The nap in Las Vegas did me a great deal of good, so when I saw that the first rest area at mile marker 270 on 15 South toward Barstow seemed crowded, I was confident that I could continue on to the rest area at mile marker 217 further west. Unfortunately, that rest area is closed for construction!  So, I took a deep breath and chose to make it to Barstow, CA.

I crossed into California at 12:07am. By the time I pulled in to the Barstow Supercharger two hours later, I was exhausted. I plugged in at 2:01am with odometer at 23,903 and 46 range was remaining with temp at 82 degrees. Once again, I set my alarm  (this time for 2 hours) and went to sleep. At 4am I awoke with 206 range and headed out to Tejon Ranch.

The drive to Lebec (Tejon Ranch) was along 58 W to 223 W to N Wheeler Ridge Road. I tried to do some drive by photography of the sunrise along the way. I thought that I could charge in Tejon Ranch and then head to the Buttonwillow, CA rest area on 5 N to really rest. Once again, I set up to charge and slept while charging. This took place from 6:40am with range at 96, odometer at 24,041 (just broke the 9,000 mile mark!) and temp of 80 degrees… until 7:45am with range at 206. When I first pulled in, a white Tesla was charging to the left of me.   When I awoke, a red Tesla was instead charging on my right. I did not speak to either gentleman since it was so early and I am really not much of a morning person, especially after an all nighter!

Instead of going via 5 N all the way to Harris Ranch, I decided to head north on 5 to 46 W (to Paso Robles) and then on 101 to Atascadero for supercharging at the bank. As I neared the Buttonwillow, CA rest area on 5 N, I gave up on the real rest and kept going.

My habit of driving under the speed limit and with long stopping distance between myself and the trucks in front of me really paid off. More than once on this stretch, CA Highway Patrol cars zipped past me to pull over the speed demons. Also, for the first time in my life, I witnessed the outer right rear tire fail on an eighteen wheeler which was driving in front of me.  The pieces went flying up into the air and scattered all over the roadway. I slowed down, avoided all of the debris and put on my hazard emergency lights in case anyone came up from behind. The truck was traveling in tandem with another truck so they both pulled over to deal with the blowout.

It felt nice to be back in California with the golden hillsides, green farms, grape vineyards, almond orchards, and especially the ubiquitous Live Oak trees. On the radio, a program from Bakersfield stated that 70% of California’s oil comes from Kern County. I had seen evidence of that earlier with huge fields of oil rigs pumping away.

I arrived in Atascadero, CA at 10:15am with odometer at 24,179 and 66 range with temp at 76 degrees. I charged to 184 range and took extra time to complete the previous blog post.  I left at 11:30am for Gilroy.  Frugal Tesla