These reports and photos are of a road trip from Anaheim, California, to the 2nd Annual Midwest Tesla Gathering in St. Louis, Missouri. My wife and I are doing this trip in our new red 2016 Tesla Model X P90DL. This particular report is of Day 6, the segment from Salina, Kansas, to La Plata, Missouri.
Note: This report is a rough draft. I have not yet done a spell check or final edits. Since we are driving this road trip right now, devoting time to driving takes priority. As I get time at our stays along the way I'll make final edits and spelling corrections. But for now, please pardon any errors.
There are many more photos for this day of Tesla travel than could be included in the body of this report. To see ALL of the photos that were taken on this day, click here for the slide show!
Our plans were to depart Salina, Kansas, by 9 AM. Since we woke up a bit early, we decided to head out early. Thus, we managed to get on the road before 7 AM, over two hours earlier than planned.
This was a bit of a different layout for the Tesla Superchargers. I remembered it from the Tesla trip we made through here last year. There are two sets of chargers, one set close to the Arby's building and another set a bit further away in the same parking lot. In the above photos you can see our Tesla Model X is parked in the set a bit further away from the Arby's building. In the 4th above photo you can sort of see what I'm describing. That photo shows both sets of Tesla Superchargers. My red Model X is parked further away at the second set and the other set of Superchargers is in the foreground.
Despite the larger number of Superchargers and the lay out of being in 2 separate sets, you'd still have to block a number of charging spaces if you were towing a trailer and did not want to unhitch. Pulling into either set you'd have to park across a number of the charging spaces. There are curbs at the end of each set of chargers.
We arrived so early that the Arby's was not yet open. However there was another restaurant open across the street and the Home Depot across the parking lot was also open. In the above photos you can see there are a few nearby hotels.
The Tesla Superchargers are in the parking lot of a Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Independence, Missouri, which is located
in the suburbs just outside Kansas City. Not being into hunting or fishing, or even much into the Outdoor World, I had
never been inside a Bass Pro Shop until the Tesla trip I made out this way last year. The emulation of the wild with
animal scenes and waterfalls impressed me more than the items they had for sale. They have restrooms and a restaurant inside
this store. If you don't frequent Bass Pro Shops, it is worth a visit while waiting for your Tesla to charge. You can
easily kill a bit of time looking around in this store, or even stopping for a meal here.
There is a hotel not too far from this Tesla Supercharger parking lot, but other than the Bass Pro Shops and the hotel, there is nothing else within easy walking distance of this charging location.
When we made this same trip a year ago this Columbia Supercharger was not yet installed. We had to drive from Independence, Missouri, directly to our destination, the new Destination Charging Location at Depot Inn & Suites in La Plata, Missouri. This Destinatior Charging Location can be easily reached from both the Independence and the St. Charles Tesla Supercharging locations with a full charge on the battery. We decided to detour via the Tesla Supercharger in Columbia, Missouri, to take photos and see what the layout was like.
A few days ago when we drove from the Pacific Time Zone into the Mountain Time Zone, the clock in the Tesla changed time zones. But when we drove from the Mountain Time to the Central Time, the time in the Tesla did not change. Even after we turned off the car and turned it back on again, the time did not change. My wife did a search on the web and found a solution. It said to tap 3 times on the time display on the screen (or click your ruby shoes together twice), and it will fix the time. She tried tapping on the time display 3 times. At first nothing happened, but in just a moment, it changed to the correct time!
About half way up Highway 63 between the Tesla Supercharger in Columbia and the Destination Charging Location in La Plata, we stopped at Butner's Auto Spa at 2008 N. Missouri in Macon. They have both a brush and a touchless automated car wash plus several self-serve bays. We selected the touchless car wash. Many of the touchless car washes don't seem to do a good job, but this one was one of the best! I was skeptical, but it completely removed all the bug spots that we had accumulated on our huge Tesla Model X windshield from our 1800+ mile drive across the country. I'll definitely stop by this car wash anytime I'm in this area. It is right on Highway 63 so did not require any amount of detour from our drive.
