is good fun so long as you have the right attitude about the place. A couple of decent restaurants, great hotel and super close to wine tasting.

We left Morro Bay around noon yesterday and headed to Atascadero to charge up. We had a couple of choices - head back to Hwy 1 and try the scenic route (137 miles with no secondary charging options), take the 101 to Salinas and then head directly to Carmel (130 miles) relying in local charging when we got there or third - head up the 101 to the Gilroy supercharger (137 miles), charge again and double back to Carmel. We ended up choosing the latter with some interesting consequences. We left Atascadero with 185 miles of rated range and got to Gilroy with 21 left. Dojng the math you can tell we lost 27 miles of range due to highway speeds. it took longer to charge at Gilroy but we left there with 195 miles of range for the 46 miles back to Carmel. We took the 101 to 156 and then got stuck in a horrible traffic jam due to a major 3 car accident on 156. It took us well over an hour to go the 5 miles to connect with Highway 1. We actually were stopped for over half an hour right near the crash site as they were getting vehicles cleared off the road. We were the 3rd car from the front and when it appeared no one would be moving anytime soon people got out of their cars to watch the activity. As you can expect we ended up with more than a dozen people who came over to see our Model S. We answered questions, let people look inside and basically acted like the proud owners that we are. - lol. It was actually kind of cool.

We had decided not to take the Highway 1 route from Morro Bay because locals had told us it would most likely take 5 hours with just a couple of brief stops. The lack of any secondary charging facilities on the route was also a concern. We decided we would take a drive south from Carmel in the next day or two down as far as Big Sur. We are staying in Cambria for two nights on our way back and will do Hearst Castle and some more of that end of Highway 1 at that time.

I think there is a supercharger planned for around Salinas and that would have made our day much better. We did not get to Carmel until around 6:30 p.m.

Hey don't forget the advances on the East Coast. With Darien online, and NJTP and Auburn opening by the end of the year, the NE corridor will be completely electrified and EV's more convenient and practical than ICEmobiiles.

I've completed my 3rd road trip (NYT broder (small b) rebuttal, Westport EV rally, and White Plains party - all ending with an evening in Manhattan). I rarely got to NYC in my ice cars - expensive, waste of precious resource and pollution - now, free, no waste, no pollution. I intend to make 5-6 road trips a year to NYC, Philly and DC (we have more places to go back east) - anyone who suggests EV's are less practical is completely nuts.

Jack

I actually drove 101 the week that it was available. Great experiences, however, a very long drive. I will stick to I5, even though its a boring drive. Driving 101 once in a blue moon is ok, but it just takes way too long. Good luck!

My philosophy on this -- if you're in a hurry, if time is a factor, fly. If not, take the 101. So many things to do and see along 101. Lots of great places to stop from Santa Barbara to Paso, and even driving up the Valley north of Paso is interesting. If you have even more time, take the scenic route on Highway 1 through Lompoc (Mission La Purisima is great), Surf and Pismo (starting at Highway 246 of course after getting a charge in Buellton), do some wine tasting in Paso, stop in SLO to stretch your legs and walk through the really nice downtown. It's just such a nicer drive. I really can't think of one thing I'd want to do or see along I-5, and thus has been years and years since I've driven it.

Couple of day trips from the DC area to NJ using the Delaware Supercharger. Did a max range charge in DE, and drove ~245 round trip to NJ and back to DE to grab another charge for the way home. Went past 0 miles rated range left the first time I rolled back in to the Supercharger.

Going up to NYC this coming weekend. Trying to find a hotel outside of NYC accommodating a charge has been a tad of a challenge... the one we've used previously (conveniently just outside the tunnel) has been rather uncooperative...

During my travels last week, I needed to travel from Coalinga to Atascadero. The in-car navigation took me down CA-41 for the last 3rd. This was one of the most fun routes of my entire trip. Whipping around the turns with a 55mph speed limit was a blast. I feel lucky that I happened upon it via nav. Is this a well-known fun driving route to Californians?

http://binged.it/13hACIr

Am having my first experience with the superchargers on 101 this weekend, between the Bay Area and Santa Barbara. Left the Palo Alto with a range charge that would have easily gotten us to Atascadero (especially considering the stiff tailwind), but after getting jammed up in traffic we were ready for a bio break in Gilroy, so topped up there. Stopped at Atascadero for another charge while we had dinner, and just for the experience decided to top off again in Buellton so we'd have no worries if the chargers at our hotel in Santa Barabara were occupied (they weren't). Gilroy: 3 of 4 chargers were in use when we arrived at 6:30 pm, and when we left at 7pm 2 cars were waiting. Atascadero: none of the 8 chargers in use when we arrived around 9pm, 1 more was in use when we left at 10pm. Buellton around 11pm: 1 other car charging. Based on this single experience, be prepared to wait for a charging spot in Gilroy, or consider skipping it heading south from the Bay Area. Heading north there is likely to be a headwind so skipping it may be more difficult.

