I started writing blogs back in April when we took our first Tesla road trip.  A college friend encouraged me to do it as she does all her trips to exotic places in the world. I don't want to go back and reread them as I am sure the grammar and spelling was awful.  Starting the blog on the trip and not knowing what I was doing was a real challenge.

We took our Tesla named Elizabeth in for her first yearly check-up a few weeks ago.  Thought this might be a good time to dash off a few notes on how much we love the automobile and how much fun it has been.

We were long overdue for another car in January of 2013.  Our fifteen year old minivan had stacked up over 200,000 miles and was getting to the point where relatively minor fixes were adding up.  The car actually ran great but we started looking around and decided an electric car was really the way to go.

The big problem was that none of them had enough range for us to get to Oklahoma City or to Dallas and back.  Living in the middle of Oklahoma in a small rural town required travel for some of the necessities of life.  The Tesla had the range but at that time we had just finished a complete gutting and renovation of our 1896 bank building/home.  The price sounded a little steep.  A chance of fate in the form of a ride in a Tesla made up our minds to the fact we had to have one somehow.

The next eighteen months we got into a thrifty mode, caught up some bills and paid off our house.  There was a time when Marshell was sort of wondering if we were doing the right thing.  I booked a test drive for him and  then there was no looking back.

Our beautiful black Model S with an 85kw battery arrived in early June of 2014. There was quite a commotion in town when it arrived by car hauler.  To this day we look at it and still cannot believe it is our car.  We have always had new cars but the Tesla is something really different.

The first thing you have to learn about the Tesla is that there is no end to being asked questions about it and I think almost everyone in town has had a ride.  When you drive down the highway, especially in Oklahoma where there are not many of them, people pull up along side, look it over and take pictures.  I don't know how many times we have been asked what kind of a car it is, who makes it and they can't believe it is total electric.  As a Tesla owner you have to realize that you are also a sales person but that is part of the fun.

When we became a Tesla owner there were no Superchargers in Oklahoma.  The nearest one was in Corsicanna, Texas 238 miles away. We purchased a charger for our garage but for long trips that wasn't enough.

So we became very creative and learned to charge at RV parks and hotels.  Our frunk carried two lawn chairs, a sleeping bag and a tent just in case we had to camp for the night to charge up. PlugShare, which is a listing of places all over the world where you can charge, was a help and we even made our garage a member so anyone in need can come and charge here for free. Best thing to remember is that years ago there were not gas stations on every corner and you had to plan ahead.

The Tesla Road Trip "Reach the Beach" to Ocean City, Maryland in April taught us all about the Supercharger Network.  Tesla has a map of all the Supercharges where you can fully charge in 30 to 45 minutes and we planned our trip based on their location. Our only glitch was in Missouri but Columbia, Missouri has a destination charger at a hotel.  It is really for guests only but we talked them into letting us charge with out being a guest.  Actually since the hotel and the charger were fairly new the charger had never been used.  We taught them how to use it and traveled  on to the next Supercharger.  In all, we traveled 4,700 miles for free.  Not bad.

We have driven Elizabeth now for a year, 27,000 miles.  There is basically no maintenance and an eight year unlimited warranty on the motor and battery pack.  We did have a female person, can't call her a lady, back into us but with some ado her insurance paid for the repairs.  The yearly checkup consisted of Tesla service going over the entire car, recharging the air conditioner, checking the wheel alignment, checking the wear on the tires and the computer. It was as close to perfect as it could get.  If you have a problem on the road you just call Tesla and they will either see if they can fix it in the computer or come and rescue you and provide you with a loaner.

Everyone we have come in contact with from Tesla has been very nice to work with. Every owner we have met has been as nice as they could be.  We travel with our dog and he loves it.  He actually wants to sleep in it when we are home.  Guess he is always ready when we say "Road Trip".

There are more models of the Tesla now than when we purchased ours.  I know that if some rich unknown relative left us a large sum of money Marshell would want a P85D or P90D that has four wheel drive and flies down the road.  Soon there will be an SUV and in a year or two a less expensive model as well built with a range of about 200 miles on a charge. But we are perfectly happy with ours and will be for years to come.

My outlook on the Tesla is that you can't afford not to purchase one.  There is something very cool about jumping in the Tesla to run up and down the back roads in Oklahoma looking old buildings or dashing thirty-eight miles to go to Starbucks without a thought of buying gas.

If you have any questions or comments there is a place at the end of my story to put them or shoot me an email. Please feel free to share this with friends you think might wonder about the best automobile ever built.