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.
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.
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.
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.
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| There were lots of large jellyfish that you could see both in the water and that had been washed up on the sand. |
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| 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. |
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.
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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.
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| The farm animals were quite friendly. I'm sure they hoped I had food. |
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| Because a portion of the zoo is only accessible by train, your entry ticket includes unlimited train rides. |
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 |
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