Round Trip Cross Country Camping Road Trip

[wws]

The road trip begins!!

6500 Mile Furlough Inspired Road Trip

The first night at a KOA. Easy enough to connect to the site power with the 220 connection that came with the car (no adapter was needed). The electricity was less than $5.

I was the first Tesla or EV to stay at the site and not have an RV. They weren't sure what to charge, but I was happy with everything totaling ~$30.00

Be sure to add it to plugshare.

Most campgrounds seem to just charge the normal overnight rate for a "electric only" camp site. Reading plugshare reviews, and from personal experience, where folks seem to run into "negotiations" is when they only need to charge for a couple hours in the middle of the day.

 

[r1johnston]

EPIC!
NEMA14-50 right? I'm glad it worked out. Did you guys pitch some tents or slept in the car? what was the lodging situation? That's the barrier for me to do these trips, I'm a city boy who have never camped

So it's just me (wife is not that crazy), and I've turned the model 3 into a micro-RV.

Check out the postings:
- BLOG: 6500 Mile Furlough Inspired Road Trip
- Instagram: Login • Instagram

Picture is from today at Devils Tower

 

[r1johnston]

Be sure to add it to plugshare.

Most campgrounds seem to just charge the normal overnight rate for a "electric only" camp site. Reading plugshare reviews, and from personal experience, where folks seem to run into "negotiations" is when they only need to charge for a couple hours in the middle of the day.

Good suggestion. I am going summarize a lot of the learning from this trip. Even though I am doing something extreme, I think there are takeaways for more civil road trips

 

[PNWLeccy]

Good suggestion. I am going summarize a lot of the learning from this trip. Even though I am doing something extreme, I think there are takeaways for more civil road trips

I did the same thing from my recent week long trip. Spending that much time in the car gives you some time to really think about where things can be improved and what does and doesn’t work. Learnings/Feedback from completed Car Camping Roadrip

Look forward to following the rest of your trip!

 

[AxlxA]

So it's just me (wife is not that crazy), and I've turned the model 3 into a micro-RV.

Check out the postings:
- BLOG: 6500 Mile Furlough Inspired Road Trip
- Instagram: Login • Instagram

Picture is from today at Devils Tower

How did you do devil's tower? The only charging near there is the RV camp and they charge like $30?

 

[skygraff]

How did you do devil's tower? The only charging near there is the RV camp and they charge like $30?

Blog says he stayed at KOA so DT & Rushmore were day trips.

 

[r1johnston]

How did you do devil's tower? The only charging near there is the RV camp and they charge like $30?

I charged up at Spearfish I was staying at the KOA in Deadwood so it was on the way.

 

[r1johnston]

Blog says he stayed at KOA so DT & Rushmore were day trips.

yep day trips

 

[r1johnston]

BTW Mount Rushmore has charging stations!!

 

[skygraff]

BTW Mount Rushmore has charging stations!!View attachment 560532

Great to know! Those are either newer than 2 years or are hidden from view when lots are at normal loads.

 

[rsmphoto]

A resource I’ve found very helpful...... Allstays Camp & RV app in the Apple App Store (maybe android too?) Extremely thorough listing of campsites. From The most minor BLM wilderness sites to KOA. There’s two sites with power at Devils Tower for instance. Just a thought

 

[skygraff]

So it's just me (wife is not that crazy), and I've turned the model 3 into a micro-RV.

Check out the postings:
- BLOG: 6500 Mile Furlough Inspired Road Trip
- Instagram: Login • Instagram

Picture is from today at Devils Tower

Really enjoying your blog! Wish I'd had the gumption to do something similar but was, unsuccessfully, trying to get away from it all.

Is there any way to reverse the flow so readers don't have to scroll down for the last read then scroll back up to read the one before it (repeating as many times as necessary to catch up)? Tried to see if there was a view setting on my end.

 

[r1johnston]

Really enjoying your blog! Wish I'd had the gumption to do something similar but was, unsuccessfully, trying to get away from it all.

Is there any way to reverse the flow so readers don't have to scroll down for the last read then scroll back up to read the one before it (repeating as many times as necessary to catch up)? Tried to see if there was a view setting on my end.

Let me see about that scrolling thing. I don't like it either. I went with the default settings (out of laziness) but I should be able to figure it out.

