Before going to the Supercharger in Bethesda, Maryland, I met up with some judo friends, including Jen from Canada who works at N.I.H. We headed to Cafe Deluxe on Wisconsin Avenue for an amazingly delicious burger since Wednesday is $5 burger night. The bartender, Andy was very gregarious and made sure our food was prepared to perfection.

After a good night sleep thanks to Maryland hospitality, I headed to the Bethesda supercharger in the parking structure near the Sears closest to Mall entrance #3.  I arrived at 9:21am with about 100 range remaining and odometer at 18,712 with temp of 76 degrees.  Tony was supercharging for the first time here in his scarlet red 85kw Tesla.  He has had the car for a while but they provide charging at work since he is employed at an electric company. So, he had never used a supercharger until today.  Tony explained to me that the Tesla uses more energy in the severe cold to heat up the car, so that is why regions with colder winters tend to have Superchargers located more closely together.  Then,  he and I chatted with a  gentleman named Samir who was curious about Teslas.

I noticed several other brand new Teslas parked near the chargers, so I asked Tony about them.  He said that there was a Tesla store in the mall, so I decided to go visit and tell them about my blog. There I met Jason (also a huge basketball fan) and Rob (who made sure that I had some Tesla items to pass on to others along my journey (key chains and stickers).  These Tesla employees were shocked and amazed to hear that I had traveled all the way from San Francisco in a 60kw Tesla on a solo drive WITHOUT the tech package to provide navigation and turn by turn directions… I only had to stop at one RV park along the way to bridge the gap between Las Vegas and Beaver, Utah.  This may be one for the record books!  After speaking with many interested patrons in the Tesla store, I returned to the car and researched my next leg of the journey.  Delaware or New Jersey? Frugal Tesla