Day 10 - Twelve hours of bonding with Hobson

Today started very late compared to my planned 7am departure thanks to the basketball game ending so late last night.  It certainly is a good thing they did not have to go into overtime.  I left about 9:30 and the car gave me an arrival estimate of 9:05.  I figured I could beat that by cutting out a couple of charging stops but alas the car seemed to have a leak in the electricity tank today running very high in the kW/mile category and thus I had to make every stop the car wanted.  

I learned something new today about one of our upgrades that ws downloaded after the trip this summer.  Tesla has instituted tougher sanctions in the software for people who are not following the instructions to keep your hands on the wheel when in the auto driving mode.  After three warnings are ignored it will shut off the auto-driving for the remainder of your trip.  I knew that when you pass 90mph the car shuts off the suto-driving as this had happened to me in Montana this summer.   What I did not know as I accelerated past 90 to pass some guy who was on his phone and not driving very well as quickly as possible is that now when it turns off past 90 you are turned off for the rest of the trip.  Luckily it was only 15 miles from the next charge so I did not have to drive long.

It was a long day of driving and I did not get to Bob and Cheryl’s  until almost exactly 12 hours after the start of the day.  They were very patient and not only were welcoming but actually held up dinner to wait for me.  We ended up having a great dinner of chicken marsala at 10pm.  All is well that ends well. 

As I entered Bob and Cheryl's house I was greeted with my signature in Bob's yearbook.  Bob had to explain what I wrote as I had forgotten I was the Tough Guy Award winner in Cross Country.  This was a great touch and a tribute to Bob's incredible memory.

Charging stops

Columbia SC- This one was in the parking lot of a motel and no sooner did I pull in and 4 other people pulled in.  The first couple that showed up was from New Jersey and were very nice.  They were snowbirds on their way back north but visiting grandchildren at their respective colleges along the way.  I spent too long here talking and justified it by thinking I could skip the Augusta charger by getting some extra juice but….

Augusta GA – Second one in a motel parking lot with virtually nothing around it for food.  I gave up on getting food completely until dinner.  Luckily as the Masters is this week the charger was in the exact opposite direction of the golf course.  How did I know that?  There was a sign that had an arrow that pointed left and said golf traffic.  Stopped at the corner with my right blinker on I found the sign was right.

Macon GA – The most interesting of the stops for the day it was in the heart of the city which looks like it is about 40 years behind the rest of the country.  They had just celebrated the cherry blossom festival despite the cherry trees not having blossoms.  The stores were all decked out though and even the sheriff’s office had painted cherry blossoms in the window.  There were a couple of large museums one named Tubman and dedicated to African-American art and culture and the other being the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. 

On the streets of Macon. I commented on the dog's color and he responded "Cheery Blossoms"

There were plenty of bars in Macon.  At least this one has a sense of humor.

Tifton GA – This is the one I should have found at lunch time with plenty of food options but alas I was planning a short stop just to get enough juice to get to Tallahassee on what has been a very poor day for electricity use.