A Song of Wind, ICE, An Active Shooter, and More

-


Act 1...Wind

Holy f#*#*g s### ! Driving through Kansas was like driving through a hurricane. Except no rain.

The first clue on how bad the wind was going to be was at midnight when the howling of the wind woke us both up.  By the time we checked out, it had picked up so hard, that the car doors would slam open or closed if you weren't careful.

Driving was ridiculous. The wind alternated between a dead headwind to a dead crosswind.  The car was being buffeted back and forth as the semi's next to us were having the same thing happen.

Luckily with autosteer/autopilot engaged the car stayed centered in the lane.  I only had to drive manually when vehicles in the next lane would dive toward us.

Steering wasn't the only problem.  The headwind made a serious dent on range.  As you can see from this picture even though I was driving at 73 mph the winds made the "gas mileage" equivalent to driving 100 mph!  Range was reduced 40-50% because of the wind.



For both handling and range improvements I ended up drafting semi's as much as possible.



Act 2...ICEHoles!
ICE is an acronym for Internal Combustion Engine.  In other words a regular gas car.  An ICEHole is someone who parks an ICE car right in front of a charger, blocking the charger for someone who relies on it.



Imagine if all the gas pumps were blocked by electric cars and the drivers went into a restaurant for lunch!  That's why ICEHole sounds like #sshole...

Act 3...Active Shooter
So what's worse than arriving at a charger and having all the chargers blocked?  Arriving at a charger and getting this message from your daughter:

"There's an active shooter in our building we've been evacuated"

The shooter was reported on the floor below her. Thankfully after evacuating the building and a SWAT floor by floor search, no shooter was found.  Apparently a false alarm.

Bonus Act...Dog Zen
Can't end on that so here's a moment of Dog Zen while we were charging.  Oh...and that sound in the background...it's the wind...


Comments

  1. Jim VandegriffApril 19, 2018 at 10:05 AM

    When we travelled in Colorado, Kansas, and the Texas Panhandle in 2016, I was amazed at the number of wind turbines generating electricity. As you experienced, it is a great area for wind power. I did enjoy the corn, sorghum, and sunflower fields in Kansas and our favorite state park for camping was there as well. Thanks for the updates!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. IdocoApril 19, 2018 at 12:11 PM

      I am banking on it being a tailwind heading back.

      Which state park in KS?

      Delete
  2. Jim VandegriffApril 19, 2018 at 4:34 PM

    Lake Scott State Park - not that far off I-70 in Scott City (between Oakley and Garden City) off US-83. Some of the sites have 50 amp service, most 30 amps. Great hiking there, a lake that is quite nice, and a fascinating historical site of a colonial era (1600's) pueblo. We enjoyed it; it is quiet and beautiful.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To unhitch or not unhitch...that is the question...

-
Image
tl;dr Lots of pictures of charging a Tesla with a trailer.  Brief discussions on different charging logistics.  Scroll down for trailer porn... Long version Since picking up the Tin Poodle outside of Las Vegas we've travelled just over 3000 miles (and still have about 500 more to go).  We've travelled through nine states (with at least two more to go).  And we've charged at twenty Tesla superchargers. It's that last number, twenty superchargers, that I'm going to write about today.  More specifically how to charge a Tesla on a cross country trip while towing a trailer.  Here's the breakdown: Overnight charging We made a point of only staying in campgrounds that had electrical infrastructure at our site.  Mostly 240V/50A and occasionally 120V/30A. We could then plug into an outlet and have a full charge by the next AM.  Pretty much the same as we do at home in the garage. This is by far the easiest method and one we used at virtually every campgrou
Read more

Extended boondocking

-
Image
We just got back from three weeks on the road. Almost all of it was boondocking without electrical hookups.  Without an external electricity source the battery in our trailer can probably supply electricity for about 4-5 days before needing to be recharged.  We were able to go ten days easily by  keeping the trailer plugged into the 7-way connector on the Model X almost all the time. We only needed to plug the trailer into an electrical outlet once during the trip in order to recharge our lead acid trailer battery. We did that during a planned overnight stay when we moving from one location the next. Overall we were really happy with our ability to stay off grid with this combo. Some observations. Over one ten day stretch our trailer battery went from 100% to 52% (120aH from trailer battery) Over another eight day stretch our trailer battery went from 100% to 70% (~72AH from trailer battery) The MX on average was supplying ~2-3amp/hour to the trailer (depending on SOC of the trailer ba
Read more

The Route: Part 1...Map (out)

-
Image
Destination:  Las Vegas Miles:  2531 Days:  6 Driving time: 39 hours Charging time: 10 hours Charging stops: 22 Las Vegas you say.  I thought you said this was a trip to Glacier National Park.  Well it was...until it wasn't.  You see.... I'm not sure I mentioned this earlier but we don't actually have the Tin Poodle in our possession.  We own it (as of 4/1).  It is titled and has tags and insurance.  We just don't physically have it in our possession. Digressing a bit, Bowlus is based out of Oxnard California.  Each Road Chief is hand made to order with a several month period between ordering and delivery.  So we ordered it last summer and asked for a Spring delivery.  (We could have had a late Autumn or Winter delivery, but that didn't fit our schedule.) "Now wait.  First Glacier, now Oxnard.  But the map says Las Vegas.  I'm confused."  So the choices for delivery are Oxnard CA, Henderson NV, or shipping cross country.  We decided on th
Read more