Casteyanqui.com | Electric Vehicles | Another Roadtrip to SLC

Another Roadtrip
to SLC
in our Model 3

Mark D Larsen
July 17-19, 2023

Back to my Birthplace
(Click to enlarge)

Several weeks ago, Tamara had scheduled a doctor’s appointment in Salt Lake City at the University of Utah Medical Center, where her niece had graduated a little over a year ago. We therefore planned to spend three days and two nights on a short roadtrip to keep that appointment. Below are a few photos and movies of the trip.

NOTE: You can click on the following photos to enlarge them, and the movies to play them.

The usual introductory video to explain where we're going on this short roadtrip.

We were a bit surprised to see that, despite the blistering heat wave right now in July, there was still a bit of snow on the Wasatch peaks.

You can see that, when we arrived in Beaver to supercharge, our energy efficiency was mostly in the "green."

I just had to take a photo of this roadsign to honor Moxie!

Ironically, we arrived at the Superchargers in Nephi with "orange" efficiency on the display.

I was pleased to see that Tesla had expanded this site, doubling the number of Superchargers with v.3 models.

We arrived in SLC and checked into the VRBO unit that we had rented.

It was a fairly new, clean, modern townhouse, with three floors: a garage on the bottom, a kitchen and lounge on the 2nd floor, and two bedrooms and baths on the top.

Moxie was happy to get out of the car and explore our lodging for the next couple of nights.

I wasn't sure that Moxie could climb the stairs with her short legs, but she sure proved me wrong in this video!

That evening we decided to have dinner at an Indian restaurant, the Mumbai House. The food was absolutely delicious, the best Indian cuisine we have ever tasted, and surprisingly inexpensive.

Both nights at the townhouse I simply used my UMC to charge Correcaminos from a lowly 120V outlet in the garage. It never managed to fill the battery to our usual 80%, but it gave us enough on the second night to reach the Nephi Superchargers again on the way home.

Here is the medical office building a the U of U where Tamara had her appointment.

It is an impressive facility, with a pleasant, welcoming waiting area.

En route back to Nephi, I snapped this photo of Mount Nebo, the tallest peak on the Wasatch Front.

We arrived in Nephi again with nearly green efficiency.

Not so in Beaver, with mainly orange efficiency.

And we arrived home with more orange in the St. George heat of 109°F.

As you can see in the last photo, we’d driven 681 miles round trip, using 259 Wh/mi, i.e., 3.86 miles-per-kWh, only 0.02 more than the EPA gives for our Model 3. Not bad at all! Yes, we did experience more Tourette Syndrome instances with Autopilot, with ping-ponging between lanes, one of which gave Tamara a serious panic attack —and I can’t say I blame her. Oddly enough, I also discovered that the car would “phantom brake” whenever the dotted lines changed to double lines in HOV lanes. I would have to press the accelerator in these instances to keep going the speed limit. Tsk. Go figure.
The good news is that, a few days after the trip, Tamara received the results from her doctor’s appointment, which were definitively positive and reassuring. She won’t have to return to do a follow up for another year. Yay!

The usual introductory video to explain where we're going on this short roadtrip.
We were a bit surprised to see that, despite the blistering heat wave right now in July, there was still a bit of snow on the Wasatch peaks.	You can see that, when we arrived in Beaver to supercharge, our energy efficiency was mostly in the "green."
I just had to take a photo of this roadsign to honor Moxie!	Ironically, we arrived at the Superchargers in Nephi with "orange" efficiency on the display.
I was pleased to see that Tesla had expanded this site, doubling the number of Superchargers with v.3 models.	We arrived in SLC and checked into the VRBO unit that we had rented.
It was a fairly new, clean, modern townhouse, with three floors: a garage on the bottom, a kitchen and lounge on the 2nd floor, and two bedrooms and baths on the top.	Moxie was happy to get out of the car and explore our lodging for the next couple of nights.
I wasn't sure that Moxie could climb the stairs with her short legs, but she sure proved me wrong in this video!
That evening we decided to have dinner at an Indian restaurant, the Mumbai House. The food was absolutely delicious, the best Indian cuisine we have ever tasted, and surprisingly inexpensive.	Both nights at the townhouse I simply used my UMC to charge Correcaminos from a lowly 120V outlet in the garage. It never managed to fill the battery to our usual 80%, but it gave us enough on the second night to reach the Nephi Superchargers again on the way home.
Here is the medical office building a the U of U where Tamara had her appointment.	It is an impressive facility, with a pleasant, welcoming waiting area.
En route back to Nephi, I snapped this photo of Mount Nebo, the tallest peak on the Wasatch Front.	We arrived in Nephi again with nearly green efficiency.
Not so in Beaver, with mainly orange efficiency.	And we arrived home with more orange in the St. George heat of 109°F.