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Alabama owners?

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ajp, welcome to the forum and congratulations on your order. I'm stationed in Montgomery for the next year. I haven't seen any posts for an Alabama owners group but maybe we should start one. Always looking forward to meeting and hanging out with other owners. PM me if you have any questions or concerns about the purchase or delivery process. Again, welcome!
 
Am taking delivery of my Model S the end of March. Live in Madison Alabama. My wife and I were looking for a fun car to replace our BMW Z3. A Tesla definitely met and exceeded that requirement . We have warned friend not to test drive any Tesla unless you are prepared to buy one.
 
Careful! We are folks that like to travel and visit friends along the way. We might just show up at your door. Even though we live in Madison we go to Colorado about once a year. We went to the 2013 graduation at the Air Force Academy for our nephew and spent an afternoon in Denver with our niece. We usually travel in a Mercedes Sprinter on long trips so we can trailer our motorcycles or take bicycles depending on where we will be spending time. We are also Alabama fans but cheer for Auburn as long as they are not playing Alabama. Our nephew that graduated from the USAF Academy last spring has a sister going to Auburn Vet school this fall. We have many family members that have gone or are currently attending both of these great schools.

We are excited about getting our Models S but have not yet decided on taking it on very long trips. We have every expectation that it will be wonderful, but the Sprinter is really comfortable especially for trips lasting several weeks.
 
Interesting similarities. I looked at Sprinters for hauling dirtbikes but settled on an AWD mini-Sprinter (same engine):

ML320BT_Trailer_6.jpg
 
Madison, AL. Delivered 12/17/2013.
Would like to drive down to Barber Motorsports Museum sometime when/if I get confidence in a 230 mile round trip. Or the museum provides a place to charge while inside.
Spent this weekend at Barbers Motorsport Museum. You will be pleased to know there are two EV CHARGING STATIONS in the parking lot in front of the museum. I was told by the museum staff that SOUTHERN COMPANY has started putting charging stations in popular event locations in their territory. They are PLUGIN made by GE. Being a newbie to the Tesla world I made note of the location, but to this point have not charged my car anywhere except my garage. Have not been able to confirm this information on Southern Company web site but know for sure there are two at Barbers.

I was on my bike at Barbers for the BMW RIDERS ASSOCIATION NATIONAL RALLY but now I know if I go back in the car I can plug in.

You may know that Barbers has just been designated as the largest motorcycle museum in the world by Guinness. It also has the largest collection of LOTUS Race cars in the world. I highly recommend it as a place to go see for anyone in the Birmingham Alabama area.

Got to take my bike on a few laps around the track on this visit. Maybe one day the-TESLA!
 

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Yeah, looks like a regular J1772, just a little weird on the plastic casing -- it's not a Yazaki or Deplhi plug, but a plain old J1772 nonetheless. And this does indeed look like GE's older Wattstation model, although I note that the LED bar at the top is not lit up, so it might not have power yet.

I've added it to Plugshare here:

Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum | Leeds, AL | Electric Car Charging Station | PlugShare
(Rocketcity I stole your picture for the listing)

Someone should stop by for another look and a test :)
 
Got bold Saturday. Drove the other car to work Friday. Found a motorcycle part I needed online 4 miles from a friend from high school in Bessemer. Used the iPhone app to put a full charge in the Model S thinking I would drive down Friday night. Pleased to see 6 months after the previous full charge it took 267 miles. Wasn't able to make the trip Friday night so I charged again to full and had 262 miles when I started out Saturday morning.

Drove 60 MPH on I-65 due to range concerns. Total trip was 247 miles and had just under 40 miles remaining when I arrived home. Checked later that night when getting stuff out of the car and setting charge back to my normal ~205 miles and 25A rate (why bother using the full 40A?) and noted the remaining range was down to 30 miles.

Anyway, am proud to have made it with no problems. Would really like to see a Supercharger in Birmingham but through 2015 only Montgomery is on Tesla's map. Birmingham is essential for Atlanta-Memphis. For midwesterners to get to Florida. Nashville is on the map. Add Decatur/Athens and Birmingham to connect Montgomery to the rest of the world.

For emergencies I found the city of Hoover has an RV park at their coliseum with 50A. Also Nissan dealer in Hoover, Cullman, and Decatur. Didn't contact any of them, didn't need to.

Seems a natural place to locate EVSEs would be at rest stops on interstate. Not really a good place to stop any length of time for lack of food (vending machines don't count as food). If government wants to support EV then rest stops would be the place to do it. Alabama rest stops are well known for having RV dumps. I always stop at the first Alabama rest stop on the way home when towing my toy hauler. Often have to wait in line behind 2 or 3 others just to dump my tanks.
 
I have learned to not trust the Tesla Map at all. If you look at it, Chattanooga is not a dot on the map until 2015 but the airport says there will be a Tesla SuperCharger there by August this year. The permit has already been approved and when I drove over there yesterday the utility company (EPB) already has the lines painted in on the access road and the parking lot. Maybe they were trying to sneak one in on us??? Soon you will at least have a north/east bound SC within driving distance of Madison!
 
Charged at Barber's today. It is a J1772. Must go inside to pay $5 flat fee one hour or all day. When you plug in it says the machine is charging but it is not charging unless you pay. It was a 220 but it had low amperage and a low charge rate. Charged at about 19 miles per hour. It was fine for me because This is such a wonderful place to visit so I am never in a hurry. My car is the only car I have ever seen using the chargers. The chargers are owned and operated by Alabama Power.