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Chicago to Arizona via Supercharger

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Just arrived in Phoenix. Moved my family from Chicago. My wife in her Honda Pilot and me in my Model S. If anyone is interested, I am happy to post my experience with the supercharger network and my path...along with recent pictures.
 
Just arrived in Phoenix. Moved my family from Chicago. My wife in her Honda Pilot and me in my Model S. If anyone is interested, I am happy to post my experience with the supercharger network and my path...along with recent pictures.
I'm interested in the route you took from Chicago to Phoenix. We want to go to St Louis in October, but want to avoid going through Colorado if possible. I am aware of new Superchargers being installed along I-70 through Kansas. Did you stop at RV parks or hotels? How long did the trip take in total?
 
Just arrived in Phoenix. Moved my family from Chicago. My wife in her Honda Pilot and me in my Model S. If anyone is interested, I am happy to post my experience with the supercharger network and my path...along with recent pictures.
Hope the move in and adjustment goes smoothly.

Interested to hear about the trip. Here are the SCs.

Superchargers

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Started out on Thursday from Western Springs. I usually charge to 220miles of rated range on a daily basis but for the roadtrip I did a range charge to 260miles RR.

Planned to leave at 6am but with 4 kids, a dog, a cat, a gecko and life's basic necessities packed up in the Model S and my wife's Honda Pilot, we ended up starting at 7:40...and very shortly hit Chicago rush hour traffic and construction. We drove north on I294 to 290W to Rockford. I skipped the Rockford SC so I did not see it. I was also able to skip the Madison SC. So the first stop was Mauston, WI.

I arrived with about 25 miles of RR left. Not much range anxiety...drove anywhere between 70-90mph the whole time. Note to self: do not take the SC route and move across the country the same week as the Sturgis motorcycle rally!
 

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Mauston Supercharger

The Mauston SC is fairly easy to locate. It is located in the back corner of the Culver's parking lot. We were able to grab a burger, sit at the outdoor tables with the dog, and let the cat out of the bag (no pun intended.). Of course, 2 of the kids wanted McDs instead, which was right in walking distance.
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There was a green MS already there when we arrived, and another grey one arrived as we were leaving.
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Nothing else really around except an overgrown field in back and a gift store of some sort called Red Geranium to the side. I found that the Mauston SC was probably the slowest as far as charging.
 

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I was feeling good from using my first SC so I decided to skip the La Crosse SC and went straight to Albert Lea. Again I drove anywhere between 65-85mph with occasional speed bursts (can't resist once in a while) and got to the SC with just a few electrons to spare.


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I'm sure it was because I had depleted the battery much more, but this SC definitely charged faster than Mauston. I did find in my experience with SC's that the closer you are to Zero, the faster you charge. Having 2 Teslas on the same group (A vs B) slowed charging. And the closer you are to a full charge, the slower the charge. These have all been discussed elsewhere.
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Not much happening at this SC. Small town. SC is located in the corner (front corner closest to the road) of a
AmericInn Lodge and Suites. I never went in but my friends in the grey MS from the Mauston charger went in to use the restrooms at the inn.
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We got a couple of soft serve cones from McDs which is located right behind the SC and used their restrooms. Funny story here...there was a lady who appeared to be in her 70s with her elderly mother who was probably in her 90s sitting in a minivan in the parking lot of McDs eating their burgers. As I walked by them, she shouted out, "that's a beautiful car you have there! It's all electric right? I've seen about 4 or 5 of those come through town recently. That's the future!" Wise woman.

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Not much else going on here. There's a Hyvee and a Hyvee gas station (I had to ask the wife what that was).

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The next stop was Worthington, MN. The SC is located in the parking lot of a Ground Round Grill and Bar. We had dinner there while recharging. Actually the food was pretty good. I remember this place from when I was kid because of the peanut shells on the floor--no shells these days. I was hungry and didn't really get many pictures. But nothing special. SC charged pretty fast and it was located in a pretty busy part of town.
 
Next stop, Mitchell, SD. The sun had set by the time we arrived at the Mitchell SC. Got here with 89 RR left so no worries.
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It's located in the parking lot of a Goodwill store (or something like it) and faces a Dairy Queen which is next door--you can see it in the last picture.
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I wanted to stay in a hotel/motel overnight because it was already 10p. Unfortunately, nobody had vacancies due to Sturgis. So we continued on and stayed overnight in Oacoma which was about an hour up the road. Long day indeed.
 

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I left the MS unplugged overnight in the motel parking lot as there were not many options...or correction, no options for power. In any case, after charging at the Mitchell SC, I had more than enough juice to get to the next SC in Murdo. Although, I have to admit that I did have this irrational fear the next morning, if only for a moment, that I would turn on the car and somehow all the charge would have dissipated...thank goodness this was only irrational. The Murdo SC is located in the front parking lot of the Range Country Lodging.
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The coffee machine in the lobby. They let us have free coffee and let us use the restroom--very kind.
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The superchargers were empty.
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SC located towards the street. Lotta bugs on that MS!
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View towards SC from lodge
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View down the street towards Best Western and town. Prairie Pizza was next door in the other direction (only open for dinner).
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Nice picnic bench and play set for kids to let loose
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Lobby of the Range Country (PETA members stay away)
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View of Range Country Lodging from the SC
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SCs ICEd!! By my wife....don't worry, I yelled at her!
 
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Keep this going.
I live near you (Burr Ridge) and am thinking of driving to see my parents in LA next year; your thoughts will will help a lot!

The reason I'm posting is because I dug through the forums prior to my trip for others thoughts and pictures prior to my roadtrip and could not really find a comprehensive thread about a cross country trip (other than the two about the coast to coast trips but as good as they were, I wanted more detail). Hoping my experience helps others! I did this trip because I had to do it to get from point A to point B...but I would do it again, because it was so enjoyable! My 13yo son was riding shotgun for the entirety of the trip while my wife and other kids followed in the Honda Pilot. I grew up as a kid that was driven through most of the country and I think the family roadtrip is a lost art--the MS made it fun again.

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From Murdo to Rapid City you are going to see many, many signs for Wall Drugs. Do yourself a favor and resist the temptation. Unless you enjoy a huge overcrowded gift shop where your kids will want to buy everything in site.

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Front of Wall Drug which is really a series of connected gift shops.
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The Badlands are also here. Really starts to get scenic at this point. We didn't stop at the Badlands because it would have basically added 1-2hours to our trip and there was other things we wanted to get to.
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Inside the "atrium" of Wall Drugs.
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More evidence that it was Sturgis rally time.
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Another view of Wall Drug. AKA Tourist Trap
 
Encountered a little rain on the way to Rapid City. The SC is located in the far end of the parking lot of Rushmore Mall. There are many dining options (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc) as well as the mall food court. The mall food court has a Fuddruckers as well as many generic copies of popular mall food places (a Sbarro's copy, a Panda Express copy, a Taco Bell copy...you get the idea.). Rapid City is about 30-45mins from Mount Rushmore...can't come this far and not see it. This is the first time that you really start to see mountains and start to encounter dramatic elevations. Up to this point it was rolling hills and gradual changes and didn't really affect range much in my opinion.
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Mountains in the distance.