So I am in Wall SD at the moment, spent the last few days enjoying Badlands National Park. Definitely a place to see on a trip out to this part of the country.
The trip from Jersey to Chicago was uneventful, EA all the way with no issues. Had a hiccup in Chicago because Plan A was to use the Tesla Destination charger at the hotel to charge up overnight but could not get it to work with my new TeslaTap (traded up from the 40 amp to the 80 amp before this trip but failed to test it before I left). Plan B was an EA station nearby so no worries there, but was concerned about the next stop, Souix Falls, because the fastest EVSE there are 50 kW and are mostly at car dealerships and my plan was to use the Destination Charger at my hotel there. However, David from TeslaTap saved the day by troubleshooting with me over the phone during my drive to Souix Falls, and when I arrived there and had time to fiddle around with the TeslaTap, it finally engaged into the charge port properly and works like a charm. Kudos to David for his knowledge and persistence.
The trip from Sioux Falls to Wall SD was a bit of a nail-biter, though having ABRP with an OBD dongle really saved my nails from being decimated. It was listed at 291 miles with no Level 3's or Level 2's along the direct route. ABRP looking at my live data told me I could make it if I went 55 the whole way on a road where the speed limit is 80. Not ideal but doable. To add to the fun, at least 3 times construction put us down to one lane (once for 17 miles) so you can imagine the centipede of cars and trucks behind me. I continually monitored ABRP to see how I was doing and at times even bumped the speed up to 62 until I saw the numbers trending the wrong way and went back to 55. This is where things stood after I backed into the EA stall at Wall Drugs:
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So all in all it is going well so far. This was my first experience with an OBD dongle and ABRP and I have to say, I'm impressed. I knew we were not going to run out even though it would be close, and that made it an absolutely worthwhile investment.
The car is running great and performing as expected. So nice to have the extra space and superfast charging speed as compared to my Kona....
More to come.