Tag: road trip

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Handoff the White

We should have gotten a much earlier start today, but we were all tired from the long week of excitement. Summer went down to meet Eaddie for coffee while I got things ready, and then we loaded up both of the kids to go home. We made it back to Terre Haute for a charge and ate at the adjacent Culver’s. They had just opened with a stunning crew of at least eight or nine people. Somehow they didn’t seem to have things right, but the food tasted fine.

I plotted a trip through Springfield, Missouri so we could eat at Lambert’s Cafe, but the kids started asking if we could meet Eli’s parents along the way to hand him off to them. They were pretty far ahead, so I pulled over in Effingham until they figured things out, and we managed to reroute to our same stop from the trip up in Salem to charge. By then, going through Springfield would add an hour to our trip, so we decided to go home the same way we came up instead, and skip the food.

When we got near Sikeston for our next charge, I saw a sign for Lambert’s, and realized their second location was actually just right up the road from the Supercharger, so we had our restroom break, charged, then went to eat. It was mid-afternoon, but they were still packed with a short wait to be seated. It was cold outside, having seen slightly freezing rain back at Culver’s from the wind, but we basked in the sun until they called our number.

The food was mostly pretty good, but I had possibly the worst steak I’d ever eaten. It tasted like boiled meat. Eaddie described it as tasting “wet.” I mentioned it to our server when he came by, and he brought me a cup of the seasoning they were supposed to use on it, and that helped. I mostly filled up on the pass-around sides though. Eaddie and I chowed down on their fried okra, which was perfect.

From there, we made it all the way down to Jonesoro, but it felt like we took more back roads than on the way up. It took us forever to get to the Kum & Go where we had charged before, and when we left, we ended up having to charge again in Conway, possibly due to weather or elevation. It was a super dull ride the rest of the way home in the pitch black, and it was too late to get Muad’Dib, so we left him with Dad for one more night, and we’ll get him tomorrow when we’ll actually be able to spend some time with him.

The universe has assured us throwed rolls.

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Indian Police

I woke up in a bit of a daze this morning, low on sleep after nightmares about Muad’Dib getting out of the back yard. I jumped right into getting cleaned up for our trip, the girls and I all went out to say goodbye to one super excited puppy, and we made our way to the Courtyard just over the interstate to meet everyone that was driving up in the convoy.

Eli rode with us, and the trip went really smoothly. We stopped to charge and snack in the Jonesboro Kum & Go. When we got to Miner, MO, the others stopped at McDonald’s for lunch. The charger was too far away for us to walk though, so we left the kids and Summer and I took our food to eat in the car while it charged. We got the kids back and made it to Salem, MO where a super excited Cybertruck owner walked out of the adjacent Subway and made a beeline straight for me. He shook my hand and we chatted for a while before he left to head the opposite direction. We went into the restaurant for a quick break and some cookies, then got to Terre Haute to leave Eli with his family.

The girls and I charged just up the road, then made it to Indianapolis where we went straight to Fogo de Chão for a nice dinner just blocks away from the hotel and convention center. The girls were hesitant until we got there, and then their eyes lit up as spears of fire-roasted meats danced by our table. The food was super good and it was a fun experience, but we filled up super fast and it wasn’t a great value in spite of the variety. I probably wouldn’t go again, only because of the price.

We walked back to the car and finally found our hotel, parked in the underground garage, and checked into our room. Eaddie’s roommates got back from dinner and I walked her upstairs to meet up with them, then headed back for bed after a long day of travel.

Brazilian Beasts

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M3SORED

I had an absolute fit trying to sleep last night. I went to bed for a couple hours, maybe dozed for a few minutes, but laid awake for most of it. I ended up getting out of bed and puttering a bit, then trying again. My mind wouldn’t quit wandering about any random topic. It could have been remembering facts about the Byzantine Empire, or cats. It could have been pondering alternative methods to make peanut butter. Anything but sleep.

I dozed again briefly for about 20 minutes before my alarm went off, then got up and ready to go to Kansas City to pick up the new Model 3. Summer was a dear and loaded all of my accessories into her trunk. Eaddie was slow to rise, but we eventually made it out the door.

The drive to Kansas City was pretty terrible. It rained pretty hard for most of it. There was a ton of fog and mist, so I really had to push the car through it. We charged in Ozark, Lowell, and Nevada before making it to the showroom. Eaddie sat up front with me while Summer worked on her laptop in the back.

