Last week I went to a conference in Cincinnati. I utilized the Supercharger network where I charged in Effingham, IL; Indianapolis, IN; and Cincinnati, OH. I have visited Effingham and Indianapolis on prior trips. The Cincinnati Supercharger Location was under construction when I was last through.

This trip was my first opportunity to use the facilities there. I have been reading about this location for the better part of a year. On the Tesla Motors Club (TMC) forum people kept a close watch on the development of this site. Tesla put a lot into this location. They developed on the grounds of a former Jaguar dealership a store, service center and Supercharger. This Supercharger location, unlike others, is isolated with no amenities nearby. Tesla made provision for this by including in the store a 24 hour Lounge for those utilizing the Supercharger.

I pulled in on Wednesday the 30th of March about 6:00 PM. I parked the car and plugged in needing about a ten minute charge to get me safely to the conference site with enough juice to get back the Supercharger for a more complete charge.

I went inside the store and was met by Bradley. He asked if this was my first trip and asked if there was anything he could do for me. I asked where a restroom was and he quickly showed me it’s location. He also offered to show me around when I was through.  When I finished up I went back out into the store and Bradley was finishing a phone call. I wandered around looking at Tesla Swag for sale. Bradley quickly got to me and led me around the Lounge, giving me the daily code to get access to the lounge after hours.

This took about 10 minutes so I went out to the car, unplugged and headed to my conference. I planned to go back to get a full charge later that night so I figured I would check out the amenities of the lounge then. I will describe my impressions of that visit in my next post.

Until then Peace,

Father Bill

Sorry it has been so long since the last post, life has a way of getting busy between my Parishes, Marquette Catholic High School, where I am Chaplain, and my own personal pursuits.

As promised here is the next part of my trip to Florida. As I mentioned in the last post, due to some poor planning on my part, I was not going to be able to overnight in Tifton, GA. So having decided to make the journey in one night(day… ok 21 hours) I set off for the Supercharger(SC) in Knoxville, TN. The drive there was easy and I made it still feeling fairly good. This was the first place that I ran into a fellow MS driver. He was on his way North, I on the way South. We had a nice conversation before he went to a hotel and I went off in search of 5 Hour Energy at the Wal-Mart. Not only did I find 5 Hour Energy but the extra strength variety (Vile stuff, but it works)! After about an hour at the SC I hit the road for Atlanta. I did try to nap a little bit but did not have any luck. It was about 2:30 AM when I unplugged and got on the road for the Atlanta SC.

I have a tradition of listening to Bruce Catton’s “The Civil War” whenever I head South of the Mason-Dixon line. I try to time it so that when I am going through Chattanooga, the site of the Battle of Chickamauga, the book is narrating the events of that battle. I just so happened to time it just right on this trip. I was quite surprised and pleased. It really helped me get through those early morning hours as my energy waned. I pulled into Atlanta about 5 AM, as I got more tired my average speed dropped as I knew my reaction time was not quite its best. The Atlanta SC is in a very large parking garage that is a bit of a labyrinth. Thankfully where my Tesla Nav left off I had Plugshare which gave me an approximate location.  I plugged in and desperately tried to catch a nap. With a little shuteye and another 5 Hour Energy I hit the road. It was nearly 6:30 AM and I knew I had to get out of the Atlanta Downtown before it’s notorious traffic trapped me. I slipped out Atlanta and was on my way for the Tifton SC. Once I got outside of the metro area I put the cruise on 65 mph and began the long drive into the dawn. From here on out as the sun came out I started to get my second wind. I kicked the cruise control up to 70 mph and about 9 AM I pulled into the Tifton SC. This SC had a Starbucks, Olive Garden and a couple of Gas Stations with decent amenities. I got myself a little caffeine, a bottle of water and a protein shake. I also took a nice long walk just to shake off a bit of the rust from almost 16 hours in the car. The MS had enough charge after about 45 minutes to make it to the Lake City, FL SC.

The drive to Lake City was fairly easy, the closer I get  to Florida the better I felt. the Lake City SC does not have much to commend it. It is set at the back of a strip mall with untidy dumpsters in clear view. I did need to empty the garbage I had been but apart from that convenience did not see much that made this stop appealing. I caught a little more shuteye, surfed the internet and by 1:15 PM or so I had enough charge to make it to the Orlando SC. Again this was a fairly easy drive as the closer I got to my destination the better I felt. It took a couple of hours and I pulled into the Turkey Lake Service Plaza (the Orlando SC is on  the Florida Turnpike) and intended to get a 100% charge so I wouldn’t have to charge during my time in Orlando. The Turkey Lake Service Plaza is really a good SC stop. There is plenty of room to take a stroll, a couple of shops to pick up drinks and snacks, 3 restaurants. I picked up some milk (8 grams of protein per 8oz. serving) and settled in for an hour and a half. Debi (my MS) got to about 99% and I figured that would be enough for my time in Orlando. I finished charging around 4:30 PM and then headed off to the resort. I spent a little over 21 hours in the car driving a little more than 5 hours and change charging. By far this was the longest drive to Orlando that I had undertaken. I so look forward to the I-24 Corridor out of Saint Louis to Nashville to get built out. It would take at least 4 hours out of that drive.

If I ever choose to take the route again that I used this time  I will overnight in Knoxville, lesson learned.

Well that is the completion of my Journey from Brighton, IL to Orlando, FL.

So I hopped into the Car and jetted off to the Indianapolis Supercharger. The trip was again slowed down by construction eastbound. Once past the construction zone I was up to the speed limit and via the trip Energy Meter was well within the range needed to get to Indy. I generally on this trip tried to keep the reserve at around 10 percent. I must have had a tail wind because rather than declining throughout this leg of the trip the reserve predicted at the end was going up, sometimes even to 14%.

I made it to Indianapolis and I knew I would be there for about and hour to get me to the Lexington, KY SC. I got out, stretched and headed into the hotel for a rest stop. There was a gas station next to the hotel, but having stopped in there before I decided it had nothing to interest me. I had also packed provisions for most of the journey so after about 20-25 minutes I got back into Debi (my MS is the first car I have ever named). I figured I would put my final destination for the first leg of the trip into the trip planner and see what Debi had in store for me. When the Nav finished crunching the numbers it had me getting to my overnight point at 8:47 AM. Needless to say I was very unhappy and surprised with this. I double checked with EV Trip Planner and came to the reluctant realization that I was not going to overnight in Tifton, GA. I called the hotel to cancel my reservation so I could get someplace closer. They of course had a midnight cancellation policy, so there went $110 wasted.

Here, though I had initially decided against it, I resolved that I would drive straight through to WDW. Having done the trip to Florida a number of times, I thought one more time would not affect me much. I got a 95% charge at Indy and was off again. I got to the Lexington, KY SC and knew I would again charge to 95% to get to Knoxville, TN. There is a Meijer’s store there so I went hunting for something to eat and possibly drink. I also took a rest stop. I probably was there for about 30 Min. I spent about 10 minutes of this searching Meijers’s for 5 Hour Energy, which they did not have. On a different note when I pulled into the SC I plugged into the 1A Charging Station. I got a red charge port ring. I was not too distressed and just moved the car to 3A where it charged successfully. I called Tesla and let them know, they said thanks and would have someone out to check on it the next day.

So off to Knoxville at around 10:30 PM EDT… Part 3:(Knoxville, KY to Orlando, FL)