Destin, FL and Tesla rental - August 11-13, 2023

Normally I can't convince my husband to go to the beach in August.  He's not a beach person in general but the August heat is understandably a bit much for him.  But then he discovered a hotel I was considering had an EV charger and the idea for this weekend was born.

At lunch on Friday, Paul walked over to the Budget rental location not that far from our home and picked up a 2022 Tesla Model Y long range with about 500 miles on it.  It was charged to 87% but since we have a free (level 2) charging unit at our apartment, he plugged it in while we finished our work day.  In about 2.5 hours, it was charged to 100%.

After work, we headed out.  We had booked the Hampton Inn in Greenville, AL which was half-way to Destin and had 12 Tesla superchargers in the parking lot.  Not knowing whether we would get the short-range or long-range model, we didn't know if we would need a little charge on the way down and this just broke up the drive so we weren't arriving in Destin so late (or leave so early Saturday morning).

Unfortunately, the trend lately of driving through storms continued.  We fortunately didn't have any severe weather but extremely heavy downpours significantly slowed down traffic for a portion of the drive.  Upon arriving at the Hampton, we backed into a spot and plugged her in to charge.

While it was charging, we checked into our hotel room which was a really nice room.

And then about 45 minutes later, we were back out as our car finished charging to 100%.  We charged it 41 kWh which cost Budget $15.32.  All Tesla superchargers directly charge the credit card that is on file for the car, which is Budget's credit card.  Our rental agreement indicates they will charge us a flat fee of $9.99 per day to cover any of those charging costs (regardless of whether we use more or less) and they ask we return the vehicle at greater than 50%.  If we use a non-Tesla charger that has a fee, we would need to pay for that charger through whatever app coincides with that charging company.  So it's in our bests interests to stick with Tesla or free chargers.

Tesla does charge a fee if you stay plugged in longer than you need at stations that have a 50% or greater occupancy level to encourage you to move your car as soon as you are done.  There were 12 chargers at this hotel and I don't think we ever saw less than 6 Teslas using chargers.  Teslas were constantly coming and going so this is a pretty busy station.

Even though it was a weekend, the Hampton Inn started breakfast at 6:00 a.m. which we greatly appreciated.  Being early people who like to be out and about early and hotel breakfasts are often just a bit later than we would like.  The breakfast was decent but I did miss the oat milk that has become pretty consistent at the various Marriott owned chains we usually stay at.  Overall, this was a great hotel.  And one thing Hilton has over Marriott is the app check-in and digital key experience.

With a full charge, we were then off to the beach.  We arrived in Destin shortly after 9:00 a.m.  We realized we had completely forgotten sunscreen.  Maybe we weren't truly thinking of this as a beach trip in our excitement to try out an electric car?  Fortunately, there was a Walmart next to our hotel so we stopped there first and in a beach town like Destin, the sunscreen is on a display just as you walk in the door and right next to the self-checkouts so this was the fastest Walmart run ever.

We then drove through the Fairfield Inn parking lot to see if one of the two EV chargers were open.  Unfortunately, both were occupied by non-electric vehicles.  So much for a sign that clearly said "No Parking except while charging".

So we headed across the street to the Henderson Beach State Park to check out the beaches of Destin, which are supposed to be some of the most beautiful in the area with powdery white sand and blue green waters.  And they didn't disappoint.  

There were lots of large jellyfish that you could see both in the water
and that had been washed up on the sand.

Laughing Gulls (like this one) and Sanderlings along with a few terns that were a lot more skittish were really all the birds we saw so I didn't even bother with my Nikon.

It was really hot and humid and that combined with walking on the sand tired us out faster than normal so after walking the length of the state park portion of the beach, we headed back to the car to go find lunch.  We had hoped to stop at a Wendy's but the lobby was closed and we had no interest in eating in our car.  We continued on and found a Panda Express which actually had my two favorite entrees on the menu and ready.  A lot of locations seemed to have discontinued the Black Pepper Chicken, which has been disappointing so I was excited to see that option here.

Over lunch, we made a plan for the rest of the day.  We decided to take a little drive to the Gulf Breeze Zoo and maybe get a charge at a Tesla supercharger location near there.  But first we drove past the hotel to see if the EV charger spots were open.  One of the two non-electric cars had moved and a Tesla was charging.  The other non-electric car was still parked there.

We stopped at the Tesla Supercharger station first which was located in the parking lot of a Publix with other shopping and restaurants around.  My eyes immediately were drawn to a local hand-made soaps store.  So while we charged, we shopped.

