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 16, the segment from Flagstaff, Arizona, to Anaheim, California.
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!
This is one of the few Superchargers west of the Mississippi River outside of California where there was aleady another Tesla charging when we arrived. Rarely along our entire drive east on I-70, southwest on the I-335 and I-35, and west on the I-40 have we ever found even a single Tesla at a Supercharger when we arrived, or even show up at all before we departed. We did not see any Tesla vehicles at all at more than 30 of the 37 Tesla Supercharging locations where we charged up. It seems the only places where there is a problem having to wait for a Tesla Supercharging spot is at those Superchargers that are located in heavily populated areas.
This is another location where it would be necessary to block a number of charging spaces if you are towing a trailer and don't want to unhitch. Any of the charging locations where the Tesla electrical equipment is after one end charging space and a curb is after the other end charging space, make it difficult to park with a trailer without unhitching to charge. But with so many of the Tesla charging locations having so few visits by Tesla vehicles on the interstates through sparcely populated areas across the nation, I don't see a problem charging with a trailer without unhitching. You can pull in across a number of Tesla charging spots and plug in without unhitching. Just make sure you stay with your vehicle in case another Tesla does pull in to charge and needs you to move.
Where the I-40 heads out from Kingman, Arizona, there is a mountain range to the west. The I-40 heads south around this mountain range before returning to head west and then northwest to Needles, California.
This is something important for all Electric Vehicle owners who charge in California to be aware of: When a parking spot is marked for EV Charging AND for Disabled Parking, the PRIMARY purpose of that parking spot is for EV Charging.
This is the official statement from California, which has not been codified into law as of this writing, but is proposed to be enacted as the legal code on this topic: ADVISORY: EVG-250.1 General. While there is no positive requirement to provide electric vehicle charging stations, when they are provided a portion of them should be accessible. When co-located with parking spaces, electric vehicle charging is considered the primary function of these stations, not parking. Accessible electric vehicle charging stations are not to be reserved exclusively for the use of persons with disabilities. They should not be identified with signage that would mistakenly indicate their use is only for vehicles with placards or license plates for individuals with disabilities.
It is hard to put into a few words on a sign, but the suggested rule is that Electric Vehicles are allowed to use this disabled spot to charge, even if they do not have a permit to park in Disabled Parking spaces, but they should use this spot only if all non-Disabled Parking charging spots are in use. Those with a Disabled Parking permit should only park in this spot to charge their EV. It does not appear that a Disabled Parking Permit allows non-EV vehicles to park in these spaces, even for disabled drivers.
The advisory specifically recommends that these spaces NOT be painted with the usual disabled indicators. A sign indicating the space is Disabled Accessible is OK, but not any sign indicating that it is exclusively for Disabled Parking.
I learned about this about a year ago when I went to a hotel that only had one Tesla HPWC and it was in a fully marked Disabled Only parking space. I asked the manager at the desk what the story was with this parking space. Whether true or not, he replied that in California, if you only have one EV charging space, it must be a Disabled Accessible. Thus, why they painted it as a Disabled Parking Space. However, he did say that any EV is allowed to use the space while charging, even without a Disabled Parking Permit. I think he was right about that, but I do believe this hotel violated the guidelines by painting it as a Disabled Only Parking Space. It should just have had a sign indicating it was Disabled Accessible.
Bottom line is that any Tesla may use this Disabled Accessible space to charge their car in Needles, California, but you should use the other Tesla Supercharger parking space first if it is available.
A Tesla towing a trailer could charge here without unhitching, but only by pulling in sideways into the Disabled Accessible charging space rather than backing into it.
We had a late breakfast / early lunch at the Wagon Wheel Restaurant right across the street from the Needles Tesla Superchargers. There is also a gift shop in the restaurant that features Historic Route 66 and other souvenirs. The menu was pretty extensive. The food and coffee were great!
We learned about the mass shooting tragedy in Orlando, Florida, on the radio while driving to Needles. Not many details were available yet when we parked our Tesla to charge in Needles. There was a table right under the television in the restaurant so we sat at that table to get more information as news was breaking about it minute by minute.
Wouldn't you know it but the moment we enter California we start getting slowed down by heavy traffic, even out in the middle of the California deserts! Above you can see some of the scenery of I-40 through the deserts of eastern California, as well as a few photos of the BNSF tracks that parallel some of I-40.
This Tesla Supercharger is right by a Chili's Restaurant. There is also a Subway sandwich shop and a Starbuck's nearby. There is also an Oggie's Restaurant nearby but it was under construction and not yet open. You can't see the Subway, Starbuck's, or Oggie's from where the Tesla Superchargers are located as they are all on the other side of the hotel, but they are all within easy walking distance of the chargers. We walked to the Starbuck's and purchased two Cold Brews. The Cold Brew is geat as it is pretty much just coffee on ice with 5 calories per serving. That is unlike the official Starbuck's Iced Coffee which has over 100 calories per serving.
At first I parked in a Supercharger spot paired with where another Tesla was charging. That caused us to charge at a slower rate. I moved over to a different charging spot not paired with a spot where another Tesla was charging at the moment and our charging rate went up significantly.
There is a huge number of Tesla Superchargers in Rancho Cucamonga, California. I don't think I've ever seen another Tesla Supercharging location with this many Superchargers. As you can see in the above photos, there are a lot of Tesla vehicles that use these superchargers. These are in the parking lot of a large shopping mall, Victoria Gardens, and it is located near 3 very busy highways in California: the I-15, the I-10, and the 210.
We had not originally planned to stop at the Tesla Supercharger in Rancho Cucamonga, but on the spur of the moment we decided to stop by The Twisted Vine wine bar before heading home. That would add about another 25 miles to our trip. There was enough charge on the battery to go to the wine bar and still reach our vacation house in Anaheim, California, but we did not want to arrive with almost no charge on the battery. So, we decided to stop by the Tesla Supercharger in Rancho Cucamonga just to top off the battery. Plus, it would give me a chance to take some photos of the Superchargers and see how many cars were using them. Very few Tesla vehicles were charging here the last time I visited this Supercharger. At that time it had me wondering why there are so many Superchargers here. Today I certainly saw why they need so many at this location!
I parked next to a black Tesla Model X. The driver of that Model X was just finished charging and leaving so I only had a chance to talk to him for a few minutes. He picked up his Model X about the same time we did in late March. He loved his Tesla Model X as much as we did, but was also having a few minor problems. Like us, he is confident that these minor problems will soon be resolved by Tesla.
We arrived at The Twisted Vine around 4:15 PM. This is one of our favorite hangouts whenever we are visiting our vacation house in Anaheim, California. They change their wine flights every week and we enjoyed a wine flight along with an early dinner.
I forgot to mark the time and charge remaining on the battery when we got to our vacation house in Anaheim, but I would estimate that we arrived at the house shortly before 6 PM with about 70 miles of charge remaining on the battery. I plugged the Model X into one of the two 80 amp Tesla HPWC's at our house. For the first time in 2 weeks I set the charge limit down from the maximum setting to the daily charge level. Though on the trip we rarely charged the battery to the maximum, I always had it set to the maximum charge level as I'd want the battery to charge as much as it could each time we were away from the vehicle.
I hope to post some closing thoughts about this entire trip soon. Check back after Tuesday evening, June 14, 2016, and hopefully I'll have some of my comments about this entire trip and the Tesla Model X posted at that time.
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.
