Author Archives: papafox510

Carolina thunder

While passing through North and South Carolina, I was afforded a grand opportunity by Mother Nature to test my Tesla’s weather radar. Yep, you heard me right. I’m a former airline pilot and have no desire to press through thunderstorm … Continue reading

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Virginia is for Tesla lovers

One can’t visit this part of the country without being aware of America’s civil war. The names of towns like Sharpsburg, Manassas, and Harper’s Ferry right bells, and signs directing motorists to battlegrounds abound. Instead of heading northwest to Berkeley … Continue reading

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Traffic City

From Connecticut, it was time to press through the traffic streaming out of New York City, sashay around Philadelphia’s activity and then traverse the Baltimore-Washington traffic. Add in a pope and the traffic challenges are there. The skyline of New … Continue reading

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The Speed-stater

What a day: we had fun in Vermont and still covered six states: Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The fall colors were just starting in Vermont Instead of proceeding directly to the supercharger in Brottleboro, we … Continue reading

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Meeting the Pioneer

When it comes to visiting the United States in an electric vehicle from one end to the other, the names Michael Fritts and Lita Elbertson stand out. Last summer Michael invited Lita to join him in a 50 state tour in his … Continue reading

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Midwestern Sweep

A few states remained in the upper midwest and I set about visiting them before the next major move in this road trip. From Dayton I proceeded north to the Toledo area and spent the night. Radar images on my … Continue reading

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Northbound to Dayton and the Wright Brothers

As many of you remember, I’ve had a thing about the Wright Brothers on this trip. I listened to an audible.com version of David McCullough’s biography of the brothers and a number of curiosities remained unanswered. Hopefully, the trip to … Continue reading

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Chasing Rockets

From my basecamp in southeastern Missouri, I set out for the Nashville supercharger, some 205 road miles away. Tesla’s navigation software let me know that this route was a questionable endeavor if driven at normal speed. Tesla’s navigation software expected only … Continue reading

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Bagging Arkansas

In any Tesla road-tripper’s stories of 2015, the state of Arkansas ranks as one of those big challenges, since it is one of the few black holes left in Tesla’s supercharger network. Fortunately, with knowledge gained from the Alaska run, … Continue reading

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Wyoming to Wisconsin in a day

Although the trip began a few miles east of the Wyoming border, it proceeded well east of the Wisconsin border, and so I can fairly claim to have traversed a good portion of the United States in a single day … Continue reading

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Mountain Oasis

Every long distance traveler dreams of an oasis where water is plentiful and life is easy. I found such an oasis on my journey in Spearfish Canyon of South Dakota’s Black Hills. My brother Bill and his lovely wife Karen … Continue reading

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North Dakota

North Dakota simply didn’t fit into a smooth journey through the states along supercharger routes. Thus, an out and back sortie from South Dakota became the plan. Looking at the map, there’s a community known as Bowman at the top of … Continue reading

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Flying northbound

The next day I headed north from Colorado, into Wyoming. The Cheyenne supercharger is a curious affair, hidden in the corner of an RV sales lot, and rather slow at charging by supercharger standards. Don’t expect it to win the … Continue reading

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East of the Rockies

After Aspen, we headed east on I-70. After negotiating some construction delays, we passed through Vail. This spot looks like it could be another fun mountain town, too, but with a substantially different flavor. Whereas Aspen was small and exclusive,with mountain … Continue reading

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Aspen delight

It took Icenan and me about a quarter second after pulling into the center of Aspen town to realize we had to spend some time in this place. First, just about every other person on the street had a dog … Continue reading

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Back to the mountains

The drive to Green River was gorgeous, but the 90 degree weather that much of the West was feeling felt too hot to me after my time up North, and I endeavored to turn the thermostat down to a more … Continue reading

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Visit to the ghost showroom

From Idaho Falls we would be on the supercharger network again for a long time, and it was a good feeling. Southbound from Idaho Falls our route took us to the Tremonton supercharger and then to Salt Lake City. It’s … Continue reading

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Montana

I have great memories of Kalispell, for it is perhaps the most beautiful spot in the 48 contiguous states over which to fly. Imagine a patchwork of green farmer’s fields, surrounded by rugged mountains, with a river winding its way … Continue reading

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Smoke, smoke, smoke

The radio reports had been right: as one proceeded east towards Revelstoke, the visibility dropped immensely due to forest fire smoke being blown north from Washinton state fires. By the time I finished a quick energy refill at the Revelstoke supercharger, … Continue reading

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The Best KOA Campground So Far

The idea was to follow Tesla’s trail of Canadian superchargers eastbound for a while and visit that curiously large hotel at Banff. I had always been intrigued how someone could fill up such a large hotel in such a remote … Continue reading

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