When you walk away from your car after plugging it in, this screen opens so you can easily see the status of your charge from outside the car.  If this was our own vehicle, we would also have access to info on the Tesla app.

I would love to know the story on this car.  The car had been there long enough to get a ticket.  Maybe they were drunk? For the record, this is NOT how to park your car when charging.

This is the screen while you are sitting in your car that provides information on the status of your charge.

After picking up some hand-made soaps and our car finishing charging, we headed to the Gulf Breeze Zoo.  We had been there a couple times previously and remembered enjoying it.  The parking lot was mostly empty when we arrived.  I guess it was too hot even for those in the south.  It was nice though to not have to battle people.

The farm animals were quite friendly.  I'm sure they hoped I had food.

Because a portion of the zoo is only accessible by train, your entry ticket includes unlimited train rides.

We spent about an hour and a half at the zoo and then we headed back to Destin to check into the hotel.  We stayed at the Fairfield Inn Destin.  When we arrived, the Tesla had finished charging and moved out of the spot which was now empty and ready for our use.  The non-electric car (that had been there since the morning) was still parked in the other spot.  

Our room was nice but unfortunately, in the connecting room next to us was a large group going in and out all evening and they were quite loud.  At one point we checked with the front desk to see if another room was available and they indicated the hotel was full.  Fortunately, the noise from that room died down by about 10.  The 2012 Lorax movie was on Nickelodeon which I really enjoyed and made for a relaxing evening.  I had originally hoped to go back to the beach for sunset but by this point we had cleaned up and were exhausted.

Breakfast the next morning was especially nice.  We snagged a table in a corner with floor to ceiling windows.  I found the oat milk for my coffee and they had two different types of eggs and two different types of sausages along with the standard waffles, pastries, fruit, yogurt, etc.

We made one stop as we left the gulf at Ross Marler Park.  This is a park we had visited on our trip to Fort Walton Beach over New Year's.  This park was covered in dense fog last time we were here so we almost didn't recognize it.  There wasn't a lot of wildlife so we didn't stay long. 

Then it was time to head home.  The Tesla suggested a 10 minute charge at the same supercharger where we had stayed Friday night so we stopped there for 15 or 20 minutes.  It gave us a chance to use the restroom in the hotel lobby and stretch our legs.  We decided to take back, quieter roads that led us through Selma where we had Taco Bell for lunch and were back in Birmingham early afternoon.  We snagged an EV charging spot in our parking garage and upon plugging it in, the screen said we had about 7.5 hours until a full charge.

Overall, the beach aspect of the weekend was a bit disappointing.  With our beach access being through a state park that didn't open until 8:00 a.m., I didn't enjoy my normal sunrise on the beach and was too tired by sunset.  There were also just too many people around this time of year.  On Saturday, as we left Walmart with our dinner, we both said that we had heard more crying children than we wanted to hear for a long time.

The Tesla experience was fun and I think really helpful as we talk about whether we may want to own one in the future.  Charging was a pretty simple experience.  We were able to time most of it so we weren't going out of our way or sitting somewhere too long.  And the one time we did sit at a charging station for about 50 minutes, it was in the heat of the day when it was nice to take a break from activities.  We used that time to wander a shop or two and then just sit and relax in the car a bit.

An electric car does take a bit of planning as EV charging stations aren't nearly as plentiful as gas stations, especially the superchargers you really need along a road trip.  But those EV charging stations are getting more plentiful and we never felt like we didn't have options.

The car itself was a pretty comfortable ride.  It had so much storage - a frunk, huge hatchback style back, along with a couple deeper wells in the hatchback.  There were also deep pockets in the doors and great center counsel storage.  What impressed me (and overwhelmed me a bit) was the amount of technology in the car.  Almost everything is controlled by a huge screen.  The navigation was advanced enough to suggest where to stop for a charge and how long.  The direction of airflow could be changed by just swiping or pinching the screen.  And turn signals brought up the side camera on that side.  Paul enjoyed the instant power and no engine noise along with the traffic light color being displayed on the screen, so if you can't see the lights because of either the sun or if you pull up too far you know when to go.  It was also neat to see traffic cones and garbage cans on the sides of the road show up on the screen!  The traffic distance control was the best of any make we've tried with the exception of when cars turned in front of you, even if they were really far ahead the car would pretty aggressively break for no reason.  

