“All shutdowns begin with people confident that the shutdown is a good thing,” “And end with people knowing that it wasn't.” - Derryl Issa

Traditional Easter dinner

🙋‍♂️

Also, I highly recommend following teslas suggestions on stopping to charge, even if it is just for a few minutes.

All in all, EVs our our future. But they don’t all need to be as techy as the Tesla. But we do need better charging infrastructure and more long range EV options. It’s especially nice when the charging infra is located near places that have nice things to do while stopped.

The Tesla is really nice to drive on curvy mountain roads, where you can easily accelerate on the street sections between corners and comfortably ease off to take the corner safely.

The auto pilot doesn’t work very well on two lane highways, but it’s pretty impressive nonetheless. It really shines when in traffic.

I resume the road trip and took a slight detour through Taos on the way to Santa Fe.

So I went for a fantastic ride in the fishers Peak State Park. 100% highly recommend. https://t.co/6ZNBdDQ3IE

Someone surprisingly once I plug-in, the car reports that it will only take an hour to get to 100% charge.

Ultimately, I get to the Trinidad charging station with 1% battery remaining

It’s pretty cold outside, but I have all the heat and climate control turned off so that I can conserve as much energy as possible and make it to the charging station

But it was really windy near Pueblo and in southern Colorado today. When I get south of pablo, there are no more charging stations before Trinidad. Near Walsenburg the estimated charge in Trinidad drops to 5%. I’m getting nervous.

So, after skipping the lone tree stop somewhere around Colorado Springs the car tells me that I will have 10% battery when I arrive in Trinidad.

Good thing it has a good traffic following cruise control. It just took me a while to figure out how to use it. It took me even longer to figure out how to use the auto pilot, which is another cool feature that I’ll get to later.

My biggest complaint is that it’s hard to control the speed. It’s very powerful and quiet and the speedometer is hidden over on the console. so it’s easy to find yourself going too fast or too slow without realizing it. Cruise control is an absolute must.

First impressions of the Tesla are that there are way too many gadgets available and it takes some learning to be able to safely access features while driving.

It was snowing on the front range when I left at 8:00 this morning. Not ideal, but the Tesla seems to do fine in the snow.

That settles it. I decide to drive a Tesla, stop in Trinadad for a long charge and go for a mtb ride. Here’s how the day went:

Also, CO just acquired a new State Park. And it happens to be in Trinidad… right next to the super charger. And there are mtb trails.