 

[r1johnston]

A resource I’ve found very helpful...... Allstays Camp & RV app in the Apple App Store (maybe android too?) Extremely thorough listing of campsites. From The most minor BLM wilderness sites to KOA. There’s two sites with power at Devils Tower for instance. Just a thought

I am using: RV Parky and Campendium with the KOA. I will check Allstays for the way back, so far I haven't planned out the details after California.

 

[r1johnston]

Made it to Salt Lake City

 

[smatthew]

BTW Mount Rushmore has charging stations!!View attachment 560532

Sans gas. Is that some fancy font I haven't heard about? *tongue in cheek*

 

[r1johnston]

I visited the Fremont factory. No tours (thanks COVID)!!!

 

[r1johnston]

If you are ever on highway 5 through California. Stop in at the Kettleman City supercharger; it's a test concept station with coffee, snacks, and 40 charging bays.

 

[sullys]

@r1johnston: thanks so much for your blog and all the detail. We're planning a run from Southern California to Arlington VA and back, assuming we are ALLOWED to travel. We're hitting many of the same national parks as you did, and planning a faster fun home mostly along I-10. Your information is going to be really helpful. I bought an Exped Synmat HL LW wich first

Planning a similar road trip in July. Let me know how yours went.

Blogging the experience: 6500 Mile Furlough Inspired Road Trip

I really enjoyed your blog. We're planning a similar trip, the reverse of yours, from Southern California to Arlington VA and back. I wanted to purchase a small teardrop trailer (T@B 320 s) but chickened out because of range concerns and the fact that I've never towed anything in my life. We will probably do some nights in our 2020 Model X, and we've already bought the recommended mattress (Exped Synmat HL LW) which is amazingly comfortable. Your experiences will be very helpful to us as we go along. I also purchased the Cleanwaste system (tent, toilet and wag bags) so we can avoid public bathrooms and covid as much as possible. Not to mention the solar shower bag, which works so well.

 

[sullys]

Did you end up doing this trip? Wondering whether the 70/30 plan worked. We're doing the reverse of the trip, from LA to Virginia and back again, in September, as long as COVID doesn't get in the way.

Hi, friends—

My wife and I began doing a lot of research at the beginning of Covid-19 about taking a road trip with our M3 SR+. We thought it would be the perfect opportunity to do a round trip cross country road trip knowing that all we need is an internet/hotspot to keep up with work. We don’t have children yet, so we thought we wouldn’t have an opportunity like this again and both found out our offices are not opening back up until end of summer. With that in mind, and knowing that Natl Parks have started their reopening process, we made a route map based on superchargers and locations we want to visit/see!

It has been a little hard figuring out the the supercharging maps because the trip planner portion of the Tesla website doesn’t have M3 SR+ (Which stinks btw, they should definitely add that) so we based it off of MX SR+ because it’s the closest EPA range. At least, that was our thinking and logic behind using the MX option on the site. (Yes, we also have EVTO-TESLA Trip Optimizer, but truthfully I don’t love the interface and found it easier to work off of Tesla trip planner using the MX on my computer).

We purchased a Tesmat online so we can camp in the car on the nights we don’t stay at a hotel (we’ve broken it down so about 70% of our trip is camping, 30% is staying at hotels) and spent a night testing it out. — I could do an entire post on the Tesmat, the product is awesome. Depending on your size, you may consider it a tad thin if you are large, but we just bought like a 15 buck mattress topper and put it on over the Tesmat and it feels awesome. Shameless plug: if you are interested in camping in car you should get one: TESMAT use coupon code: TesmatReferralM3 (*I am not the creator or owner or anything, just highly endorse the product because it’s sweet and I like cool things).

Anyways, I know it’s been done once or twice on TMC, but I’ve never seen anyone talk about round trip. So I’ve created this post as a place I can update throughout the trip. I’m not a YouTuber or anything, so I wouldn’t record the trip (my wife would also kill me if I tried recording our whole trip), but I’m hoping I learn a few tips and tricks along the way to make it worth while for someone considering a round trip cross country camping road trip in the future. It will also be fun to use (mostly) just superchargers and test out new ones along different states. I believe we’re hitting roughly 21/22 states along the way.

Lastly, I am humbly asking for advice! I’m an east coast guy and have never taken the Tesla west of the Mississippi before. Any advice based on our map would be extremely welcomed! Thoughts, advice, prayers, whatever you got we’ll take re cross country camping trip. I have attached our planned trip below in a picture.

Hope to talk with you all soon—
Thanks!


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