We drove a total of 622 miles.  Below is a chart of the charging we did for this trip.  The cost of charge column is what it would have cost us if we owned the vehicle.  All charges at Tesla Superchargers were paid by the rental car company who then charged us a flat fee of $9.99 per day for Tesla charging.  Note: we ended up charging to 100% most of the time because we were driving a lot and Budget was paying for it; Tesla recommends charging to about 80-90% and continuing on because that last portion usually takes quite a while because charging slows down as the battery gets full.  We could have shortened the charge times by at least half if we practiced that method and should not have had any major concerns about not getting to the next destination.  

Day	Location	Type of Charging Station	Time Spent Charging	kWh	Cost of Charge	What we did while charging
Friday afternoon	Apartment	ChargePoint charger (6.6 kW)	2 hours and 52 minutes (started at 87%)	13.84 kWh	$0.00	Finished our work day
Friday evening	Hampton Inn Greenville, AL	Tesla Supercharger (250 kW)	45 minutes	41 kWh	$15.32	Relaxed in our hotel
Saturday afternoon	Publix Parking Lot, Gulf Breeze, FL	Tesla Supercharger (250 kW)	45 minutes	52 kWh	$20.02	Shopped and waited in the car
Saturday evening	Fairfield Inn, Destin, FL	Destination Charger (8 kW)	2 hours and 40 minutes	About 20 kWh	$0.00	Relaxed in our hotel
Sunday late morning	Hampton Inn, Greenville, AL	Tesla Supercharger (250 kW)	20 minutes	25 kWh	$9.41	Bathroom break and waited in the car
Sunday afternoon	Apartment	ChargePoint charger (6.6 kW)	6 hours and 45 minutes (to 83%)	42.315 kWh	$0.00	Relaxed at home

Northern Georgia - July 21 - 23, 2023

 We are always looking for weekend getaway ideas, even more so when we see the gap of many months between larger vacations.  This was no exception.  We booked this pretty last minute.  The weekend before we spent a good part of one day, deciding on various weekend trips and booking hotels.

The hotel we booked was the TownePlace Suites Canton Riverstone Parkway in Canton, Georgia.  It's a fairly new hotel.  The building (including lobby, amenities, and breakfast) is shared with a Fairfield Inn.  What we did not realize going in was that this was a fully booked hotel but I'll get to that later.

We left right after work.  It is about a 3 hour drive.  About half-way there, we ran into some rain which turned quite heavy at time with some pretty high winds.  A severe storm had popped up.  It was a bit unnerving to see small debris (leaves and small branches) flying across interstate.  Paul even saw a small ditch tornado.  I tracked the weather warnings and radar.  We had hoped to stop for dinner but we quickly realized, we needed to stay ahead of it which based on all the down trees we saw the next day was a smart move.

The rain had let up a little by the time we reached Canton so we ran into Jersey Mike's to quick grab some subs to take with us to the hotel.

Upon arriving at the hotel, there was no awning to pull under and it was raining again.  Fortunately, someone pulled out of an end spot not too far from the door.  Upon entering the lobby, we were surrounded by so much noise.  Several groups had taken over all the various seating areas in the lobby and breakfast area.  No single individual was excessively loud but there were just so many voices all at once.  We waited in line and when we reached the front were assigned room 112.  I have to admit, this didn't sound like a good room just based on the number and then he explained it was just down the hall around the corner.  We had been assigned the closest room to the lobby.

The room was a studio king.  It still seemed pretty new and so was in great condition.  It was pretty cramped though like they took a standard king hotel room and decided to fit a kitchen in with the bed and bathroom.  So there was no were but under the desk to put our suitcase.  And the bathroom only had a spot to hang one towel (they couldn't at least install two towel hooks?).  It also had the open shower design that we are seeing more often in Marriott brand hotels that we aren't all that fond of as water does get out into the bathroom area.

We later learned that there were several baseball teams in town plus a wedding and a number of people whose power was out making for a sold out hotel.  Unfortunately, the noise continued into the night.  We made the first call about 10:15 or so.  The front desk staff indicated there was a noise curfew at 11:00 p.m. and assured us they would enforce it although they didn't see any noise problems now so weren't worried.  I made the second call about 11:20.  The lady who answered the call was pretty exasperated and said she would try again.  At some point by midnight, it did quiet down.

The next morning we were up and ready to enjoy breakfast at 6:30 a.m. (the time the front desk told us it would be open).  Unfortunately, they had told us the wrong time.  Being a weekend, it wouldn't open until 7:00 a.m. and the worker handling breakfast didn't actually have it all out until closer to 7:15 a.m.  Fortunately, we had some time built in so we still were able to get some breakfast before heading out.

