Cross Country in a Tesla!
…with my wife and two kids
A Three Part Series by Kip Dambacher.
Family of four driving from San Diego, CA to New York, NY…the planning, charging, and attempts at balancing screen time and adventures. What could go wrong?
Phase 1: The Idea
My wife and I have gotten into a rhythm where we take turns picking destinations for our family summer trips, she chooses a short-term rental in Hawaii and I a long road trip. This works for us and provides a decent balance for my family of four. This summer, my original plan was to fly to Maine, rent a car and explore the northeast coast ending in VA, while using a family member’s home as a base for day trips. At this point, all of our road trips over 2 hours have been done using my 14-20 mpg Ford super crew pickup. My wife’s been a champ, driving her 44 mpg Prius for almost a decade, but it was on its last leg and she had her eye on an EV. When Tesla dropped the price of their Model Y by 20%, we pulled the trigger and “traded” in the Prius. When Tesla delivered the car to our home, we just had to ask if this was the crappiest car the guy had driven away with, but he assured us that our ’09 Prius was not even close and proceeded to tell us stories of cars missing catalytic converters or full exhausts where the short-drive back to Tesla was deafening. Quick side note, such a rad customer experience in buying a car with Tesla: place your order on the app, e-sign paperwork, input loan info or use their financing, upload VIN of trade-in, schedule delivery, and Tesla shows up at your door with your new car. The Tesla rep walked us through its features and then drove away with the old car…easy! It was definitely one of the happier moments seeing my wife’s face with our new car, like a kid on Christmas morning for sure.
Once we decided to get the EV, my mind started to shift to cheaper road trips. If you weren’t in a rush, you could drive across the US and back for free; and even when paying to use a charger, it’s a fraction of the price when compared to the mpg of full size equivalent vehicles. We already had solar at home, so the daily cost saving would make up for the cost of the vehicle when we factored in my wife’s daily commute and using the EV instead of my truck for weekend and long road trips. I went back and rethought my upcoming east coast trip and figured what better way to learn how doable road trips were going to be than to drive across the country? My wife was reluctant at first, but with some texting back and forth throughout the week of places we could go, family and friends we had wanted to visit (which would also cut down on hotel costs), and some other basic travel costs, she was on board. We then started doing more research and planning for the trip. So, instead of flying to Maine, we would drive from San Diego-CA to New York-NY. We figured the additional drive up to Maine would be too much driving and I proposed that my wife and the kids would fly home from NY and I’d drive back myself. Now we needed to think through the details of how to get this done.