It was almost exactly one year ago that the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony was held of this new Tesla Destination Charging Location at the Depot Inn & Suites in La Plata, Missouri, on Highway 63. Click below to view the video clip of that Ribbon Cutting by the local television station:
| May 27, 2015 - Depot Inn & Suites Destination Charging Ribbon Cutting KTVO Channel 3 TV News Coverage of the New Destination Charging Location at the Depot Inn & Suites hotel at 1245 N Brown St, La Plata, Missouri. Free to the Public. No hotel stay required... Read More>> |
As soon as we arrived at the Depot Inn & Suites, we parked in front and unloaded our suitcases and backpacks. We checked in and brought our luggage to our room. Then we drove over to the APRHF (American Passenger Rail Heritage Foundation) Silver Rails Gallery and unloaded the 15 banker boxes that were filled with railroad books, magazines, and other train memorabilia. Larry, a friend of ours, happened to be driving by and saw us unloading. He stopped by to say hello and offered to help us carry the boxes in. A couple of his Amish friends and workers were with him and they also offered to help. Since the Amish use no electric tools in their own shops or tractors on their farms, they tend to be pretty strong from all the manual labor they do every day. They had no problem helping us carry the boxes into the building!
After our 1800 miles drive, the interior of our car was empty and we were able to move the 2nd row of seats back into place.
In the under trunk compartment we still had one banker box which contained the materials we'd be bringing to the Midwest Tesla Gathering. The front trunk was also still full of our useful travel items such as our jackets, tire pump, windshield fluid and brushes, etc.
I drove the Model X around the back of the hotel and plugged into one of the two Tesla Destination Chargers. Each of these are on a dedicated 100 amp circuit and can provide up to 80 amps of charge, the most that any Tesla Destination Charger can do. While actually watching the charging screen in my car it seems to peak at 74 amps and charging at a rate of 26 miles per hour. My Model X does have dual-chargers, but I'm not sure how this affects the charge rate at High Power Wall Connectors (HPWC) like the ones here and at my house.
Around 1:30 PM we headed out for lunch at Ruby Tuesday in Kirksville. I thought Ruby Tuesday was at the south end of Kirksville, but it is actually closer to the north end of Kirksville. We drove about 10 or 15 minutes north on Route 63 at the speed limit, 70 MPH. After lunch we drove back for about the same time again at 70 MPH. As we were pulling into the parking lot of the hotel, my wife asked how much charge was left on the battery. When I looked down, I saw that there was only 9 miles of charge remaining on the battery! I guess I forgot that the Tesla does not charge up anywhere near as fast at a HPWC as at a Supercharger, and also didn't take into account the extra milage going to the north end rather than the south end of Kirksville. I should have put the Ruby Tuesday into the GPS as I'm sure it would have warned me to charge up more before going. But 9 miles of charge is better than zero, so we made it back to the hotel without a problem! That is definitely a record of how low I've ever let the battery charge go on either of our Tesla vehicles. Rarely do I ever not plan to make sure we'll have a big safety margin of charge wherever we go.
The above left photo shows the comfortable lobby and lounge of the Depot Inn & Suites. You are welcome to relax and unwind and have a free cup of coffee while waiting for your Tesla to charge. Also there is a restroom, free WiFi, a television, and a Tourist Information Center. On the right is a photo of our our vineyards, Silver Rails Vineyards that are located behind the hotel.
That is the end of the Tesla Travel Report for today! Tomorrow we will be traveling to St. Charles to spend the night before the Midwest Tesla Gathering.
There are many more photos for this day of Tesla travel than could be included in the body of this report. To see ALL of the photos that were taken on this day, click here for the slide show!
Note: This report is a rough draft. I have not yet done a spell check or final edits. Since we are driving this road trip right now, devoting time to driving takes priority. As I get time at our stays along the way I'll make final edits and spelling corrections. But for now, please pardon any errors.
