So, yesterday I was making my journey back to my home in NC from NJ. All was well, ended up arriving at the Burlington, NC supercharger around 9:30PM. Charged there for about 30 minutes to get enough to get home plus a pretty decent buffer (~50 miles since there was a storm in between), like normal, for the last leg of the trip.
I set the GPS even though I know where I'm going (~125 miles) and the GPS was giving me some ridiculous route using all crazy back roads and adding 45 minutes to the route. I just assumed it was crazy and turned it off. Not the first time it would have given me some off-the-wall directions. I usually just use it as a progress meter anyway.
Well... I should have listened to it. 5 miles down the interstate, dead stop. Check the map (had traffic overlay off for some reason)... red for miles, then nothing/no data for miles meaning the highway was closed ahead. Checked Waze, confirmed there was a major accident ~6 miles ahead. Entire westbound side of the highway shutdown. Nearest exit? About 4 miles west. Checked satellite view for any turnarounds or other escapes. Nope. Concrete barrier all the way to the next exit. "F***." Looks like I should have listened to the GPS and saved several hours. Next time I'll take the nav more seriously...
Creeping along for hours. Was 85F outside (hot night for this time of year IMO), so I was running the A/C the whole time at about 70F. The exit was no saving grace either, since the 1-lane road detour was also backed up for miles as the 4-lanes of interstate tried to funnel into it.
So, in the hours I spent creeping along I had several ICE vehicles in front or around me die and block the road even more. Why? Out of gas from all of the idling and creeping with no where to go. Me? I used some power while creeping along running the A/C.......... a whopping 2%/5 miles more than I would have had there been no 3+ hour traffic jam. Even with the A/C running I made no appreciable dent in range, yet over a dozen ICE vehicles had run out of gas. At first I thought people were just stopping to rest, until people were getting out to push their cars out of the way after they had died, plus as I pass I usually asked if they were OK and usually got a brief explanation. Several others had overheated from the hours of idling in the car-packed area, presumably with inadequate cooling as evident by plumes of steam from the front of the cars.
Then, when I finally got off of the exit there was a relatively large gas station (30+ pumps) just at the end of the ramp on the right. Turns out a big holdup to getting going off this ramp was a blockage from a line of dozens of ICE vehicles trying to get into this gas station for a fill. Every pump stall was in use, with a line of cars waiting all the way back to the highway off-ramp! ICE folks frantically trying to recover the gobs of fuel wasted over the past few hours. Still no where to go really, so, had to wait a bit to get past that, then as soon as possible I turned off in the direction opposite to where everyone else was going (didn't care where it went) and got moving again.
Used my 17" map to come up with my own traffic-free detour (the one everyone was taking was backed up for at least another 90 minutes and included several additional accidents according to Waze). Found a decent route that added about 15 miles to my original route. No biggie. Got back on track within ~20 minutes and drove the remaining 2 hours home.
So, long story short... I'm glad I drive a Model S. I was chuckling a little at the unfortunate ICE vehicles that ran out of fuel with no where to go or do except be stuck while I had used virtually no fuel for the entire jam up.
And I thought I was supposed to be the one with range anxiety? :wink:
I set the GPS even though I know where I'm going (~125 miles) and the GPS was giving me some ridiculous route using all crazy back roads and adding 45 minutes to the route. I just assumed it was crazy and turned it off. Not the first time it would have given me some off-the-wall directions. I usually just use it as a progress meter anyway.
Well... I should have listened to it. 5 miles down the interstate, dead stop. Check the map (had traffic overlay off for some reason)... red for miles, then nothing/no data for miles meaning the highway was closed ahead. Checked Waze, confirmed there was a major accident ~6 miles ahead. Entire westbound side of the highway shutdown. Nearest exit? About 4 miles west. Checked satellite view for any turnarounds or other escapes. Nope. Concrete barrier all the way to the next exit. "F***." Looks like I should have listened to the GPS and saved several hours. Next time I'll take the nav more seriously...
Creeping along for hours. Was 85F outside (hot night for this time of year IMO), so I was running the A/C the whole time at about 70F. The exit was no saving grace either, since the 1-lane road detour was also backed up for miles as the 4-lanes of interstate tried to funnel into it.
So, in the hours I spent creeping along I had several ICE vehicles in front or around me die and block the road even more. Why? Out of gas from all of the idling and creeping with no where to go. Me? I used some power while creeping along running the A/C.......... a whopping 2%/5 miles more than I would have had there been no 3+ hour traffic jam. Even with the A/C running I made no appreciable dent in range, yet over a dozen ICE vehicles had run out of gas. At first I thought people were just stopping to rest, until people were getting out to push their cars out of the way after they had died, plus as I pass I usually asked if they were OK and usually got a brief explanation. Several others had overheated from the hours of idling in the car-packed area, presumably with inadequate cooling as evident by plumes of steam from the front of the cars.
Then, when I finally got off of the exit there was a relatively large gas station (30+ pumps) just at the end of the ramp on the right. Turns out a big holdup to getting going off this ramp was a blockage from a line of dozens of ICE vehicles trying to get into this gas station for a fill. Every pump stall was in use, with a line of cars waiting all the way back to the highway off-ramp! ICE folks frantically trying to recover the gobs of fuel wasted over the past few hours. Still no where to go really, so, had to wait a bit to get past that, then as soon as possible I turned off in the direction opposite to where everyone else was going (didn't care where it went) and got moving again.
Used my 17" map to come up with my own traffic-free detour (the one everyone was taking was backed up for at least another 90 minutes and included several additional accidents according to Waze). Found a decent route that added about 15 miles to my original route. No biggie. Got back on track within ~20 minutes and drove the remaining 2 hours home.
So, long story short... I'm glad I drive a Model S. I was chuckling a little at the unfortunate ICE vehicles that ran out of fuel with no where to go or do except be stuck while I had used virtually no fuel for the entire jam up.
And I thought I was supposed to be the one with range anxiety? :wink:
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... Few pickup trucks and the rest random cars. Some old, some new. No real pattern. Just no big rigs, hybrids, or EVs in the stranded bunch.
