My first leg of the trip, I charged up the car to about 220mi, stopped in Troy Mi for a very late breakfast and left around 12:30/1pm on Sunday April 07th. My intention was to stop every hour or so since I was traveling with my dog, I wanted to give her sometime to stretch and walk around. My first leg of the trip was me getting familiar with the car, I am a fairly anxious person and I felt nervous charging at the recommended stations provided by Tesla’s navigation which provides an optimal number of stops based on your charges. I want to really drive home the point that I did not charge at Tesla recommended charging stations or for the recommended times, because I often charged up more than what was recommended and incurred higher than usual rates for charging. But all said and done, this leg of the trip was the least stressful and most straightforward drive.
For those who live in Michigan and were wondering how the drive to Chicago is in a Tesla, I can say from experience its a cake walk. I have driven to Chicago a few times now with a few different cars, but the comfort of the model 3 and being forced to stop at least once during the trip actually makes you feel less tired. That is coming from someone who never used to stop on road trips unless its for gas.
After Chicago the drive was alot more peaceful, perhaps that was because I was traveling on a Sunday night, but Wisconsin seemed quiet beautiful, and had a surprising amount of super chargers, more than you would expect! Google maps estimated 9 hours but in total the entire trip took me about 12 to 13 hours. I spent the night in La Crosse WI, because of its proximity to a super charger. My plan was to spend the night at La Crosse, get up early charge up and get on another 12/13 hour trip all the way to Rapid City, South Dakota.
