We rested well at the Sprinhill Suites and headed off in hope of making it home in one day. Karen really isn’t well and is sleeping 20 out of 24 hours each day. I’m keen to get home. Tulsa to Van Buren We headed off and got the benefit of well maintained toll roads again. After rejoining I-40 the going wasn’t as comfortable. The cars navigation wanted me to charge at Ozark which is just beyond Van Buren. Since we knew we could make the stretch from Brinkley to Van Buren without stopping it seemed to make more sense to stop at Van Buren instead. This turned out to be a mistake, I should have tr ..read more

Tucamcari to Amrillo We didn’t make it to Amarillo as we had hoped for yesterday, which means we are at least two days from home. We headed straight out after breakfast and our first stop was at Amarillo TX. This was a quick 16 minute charge and bathroom break. Amarillo to Shamrock We drove directly to Shamrock where there is a neat retro gas station and Route 66 Museum. The Museum was open being a weekday and we grabbed an ice cream and got some Route 66 stickers. They have a map where you put a pin where you live and I had a hard time squeezing my pin. The staff said they remove all pins ea ..read more

Albuquerque Service Center I headed off to the Tesla Service Center north of Albuquerque at 8am. It was just five minutes from the Hotel we stayed in. When I arrived I saw just six Tesla’s plugged in charging and not much else. It didn’t look very open. I approached someone at the Service Center and they asked how they could help. I asked if they were open to which he said no, not yet. I explained what was wrong with our car. They had no techs at the service center so he couldn’t offer any service at all. He said any garage can remove the broken Aero Shield until I can get to a Service Center ..read more

We really enjoyed our stay at the Grand Canyon. Karens’s health has deteriorated and we discussed returning home. Our original plans were to go to Utah next and see Zion National Park among others and work our way home via Colorado Springs. Instead we agreed to one more destination before returning. We chose to go to Page AZ which is just over 138 miles away, but more importantly two thousand feet lower in elevation to help Karen’s breathing. The most direct route to Page is through the Grand Canyon Park, so we had to set off early to beat any long lines of people trying to get into the park ..read more

For our first full day at the Grand Canyon we took one of the parks shuttle buses. Many of the viewpoints are only available by shuttle bus during the high season. This prevents the parking lots or pull-overs from overflowing with private vehicles allowing more people to enjoy the sights. We got to the park at 8:30 am and took the sights in until just after 1 am. With our Senior Pass we can afford to leave the park and re-enter later in the evening. The views are stunning and each view point was unique in its own way. As we were sitting on the bus we saw a couple get on with T-Shirts advertis ..read more

The drive from Sedona to the Grand Canyon is relatively short at about two hours. I planned a charging stop at Flagstaff and we also picked up some supplies at WalMart. We arrived quite early and were lucky to be able to get an early check-in at our hotel. The staff were very helpful and let me know I could use electrical outlets on lamposts in their parking lot to charge our car. I discovered that the 120v pigtail Tesla supplies has a ninety-degree at the plug which turns the cable in the wrong direction for the recessed sockets. I now know that I should carry a short extension cord with a st ..read more

We woke up and realized we didn’t have to pack and jump in the car for another day of driving. Sedona is a really beautiful city. It is very clean, strict building codes have even made MacDonalds change the color of their arches from yellow to green. One feature of the city that is awesome is that there is not a single red light in the city, all intersections are roundabouts and traffic just keeps moving. When exiting a business one can only turn right should you wish to turn left you use the next roundabout to do a U turn. Well designed city. Most of the restaurants are high quality and we ha ..read more

Gallup is 6,467 ft in elevation and we could tell our breathing was more difficult. According to my Fit my blood oxygen levels are lower, resting heart rate higher and respiration rate went up. We are heading to Sedona next which is 4,350 ft in elevation so we should breathe easier tonight. On the way to Sedona we visited the Petrified Forest National Park. Gallup to Holbrook We had read that the most interesting parts of the Petrified Forest are on the southern section so we decided to drive past the forest to Holbrook and double back to the southern entrance. We topped off our charge at Holb ..read more

Car looses its brain in Autopilot. As we jumped back onto I-40 I put the vehicle in Autopilot for the long drive ahead. Within a few minutes the car slowed and simultaneously tried to change into the passing lane as it was braking. I aborted the maneuver and put the car back onto autopilot. This problem repeated which was annoying but then the car did something quite dangerous, as it was returning to the right hand lane it suddenly slowed and returned to the passing lane, the car behind must have been very confused. This could have caused an accident. I stopped using Autopilot after this, even ..read more

We slept late until 8 am and almost missed the breakfast at the Holiday Inn we stayed at. Today is the “big stretch” from Arkansas to Oklahoma City the longest stretch without another supercharger this entire trip. The cars nav told us to top off again prior to leaving, about 10 miles were used by sentry mode which records activity close to the car while parked overnight. We set off at 10 am to see how far we could go. As we crossed the state line into Oklahoma we were greeted by some of the worst roads we have ever traveled on. Such a stark contrast to Arkansas. Van Buren AR to Oklahoma City ..read more