# 2250 road trip, SoCal to Denver & back



## RocketRay (Jun 6, 2018)

We departed for Denver early December 26. Kept it mostly to the speed limit for efficiency reasons. We got to the south Las Vegas charger with about 50 miles left and found one charger broken and a line four deep. Drove to Henderson and charged there instead. Took us 20 minutes out of our way, but a known 20 minute delay is better than who knows how long waiting for five superchargers to become free.

We charged to full at the Comfort Inn in Richfield, UT, then left the next morning in a bit of a snowstorm. For about 30 minutes we drove in the dark behind an SUV kicking up enough snow that I couldn't see anything ahead of him. Charging was uneventful until we got to Silverthorne when we encountered two broken chargers and a Model S waiting for a spot. Talked to the driver, she said they'd been waiting about 40 minutes as there were four in front of them when they got there. Fortunately we only waited 10 minutes and we only needed about 30 miles to make it to our hotel, the Hampton Inn Denver Tech Center South. Hotel was nice, had two destination chargers, both for me.

We charged at the hotel for about an hour then went to my cousin's house. They call it the Big Big House. Oh. My. God. It's a fscking mansion. It was originally built for Carmelo Anthony but he never moved in and they scooped it up. Of course, it has a basketball court. Must be nice to be an Internet millionaire!

Weather was cold and the battery got cold soaked. But we weren't driving around much so, other than the severely reduced regen braking, car was otherwise normal.

Oh yeah, weird incident that morning. On the way to the Big Big House we got it washed, then a bit later stopped at a super market for some stuff. Back in the car, the fan was making a noise, like something was hitting the blades as they spun. It went away after about ten minutes. I figure it was a some water that froze from the car wash, then a piece of ice somehow got lodged in the fan.

For the return we charged to full once again, but the temps were much higher (26F in the morning instead of 9F) so regen braking was back after we got down to about 265 miles SoC. At Glenwood Springs we found one of the chargers ICEd by a Honda. The hotel said they couldn't do anything about it and conjectured that they parked there as they were sold out the night before. True, but it was 1015 in the morning, should've fsking moved by then. Fortunately there were other chargers open and it didn't affect our trip.

At Green River, UT we found another Model 3 charging, which was surprising as this place is so remote. Got back from a bathroom break to find yet another Model 3 pulling in! So for a moment the SC was almost full. I'd love to know the history of that charger, Green River really is in the middle of nowhere. Should have spent another ten minutes there as I got range anxiety during the leg to Richfield, UT. So instead of blasting away at 80 I held it to 75 on the downhills and 70 on the ups.

This was our longest day (Denver to St. George UT), about 650 miles. Got to our hotel at 7:20pm nonetheless, so about 12 hours on the road. Hotel was the My Place Hotel, it had four Telsa destination chargers, also all for me. I liked this hotel the least, they didn't include breakfast! Savages. Otherwise was fine.

Yesterday was quite uneventful on the charging department. We avoided south Las Vegas and did our main charge at Baker. Just for curiosity's sake I checked SLV a couple of times and both times it said 7 of 8 taken. So yeah, constantly busy. Took quick bathroom breaks at Primm and Yermo, arrived home with 2250 on the Colorado Trip odometer.

Supercharging
=============
First day: $29.46
Second day: $22.88
Third day: $30.80
Fourth day: $13.68

Total: $96.82

Gas would have cost at least triple that.

I love my Red Rocket!


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## RocketRay (Jun 6, 2018)

Some pics from the road!








Total trip stats. I took this after I got the car washed, so closer to 2250.








Glenwood Springs.








Green River on the way there.


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## charlesm20 (Sep 1, 2018)

Wow very impressive, how did the paint and windshield hold up? I found the paint marrs (swirls) easily and the windshield seems to collect a lot of sand/rock pits due to it's angle.


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## Jay Jay (Oct 26, 2018)

Nice writeup. I wonder if that was us you saw in Green River UT! We made a trip from Denver to SLC and stopped there both legs. White on white, dual motor...we had our pitbull with us. The reason that charger is there is because many drivers going from Colorado to SLC pass right by there heading up the 6 to I15 into SLC.


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## RocketRay (Jun 6, 2018)

charlesm20 said:


> Wow very impressive, how did the paint and windshield hold up?


Got it washed soon after we got home, it looks like it did when we picked it up. The lower part of the driver's side wiper didn't do such a good job in the cold, had to clean that at a gas station.


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## RocketRay (Jun 6, 2018)

Jay Jay said:


> White on white, dual motor...we had our pitbull with us.


If you saw a ten year old girl freaking out for your dog, that was us on the 30th.


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## Jay Jay (Oct 26, 2018)

Nope, wasn't us then. We were there on the 22nd and then on the 29th. There were 2 other 3's there the first time we pulled up, and the second time there were two others by the time we left (Model X's). Seems like a well used station.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

RocketRay said:


> At Green River, UT we found another Model 3 charging, which was surprising as this place is so remote. Got back from a bathroom break to find yet another Model 3 pulling in! So for a moment the SC was almost full. I'd love to know the history of that charger, Green River really is in the middle of nowhere.


This was the 80th supercharger Tesla built (March 2014), when Tesla was still locating most suoerchargers in the middle of nowhere.


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## RocketRay (Jun 6, 2018)

Oh yeah, one more thing.

Our first full day in Denver I went to an express car wash, temperature was about 15F. We then stopped at a King Soopers to get some stuff. When we got in the car the climate control came on and the fan was making a noise, like something (say a piece of ice) was in the way of the blades. I turned it off, as the fan slowed so did the noise. So I cranked up the heat and in about 5 minutes it went away for good.

So in freezing temperatures water can get into the climate control system and freeze, causing problems.


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