Our New Tesla

I'd hoped to post this yesterday, but missed that by a few hours. Packed up the luggage with my better half & I made ready for a 6 day - 1,157 mile vacation visiting friends & family. We starting in South Orange County, going North & stopping 5/8 the way up at Harris Ranch (steak dinner !!) for the night,



then on to the Bay area, then north to Sacramento, then south to San Jose (yes, I know the way) then south to Monterey Bay for a couple days. Then the long stretch, south through Santa Barbara and on home. Funny thing, it was in an OLD Tesla - VIN less than 000500. One of the original signature models turned in & now used just as a loner.

We picked up the new ride on December 23, but before entering the garage, a module/ecu controlling air suspension 'high' proximity (steep driveway ... you can mark roads that have speed bumps & such, the car will geo-fix that spot as a 'high' location) sensor didn't check in, so the time to raise timer limit timed out. Yellow light says 'service required'. Called the service center. Over the air they read the data logs & the above was what the logs said. That, & bring it back. So our trip was in a loner. Ok, no big deal ~ we get to spare the first 15+ hundred miles on the new ride. So, off we went.



COLD ! Temps in the 30's 40's with just 2 days into the 50's. The map (set only to show tesla formats) revealed tons of superchargers that pumped a quick 180-ish miles into the pack in about 1/2 hour - just enough time to make nature calls & grab a coffee & a snack (we found QC's were no more than 85 miles apart from each other throughout the coast & central valley, so we skipped many) plus plenty of high power wall chargers (20kW's) which we never needed.

Our visit to old town Sacramento? Drama. It was COLD AND DARK by the end of the day. Didn't bother charging before leaving because we'd planned to park at a hotel with a high power 20kW charger, but it was BLOCKED. Dropped off the group in old town so I could go charger hunting. Sacremento, yuck. Like down town LA or NY city. One way streets, construction everywhere, tons of gridlock. Chargepoint took me to 15 story parking structures that were blocked with self absorbed phev squatters, too important to move on & show mercy to folks in need. Then it took me to parking structures where it showed only 1/2 of the 8 to 12 EVSE's were in use. NOPE ~ more wasted driving, several government structures don't allow access. Gee, thanks for posting EVSE's you can't use.

Had to drive 30 miles north to a Nissan Dealer !! They were gracious enough to allow me to camp there for an hour, which was more than enough to get me back to my group, plus 180 miles to spare. Good thing I'd just purchased the handy dandy CHAdeMO charger/adapter.



But the charger chasing across Sacramento kissed off that whole part of the day. Smooth sailing after that. Headed for the coast for most of the rest of the trip, and it was WAY COOL at our isolated beach condo ... not just the temps. But on a new years holiday weekend, you get the whole beach to yourself. 120 degree view and we're not seeing another soul;



returned the loaner & picked up the new car 2 days ago. It's now got a whopping 60 miles on it - mostly going back & forth for rework. Hopefully this will last 'till they plant us 6' under ... or 20 years, which ever comes first.


90D, next gen greay leather heated/cooled seating, air suspension, silver paint, black headliner ~ 300 mile range, unlimited supercharging, enhanced autopilot II, blah blah blah. What with Christmas, & the better half being a 3 year cancer survivor - nothing like rolling 2 celebrations into one. Maybe when we sell the hybrid in a few years, the Prime will be up to 50 miles ev range & I can enter retirement with a new ride too. who knows!
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