Funniest part of trip so far: Just south of Salinas, a red 60's-vintage convertible pulled along side us on 101 and held up a large piece of paper with "GOT PIPES" written on it (a reference to our plates).

We just got back from our 10 day road trip last night so let me pick up where I left off which was our arrival in Carmel last Friday night. We stayed at The Sandpiper Inn, a B & B with excellent views of the bay. The Inn has one outdoor plug which we were able to use to top off. The manager got an orange cone out to save our parking spot for the 3 days that we were there. In addition we were able to use the Blink charger in downtown Carmel which is free (courtesy of Carmel). We charged there on Saturday while walked around and had lunch and then again on Sunday while we had dinner. Sunday morning we took a drive down Highway 1 as far as Big Sur. Great drive! I love the way the Model S handles on these kind of roads. Monday morning we left for the Bay area peninsula stopping off in Gilroy to charge again. There was only one other car charging. While on our way to our hotel in Burlingame our tire pressure warning came on advising us to contact Tesla service so we called the Menlo Park service center and made arrangements to stop by the next morning. That evening we had dinner in downtown San Mateo and charged at a Walgreens across the street from the restaurant. The next morning we stopped at Café Borrone (one of my favorite spots) for breakfast and a latte and then headed to the service center. They are located not far from the Stanford Mall which has some nice restaurants and shops. They drove us over to the mall and picked us up a couple of hours later. They charged our car while we were gone and we then had enough for a drive on Highway 84 up and over to the coast and a visit to Half Moon Bay. We came back on the 92 and decided to head back to the Stanford Mall because we knew they had J1772 chargers available. We had a nice dinner and got enough range to get us back to Gilroy on Wednesday morning. After charging at Gilroy we headed straight to Atascadero and charged again and then over to the coast on 41 and up Highway 1 to Cambria where we stayed for the next two nights. We stayed at the Cambria Landing Suites directly across from the ocean. We drove up the coast to see the Elephant seals the next day and also did a visit to Hearst Castle. With our trip south from Carmel to Big Sur and our trip up the coast as far as the Elephant seal viewing area there was about 60 miles of Highway between Morro Bay and Carmel that we did not get to explore, primarily because of my concern about lack of charging infrastructure along the way. There are certainly more challenges with a 60 than there would be with an 85. Yesterday we made the 300 mile trip back to Orange County stopping first in Atascadero around 8:30 a.m. (one other car charging) and then again in Buellton around 10:30 a.m. We stopped for lunch in Oxnard and really wished there was a supercharger there or in Ventura. Since there is not one there yet we had to plan a stop in Hawthorne in order to make it back. The traffic on the 405 and 105 to get to Hawthorne was pretty bad and we did not get to Hawthorne until 3 p.m. Much to our surprise there were 2 other carts waiting to charge. It turns out that one of the 4 superchargers was down. Another spot was occupied by a white Model S which apparently had been parked there all day and was still plugged in. The receptionist at the Tesla Design center had already put a note on the window politely reminding the owner that they should not leave their car there after it has finished charging. While we were waiting some other employees came out and it was discovered that it was someone who was there for a meeting. The fob was retrieved and the car moved. I expect someone is now very embarrassed. Since we were waiting we got to talk to some of the other people who were there. They included a brand new owner from Orange County who are waiting for their HPWC, a commuter from OC to LA who does not yet have a charger, and another owner from Manhattan Beach who was headed out of town. I have seen references to local owners using superchargers instead of their own home chargers and the only comment I will make is that superchargers should be for those on a road trip and should not be a substitute for your own home charger. We had two free J1172 chargers in Laguna Beach for a few years now that we used to use for our Leaf from time to time. Recently they became "paid" units at $3.00 an hour because local EV owners were using them all the time instead of buying a home charging unit. Enough said. I will get off my soapbox now.

We had a great road trip and look forward to another one this fall.

We are looking forward to this fun in Texas!

gg_got_a_tesla said:

- Morro Bay, CA: on the coast, a mere 17 miles from Atascadero. Nice beach town with some history and attractions such as the Morro Rock, the Peregrine Falcon preserve and so on.

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We just got back from a trip up to Cambria and moonstone beach. Wanted to drive through Morro Bay, but instead went through scenic Templeton wine country. Turley and Castoro (solar powered) are great. Might want to check out Oso Libre for their estate raised cattle burgers if you are so inclined. Navigating to the wineries was a sinch with Tesla Google Maps.