The parking lot was absolutely packed with cars for delivery. It was the greatest concentration of Cybertrucks I’d ever seen, and it was a little bit glorious. I had a pretty good idea which car was mine, but we went inside to check in since we needed restrooms by then anyway. I talked to two different staff members. The first was kind and led us to the car to check it out. That was the end of any courtesy we received. I guess they were just too slammed with deliveries to entertain the idea of helping us get a charge on the Model Y, and I got a deadpan one-word response when I asked if I could drive my car before I accepted delivery.

Fortunately there didn’t seem to be anything amiss. I loaded up my floor mats, and we made our way to a public charger a couple miles away to leave Summer’s car while we took mine out for the day. Our first stop was the Red Door Woodfired Grill. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was delicious. We got super meaty calamari, and three excellent entrées. Eaddie had a big cheeseburger, I took the recommendation of the prime rib French dip, and Summer had a sirloin. The portions were small, but I guess they were going for “upscale sports bar.” The flavors were on point, but I think it did me in on sodium for the day.

Our next stop was IKEA. Summer was reluctant, but Eaddie and I outvoted her. We didn’t waste much time, and basically made a quick pass through the whole place so we could get to some meatballs. We were all full from our late lunch, but they both actually really wanted meatballs. I started feeling bad, with a racing heart and likely high blood pressure. The city driving started it, and the racing heart pushed me to the edge where I just had to sit down in the restaurant after taking my metoprolol and a clonidine. We shared a plate, and I eventually felt good enough to walk out of there.

We got back to Summer’s car and headed toward home, stopping to charge in Belton, Nevada, and Lowell for a long final leg of the trip. Eaddie rode with me from Nevada to Lowell where I developed a really elaborate pee-dance for about 45 minutes. I didn’t let myself go through the same thing, and stopped at Ozark for another break while the girls continued on home. Just past Ozark, I nailed a small-to-medium sized opossum dead-on. It didn’t make much of a sound, and I didn’t see any damage when I got home, but I still felt bad.

The girls crashed instantly, and I fed the dogs and got things picked up a little bit before finally settling in. I’ll have to do some shuffling tomorrow to get the Model 3 into the garage.

The Brewdy Kitten Café

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3 Little 2 Late

I woke up early this morning so we could get to Tulsa for lunch. The girls were chittering around the rest of the house, so I stayed hidden away until I was ready to leave the house. They had disappeared in a cloud of body spray by the time I walked through.

I did another software update on my car, which wasn’t long after the last one. This one evidently gave me a 30-day trial of Full Self Driving, which would ironically only get me to the Tesla dealership in Tulsa where I would relinquish my car. I followed Summer most of the way, stopping at Rose Drug, then the Van Buren Supercharger, and finally the Love’s oasis. Somewhere before we hit the turnpike, a truck kicked up a bunch of large pieces of wood. One of them struck the middle of my windshield, but fortunately no damage was done that I could tell. After Love’s, I led us the rest of the way to the dealership where they seemed to be waiting with baited breath for me.

I only had a couple of pages of paperwork to sign, including handing the title back over. Then we unloaded all of the remaining stuff into Summer’s car and left it there to Supercharge while we test drove one of the brand new Model 3s and a Model X. The new Model 3 was incredibly quiet, and had a great ride. The doors were the other big improvement. The turn signals were less of an issue than I expected for normal driving, but in a pinch I would still want stalks to quickly signal and maneuver. The only solace is that the responsiveness of the vehicle makes it nimble and quick enough to maneuver around most other vehicles faster than any signaling might help, in that type of situation. I guess that’s what really matters, and signals can be left for more polite, less urgent driving.

After our test drives, we found a nearby Shoe Carnival to use a birthday credit I had. Then we crossed the street to get a free birthday burger from Red Robin. We were more disappointed than usual with our lack of “bottomless” fries when we sat down, so we ordered a couple more rounds as soon as our server brought our food to the table.

Bellies full, we headed back home with a nearly full charge. Headwinds made us stop to charge for a couple minutes in Ozark, and then we made it home without incident. I went out on the Onewheel to destress and stopped by my parents’ house. I was really sad about selling my car back, but the market price and current upgrades made it the right financial choice. It’s just nuts that I could buy a brand new one and still save money after the whole ordeal.

Once I got back from my ride, I cleaned up Summer’s car and put my aftermarket console trays in for her. All I want now is for her to keep the car clean, but she just doesn’t live that way.

Miss you in the saddest fashion!