Today's goal was to tour the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville location.  We are members and make regular visits to their downtown Atlanta main garden but had never visited their Gainesville location.  It was worth the drive.  We were among the first to arrive.  The highlight was all the butterflies as the special exhibit La Calavera Catrina.  Here is a video of many of the Catrinas.

After a great morning at the gardens, we found some lunch at Whataburger before doing a little wine and liquor shopping at Total Wine.  While we were eating, we got a call from the hotel who had forgotten we were staying another night (we had a split reservation with an award night on one reservation number and a paid night on another reservation number).  They indicated we would need to get new keys when we returned.

When we arrived at the hotel, no one was at the front desk and another person was waiting in front of us.  We waited 15 minutes before anyone came out and that was after the people in front of us knocked on the office door behind the front desk.  Then as we were relaxing back in our room, the fire alarms went off.  They were turned off quite quickly so we never exited the building but the fire department still did show up.

For dinner, we headed to a Mexican restaurant in the strip mall next to our hotel called 7 Tequilas Mexican Restaurant.  The food was quite good and I had to try the 7 Tequilas Margarita, made with 7 different tequilas.  It was quite good but very strong.  They warned me I was only allowed to order one.  That should have been my first warning.

Chicken Street Tacos

I finished it and was still able to walk out!

Fortunately, that evening the hotel was a lot quieter.  We took our time the next morning as our first museum didn't open until 10:00 a.m.  We had three museums on our agenda.

The first museum on the agenda on this day was the Tellus Science Museum, an excellent science museum associated with the Smithsonian.  Our fun started in the parking lot.  First with some pretty cool construction equipment and then a walk through the planets of our solar system spaced out to give you an understanding of which planets were closer and which were a long ways off.

ca. 1925 P&H Dragline Model 206 (an earthmoving machine)
interchangeable attachments could turn this into a shovel, dragline, pile driver, or crane
Manufacturer P&H Mining Machinery, Milwaukee, WI; Engine Type:  Waukesha Gasoline

ca. 1960 Euclid Dump Truck
Manufacturer:  General Motors

ca. 1997 HD785-3 Komatsu Dump Truck
Used in the gold mines of Nevada
This truck is too big to travel on interstate.  To get to Tellus, it was disassembled and moved on four flatbed tractor trailers from Nevada - one for the frame, one for the engine and transmission, one for the dump body, and one for the tires.

Their two main exhibits are a dinosaur exhibit and a travel exhibit that included everything from the first cars/motorcycles to space travel.  There was also the more traditional hands on kid's exhibit that was fun even for us adults to walk through.

Before we even purchased our tickets, this amazing Foucault's Pendulum caught our eyes.  The pendulum moves back and forth in the same plane.  As the earth rotates under it (the pendulum doesn't rotate with the earth), it slowly knocks off each peg.  

Next up was the dinosaur exhibit.  They had quite a few dinosaur skeletons (molds made from bones actually found) as well as some examples of artifacts, even a few they encouraged you to touch.

Brontosaurus

Eremotherium - The Giant Ground Sloth

T-Rex

T-Rex footprint cast

Triceratops

Baby and Mom ("Lane" and "Lily") Triceratops

Pterosaurus

Protostega

Xiphactinus

Mosasaur

Elasmosaurus

Glyptodon - The Giant Armadillo

Next up was an interest exhibit about transportation.

1886 Benz Patent Motorwagen
The World's First Automobile

1903 Wright Flyer
A replica of the plane the Orville brothers first powered flight

EV1 with charger
first modern electric car from a major automaker

Apollo I launch pad disaster

I touched a tire that flew to space in 1996 on the Atlantis mission STS-79
to and from the Russian Mir space station.

1948 Bell-47 Helicopter
Originally designed for the military but is also the first helicopter certified for commercial use

The last two parts of the museum we walked through were an exhibit on stones and the layers of the earth that was quite interesting and then a room with all kinds of hands-on exhibits mostly geared towards children but we found a few intriguing ones.  I didn't get any photos of them but there were some interesting hands-on exhibits about electricity and solar power.

The exhibit about stones and the earth let us make a stop at the Grand Canyon!

I like this second one better!

Our next stop was the Savoy Automobile Museum.  We enjoyed a pretty good lunch in the cafeteria before wandering through the exhibits of cars.  I'm handing this portion of the blog over to Paul...

1954 Plymouth Savoy
This car was found on the land when the museum was built, they decided to name the museum after it!

Spirit of Speed, Linda Brunker

1903 Oldsmobile Curved Dash Runabout 

America's best selling mass-produced car at the time with over 3,900 produced.  It sold for $650, had a top speed of 20 MPH and 5 horsepower 

1990 Chevrolet 1500 454 SS

This example was pristine and I think there was only 117 miles on the odometer!

