[Caevlist] Model Y Road Trip

[Alan Batie]

I took my first real road trip in the Model Y this weekend - going to 
Stanfield, OR for a belated Christmas trip to my parents.  With the Y, I 
can make the trip with only one charging stop in The Dalles, which is 
what I'd planned, and the nav system agreed.  Surprisingly, for the 
return trip, it also picked The Dalles, when I had planned on Woodburn. 
I went with The Dalles though, curious to see if it was any less busy 
(there are 5 stations at The Dalles Supercharger - 4 were busy and the 
5th was blocked with snow).  Fortunately, by the time I'd gotten a 
burger at Cousins Restaurant next door, several had freed up.

I'd had a NEMA 14-50 (50A 240V) outlet installed at my parents, and 
plugged in there when I arrived.  It almost didn't work, as the plug 
adapter for the Tesla portable charger is a right angle connector, and 
the weatherproof box for the outlet stick out enough, it almost won't 
plug in.  Fortunately, it was just able to work though.  At 7.5kW 
charging, it took about 9 hrs to charge up.

On the way back, when I stopped at The Dalles, enough of the snow had 
melted that all 5 stations were useable...and in use.  It's a very 
popular stop, but again, by the time I'd gotten a milkshake next door, 
several had freed up and I was able to charge.  I was the last one 
leaving, but as I pulled out, yet another one pulled in.  Reports are 
that another one is going in at Hood River, and it is sorely needed. 
Food at Cousins is pretty good at least.

Thanks to headwinds in the gorge, for the very first time in the 10 
years I've been driving EVs capable to some extent of road trips, I 
managed to arrive home with the battery low enough that the car was 
limiting my power (acceleration rather than speed) - got home with 2% (6 
miles) remaining.  I could have stopped in Woodburn for a few minutes to 
get some headroom, but I had the buffer to make it, and did - mostly out 
of stubborness ;-) - I wanted to make the trip with only one stop for 
charging.  Given that there's not a supercharger actually in the eastern 
half of Portland (which is where I'd rather charge up), in the future, 
if I have the headwinds again, I'll just do the brief stop in Woodburn.

It is nice to be able to do real road trips in an EV now though.

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