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So Long, Dot

We got up early this morning so we could make it to Tulsa early enough to make a day of it. Eaddie didn’t feel great, so she went to school a little late. Summer and I left for my house, then the wash to vacuum out the car. From there, we made it to Ozark to charge and get breakfast at the restaurant inside. It wasn’t bad at all, but I had kind of hoped for better, given my experience at truck stops in the past.

That got us enough juice to get all the way to Tulsa, but we stopped briefly at the Love’s oasis for some energy drinks for ourselves. When we got to downtown Tulsa, we parked right by the Center of the Universe “art piece.” The look on Summer’s face when she finally spoke up enough to hear the echo was priceless. We didn’t stay long though, and went to the nearest supercharger to get some juice before finally just heading straight to the Tesla service center.

I met several new people this time. Blake was working the service counter and contacted the manager, Jess, about my buyback inquiry. He indicated that he had already escalated it internally, and that I should hear something back in a couple weeks. He blamed the weather for the delay in getting the replacement battery pack. After that I met Tam, who introduced himself as a Vietnamese American for some reason after I asked his name. I drove him down the road to try and reproduce the rattle in my passenger door, and of course it really had healed itself. I don’t know if someone heard it and fixed it, if it was changed due to the weather, or maybe someone fixed it on accident somehow. When that was all done, I moved everything over from the loaner and got Summer into the car. She made a comment about my trunk being loud again, so I had Tam check it out while we were there. He didn’t seem to think there were any adjustments they could do, but said they could replace the trunk strut if I wanted to submit for a new service request.

We left after that, and got some dinner at Cheddar’s. I tried their Cajun pasta, which was pretty good. I kind of wished I had stuck with the pot pie though, just because it really is delicious with their croissant crust. Summer really enjoyed her tilapia and shrimp as well. We started home after that, but on a whim I stopped at The Peach Barn after seeing a billboard. Peach ice cream sounded good. They had a cute little store with lots of jarred goods, nuts, fudge, and some other stuff. Then we got a peach sundae, smoothie, and a couple hand pies and fudge to take with us.

The drive home was mostly rainy until we got back to Arkansas. We stopped in Van Buren to charge, and then almost made it home when we got into some heavy traffic with a bunch of trucks, and I took a bunch of gravel to the face a couple of times. I had a few new speckles in the paint, as well as a small surface chip in the windshield, dead center in my vision. Now I’m really hoping the buyback works. If not, I’ll have to raise concerns with the service center due to at least one paint bubble that I think happened due to the freeze while it was in their possession.

We made it home, Summer went to bed, and I pumped the basement out again. Eaddie made it home late after all-region, but went to bed almost immediately after. I was up for a while just wasting time until I went to bed.

Rotten luck.

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C U L 8 R D C

I wanted to sleep in this morning, but Summer really wanted to get to the dorm to pick up the girls’ stuff at 7:30. We got everything loaded up and we made it there a little later than that, but still with plenty of time. The girls decided they wanted to go to a “parade” of all the participants, but not the awards ceremony, so we picked up a couple of them and dropped them off at the arena. Then Summer and I went upstairs and actually had to find them in the bleachers anyway. The groups were all separated out, but then were called down to the floor where they swirled around in a chaotic mix of way too many teenagers.

After that, we went back to the dorm to check them out, and we were on our way. Traffic was terrible, but luckily our first stop wasn’t very far away. We topped off while we ate at a place called Oriental Café. The food was decent, and the lady that served us was super nice. I actually didn’t love my General Tso because it was too sour and not hot enough, but at least it seemed fresh. The car kept charging past our set charge point, so we went down a couple doors of the shopping center and the girls got ice cream and cookies before we left.

Our next stop was a charger behind a hotel where we encountered several others charging as well. Then we were on to another charger that appeared to be kind of alone with nothing much around. Across the interstate was a Buc-ee’s that I wanted to visit, but it wasn’t until after we finished charging that we realized there was another set of Superchargers in the same parking lot. I started getting super dizzy and my head felt like I was drunk, but we went inside and it was astounding. Especially for being so late, it was very much alive inside. We picked up a few things, I cleaned the windshield, the girls ate popsicles, and Summer drove us to our stop at a Comfort Inn.

I was pretty disappointed to learn that the charger was networked at roughly the same price as a supercharger. For the cost of the hotel, it could have easily been free. I plugged in and just left it not charging out of spite. The girls had already gone up to the room, so I came up and tried to quietly finish up and get to bed as quickly as I could.

This is why I wanted to power through.