1955 Porsche 356 

They had a room full of Porsches, you will notice the current model still is obviously related to this model, styling updates have been evolutionary vs revolutionary; don't change a good thing!

1973 911 Carrera RS 

Which yellow do you like better?  I like the one in the foreground, the other one is too mustardy...This one had a 2.7 flat 6 like our 2014 Boxster, making 210 horsepower (vs our 265), but the car weighed over 700 lbs less at only 2,150 lbs!

2014 911 - 50 years of 911

1988 Turbo Cabriolet

What a spoiler!  Love the license plate never lift!

1992 911

Can you spot the differences from the 20 year older yellow one above?

1987 959 

The king of the road at the time!

2004 Carrera GT

0-60 happened in an unbelievable 3.5 seconds, a Tesla Model 3 Performance could embarrass one of these now (3.1) for about 12% of the Porsche's original MSRP which was an almost equally unbelievable $450k.  Not a huge fan of the rear of the car, but the cockpit and front are cool.

Georgia Tech Solar Vehicle

I remember when this came out around 2002, the car is essentially a large aerodynamic solar panel with a very tight cockpit for one.  It weighed 700 lbs and had a top cruising speed of 55 MPH.

1936 Dodge truck hood ornament and truck

Who wants to ride in the back?  Could be a reason "riding shotgun" became so popular!

1949 Buick Convertible

Pocket doors on this Kaiser were pretty cool!  I think this was Rebecca's favorite.

This Packard hood ornament was no joke!

A nod to our current vehicle, a Buick!

This 1958 Chevy truck was owned by Hank Williams Jr.  I can see styling cues shared with my mom's first car, a 1958 Corvette!

1936 Chevrolet Standard Series FC Coupe Pickup

This was my favorite vehicle in the museum - I always like 1930s style vehicles and throw in a pickup bed that looked pretty useful, it's certainly unique, cool looking and practical!  Having owned a Subaru Baja and Honda Ridgeline trucklers, this would have certainly been in my collection if I were born 60 years earlier!

It's me again, Rebecca.  After exploring the Savoy Auto Museum, we had one last museum, the Booth Western Art Museum, another museum associated with Smithsonian. I have to admit when we first read about this museum, what came to mind is cowboys and western states of the United States but it was a lot more than that.  

We started in the War is Hell Gallery which had a really well done exhibit about the Civil War.  It included pieces about the horrors of war as well as the human side like the bartering that happened in no-man's land.

War is Hell, 2001
Mort Kunstler
General William Tecumseh Sherman leaves the burning city of Atlanta, Georgia on November 15, 1864 to begin his march to the Sea.  Sherman said, "I intend to make Georgia howl."

The Stainless Banner, 1984
J. N. (James Nathan) Muir

The museum also a lot of art reflecting the importance of animals in the US, landscapes of the beautiful scenery especially in the west, as well as the history of Native Americans.

Teach Me the Raven Ways, 2018
Amy Lay

Spirit of the Redman, 1989
Frank Howell

Ruby Valley Angus, 2009
Theodore (Ted) Waddell

Canyon Warrior, 2020
Ross R. Rossin

Mehota-Love, Northern Cheyenne, 2015
Krysti Melaine

Concord Coach Number 84

Red Bird

Spring Tryout, ca. 1944
Thomas Hart Benton

There were a couple of really interesting exhibits featuring women.  Women of the West featured photography by Barbara Van Cleve of life for women on ranches.  We Set Our Faces Westward:  One Woman's Journey 1839-1848 featured the art of Heidi Presse based on the journals of Keturah Penton Belknap about her journey first on a farm in Iowa and then on the trail to Oregon.  

There was an excellent exhibit on the Presidents.  In one room, they featured each president with a photo of them, correspondence from them, and information about them.  In another room, they were painting all the Presidents on the wall as if they had all been in the same room together (in three centuries).  This is called the Commanders in Chief Project by artist Ross R. Rossin.

We would have liked to spend a bit more time in these last exhibits but we had reached our limit of museums.  I really enjoyed this museum and felt it was really well put together with excellent exhibits.  Hopefully someday we can return and spend more time.

We then headed home.  We had about a two and half hour drive and fortunately this drive was very uneventful.  It was a bit eyeopening though to see all the down trees that were not down on our drive to Georgia Friday evening.  It confirmed that we had been smart to stay ahead of the storm as much as we could Friday evening.