I am finally on the road again! It is really quite amazing how great it feels to be driving long distance again. It is also fun to be a sports fan in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Giants won the first game of the World Series in Kansas City last night. And, I was having a blast last night cheering for the Golden State Warriors at the preseason game versus the Clippers. I left the game a little early at about 10pm to take BART to the Fruitvale Station where I had parked the Chocolate Car, my 60kw Tesla. I listened to the rest of the game on the radio with the Warriors winning.

I headed out to the Vacaville Supercharger at 10:15pm with 28,309 on the odometer, temp at 66 degrees, and with 123 miles of rated range remaining. The Tesla map indicates the distance to the supercharger at 43 miles… but that is as the crow flies. The actual distance was 56 miles and I used 57 miles of range to get there at 65mph most of the way. I arrived in Vacaville at 11:15pm with 66 range remaining, odometer at 28,365 and temp at 61 degrees. One white Tesla finished charging as I was backing in to charge. I left at 11:40pm with 147 range to drive to the Roseville supercharger off of Hwy 80 East. Tesla map says it is 47 miles away.

I arrived at 12:30am via the Atlantic Street exit 105 to the Westfield Mall. The actual distance was 51 miles and I used 55 range. I had driven there with the seat heater on. The outside temp was 54 degrees, odometer at 28,416, and 91 range was remaining. No one else was around and I charged up to 194 range and left at 1:15am. I drove to the Gold Run rest area at mile marker 143 arriving at 2am. The elevation there is about 3,000 ft so it is a good step for altitude acclimation. Odometer at 28,456 and range of 129 remaining and temp down to 46 degrees.

I slept until about 8:30am and headed to the Donner Summit rest area at mile marker 177. There, I would use the restroom, take my morning vitamins, and have an enjoyable conversation with a Croatian trucker who was very proud that Nicola Tesla was from his country. We talked about how often genius is not recognized until after the person is gone. At the summit, I had 64 range, odometer at 28,489 at 41 degrees and it was 9:11am.

Throughout my evening and morning drive, the alert screens along the roadside said “One text or call could wreck it all”. These are words I hope all drivers hear well! The drive through Tahoe National Forest, with the conifers intermingled with golden leafed aspens (the birch trees of the West) brought back fond memories of my July trip through Colorado. The crisp, cool mountain air added to the effect. To top it all off, I was thrilled to see a long freight train winding along the mountainside as a beautiful hawk soared in the morning sky. Indeed, it is another amazing day and an opportunity to give thanks to God for all of these blessings in our lives!

I arrived in Truckee and plugged into the Supercharger behind the Safeway at 9:38am. A gray Tesla arrived an hour later as I was typing this blog post. (It is Wendy from Cupertino who is truly a roadwarrior for work. This trip she is going to Reno.)  I had 63 range, odometer at 28,498 and temp at 43 degrees. After charging to 208 miles until 11:10am I will head down 89 S to South Lake Tahoe to join my buddy Allen for lunch. I hear that there is free charging at Harrahs valet 1st floor via Chargepoint, so if I need to top up it can be there or at Harveys 3rd floor self parking. Thursday I will be back in the San Francisco area to celebrate with Elaine on her birthday.  I will post details next week.  Be well blog friends! Frugal Tesla