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I’m Not High, but I Did Stay at a Holiday Inn Express

Summer and I got up for breakfast this morning, which was pretty much the bare minimum for “hot” hotel breakfast. Then I showered while the girls went downstairs to find some food for themselves. We loaded up, and Summer took the first half of the drive. The girls slept some more, and even I started to doze off quite a bit. We stopped to charge one last time in Strasburg and shared a couple Junior Whoppers next door.

I took the final leg of the trip and had to sit through a bunch of stop-and-go traffic to get into Washington. We made it to the University of Maryland without incident, so I guess the trip has been a success so far. I dropped the girls off at the Student Union building to register while I parked. Luckily there were a couple chargers just across the street, so I parked there and went inside to find them.

Once they were registered, the girls were ready to go back to their dorm. They walked while Summer and I drove their luggage over. We ran into their other partner and her grandmother on the way, so after they registered, we went back to get them back to the dorm as well.

We ended up sticking around in the dorm longer than I wanted. Summer stumbled through the Metro Pass process and probably ended up spending about four times as much money as she needed to before I looked at any of it. I finally talked her into leaving the girls alone to decompress, and we headed across town to find our own hotel.

There was a mob of angry patrons in the lobby, and the staff were clearly frustrated, but handling the situation with absolute grace. When it was finally our turn, I told our girl that she was doing a great job, and Summer ended up going around the counter to give her a hug. We got checked in super quickly and then went around the building to find our room. We took everything up, but then found an ozone generator in our room, with the door ajar. I decided I really didn’t want to leave our stuff there, so we took it all back down to the car and went around the block to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.

The restaurant was actually pretty busy, and the food was good. They still didn’t give me any celery or carrots, which I never understood. After we ate, we went back to the hotel and found a couple EV chargers. One was broken, and the other was in use. We made our way back up to the room instead, and unloaded before heading back to the university for the opening ceremony.

Traffic by then was horrible on campus. There were so many people, and the volunteers that were directing traffic seemed to be a little slow in that special kind of way. We made it back up the parking garage to charge though, and then walked down to the McKeldin Mall for the ceremony. Nobody was more disappointed by the use of the word “mall” than me. The “ceremony” was a relatively long and boring “thank you to all of these highly important people,” followed by a roll call of all 50 states and some international participants. They ended the ceremony with a parody of a One Direction song I had found the lyrics to earlier in the day.

Summer and I left for the evening and headed back to the hotel. We got settled in, but then the TV wouldn’t work and we had to call the front desk. They sent an “engineer” up to inspect, and he brought a little non-contact voltage tester that beeped at every outlet. In the end, still nothing worked, so he walked the mini fridge to the other side of the room to a working outlet. In his rummaging, we moved the TV and found a couple empty drug baggies under the stand. Several things about our room felt extremely sketchy, but at least our check-in clerk was nice.

I never thought I’d complain about being too cold in a hotel room.

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Drive All Day, Sleep No Way

I got to bed really late last night, slept super hard, and then crawled out of bed really early this morning to finish loading up for our trip. I was surprised that we ended up waiting about an hour and a half for Genesis to meet us at Superfast, where we left the Murano in an unused shop bay. She was supposed to be at Summer’s house at seven, but we didn’t leave town until about 8:30.

We hit the road, but then stopped early in Conway so we could wash Summer’s car. I used all of their fancy, foaming chemicals since she had a key to bypass the payment system. The Model Y had never looked so clean, even when it rolled off of the assembly line. We made our way out of the state, skipping the charger in Brinkley, and making it all the way to Memphis to stop and eat.

We had quite a bit of range anxiety since the arrival percentage just kept rapidly dropping, but we made it. The Supercharger was on the outskirts of a parking lot, and then we walked to a place called Kami Ramen Bar for lunch. The food was awesome, and the service was fast, straightforward, and friendly.

Our next stop was Nashville, where we walked through Target while we waited. When we left, I had Summer stop at Sonic so I could get a drink. What I got ended up being mostly ice cream though, so I stayed thirsty the rest of the day.

Our next stop was in Knoxville for dinner. We charged to 100% while we ate at Blaze Pizza. I wasn’t at all impressed with what Summer ordered, so I ordered another custom pizza online and ate that instead.
We powered on through the night, stopping one last time in Atkins at a Supercharger that happened to be in the parking lot of a Comfort Inn. Then Summer finished the last leg of the trip to get us into Roanoke for the night.

When we pulled up to the Best Western, two of the EV spots were ICEd out, with one of those vehicles being an SUV with handicapped tags parked over the line, nearly blocking the last available spot. I contemplated parking behind those two cars and running the charger out to ours, but I didn’t want to risk retaliation. Instead, we risked parking too close to a handicapped beater vehicle with the wheel cocked right into our car. I took pictures of the license plate and handicapped tag just in case we found their paint on our car the next morning.

As we got into the hotel, we were assaulted by a variety of smells that I attributed to body odor and weed. Luckily the room didn’t smell awful, and I was able to drop the temperature way down before we made it to bed. Genesis was the first into the shower, followed by Eaddie. I wrapped up my chores, and then it was off to bed for me.

I would get a ticket for parking in a handicapped spot, so why wouldn’t they get a ticket for parking in an EV spot?

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Blown Away

I remember Eaddie bursting loudly into the bedroom last night to try and find the TV remote and batteries. I was pretty startled, but made it back to sleep. I didn’t stress getting out the door, but made it home to shower and pack. While in the bathroom, I noticed some little bug had burrowed into my windowsill and left a little mound similar to a crawdad. I sprayed some bug spray on the hole, but wasn’t sure it would do anything.

I picked Summer up around 8:30 and made our way to my parents’ house. They were ready to go and already had the car out of the garage, so we parked Summer’s Montego inside for what was probably its first overnight stay ever.

The drive went by really quickly for me because I wasn’t having to drive. I played Into the Breach for a good portion of the trip. Summer dozed in and out periodically. We stopped at a McDonald’s for lunch around Fayetteville, and then continued straight through to Kansas City. I decided at the last minute that we should stop by the dealership to try and find my car while it was dry out, so we made another pit stop at another McDonald’s on the corner before making our way to the service center.

They had my car right up front in the corner of the lot, so I was able to verify the VIN really quickly. I was a little surprised it was so easy to find. Everyone got out into the gusty wind for pictures and to inspect every inch of the car, and I was surprised at how good everything seemed to look on the outside. I won’t get to check out the inside until they open tomorrow, but the panels all seemed to be aligned really well on the outside. There were a couple extremely minor adjustments that I wanted to have them investigate, but otherwise it looked ready to go.

After that, we continued on to the Holiday Inn Express to unpack everything. Everyone got cleaned up, and we made our way across town to walk through IKEA. Mom kept wandering off in circles through the showroom, and it was neat to see all of the different designs they had. She was mostly concerned about finding a dining room table, and found a neat adjustable one that had a stowable leaf insert.

We had dinner at the restaurant, and Mom wasn’t super impressed by the Swedish meatballs. I thought they were good, but I get that it’s more of a tradition than something I look forward to for the flavor. Getting lost, finding the lighted path, and eating cafeteria food is all just kind of the experience.

By the time we made it out of that enormous cube of a maze, everyone else was too tired to do anything else. We made it back to the hotel and everyone went to bed. I stayed up for a bit and plotted a course home. I guess if everyone gets to sleep early, we’ll have a better chance of leaving early to do something else in the city before we leave.

Hello. You are Tres.

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The Long Way Home

We got up this morning and packed to leave. Summer took most of the stuff down to load onto the bus while I got ready, and by the time I got out, I didn’t really have time for breakfast. We took the junior high and the losers from the high school back to the Riverwalk to shop and eat, but this time we got to actually ride the bus there, which made it much more pleasant.

The high schoolers were pretty much jerks all day, and their chaperones didn’t seem very worried about it. Summer, Hannah, Dylan, and I all walked all the way to the end of the Riverwalk, stopping at the bi-level area so Dylan could get an electric massage, and then again so Summer and Autumn could go on a VR “ride.” Then we made it back to the food court just in time to gather everyone to eat. Johnny had kept the district credit card, so it was up to me to pay up front again. Disappointingly, all three of my cards got declined for fraud prevention, even though I specifically called Discover to make sure that it wouldn’t. We made it through eventually though, and I came back with two foot long sandwiches from South Philly Steaks & Fries. Summer really liked her chicken, and I really enjoyed my Philly, so I considered that a pretty big win.

The varsity team showed up right around that time as well, so they ate, and then we all loaded up onto the bus to say, “goodbye” to New Orleans. Aimee was worried about flooding along the way, so she played it super cautious by going through West Memphis, which probably ultimately added an hour to our trip. We never really stopped for food, and even told the students not to buy anything when we had to stop for fuel, but of course they didn’t listen. Everyone was really beat and anxious to get home, but I wasn’t quite ready to pass out. While the others slept, I unpacked and tried to put most of the stuff away before bed.

Fix it.