Day 4: Sedona, AZ to Santa Fe, NM

Before we set out on our long day of driving to Santa Fe, we took a hike from Paul’s house to the Sedona Airport Vortex. This is a red sandstone dome with a 360 degree view of Sedona and the surrounding area. 

“A Vortex is a place in nature where the earth is exceptionally alive with energy.  The term Vortex in Sedona refers to a place where the earth energy swirls and draws to it’s center everything that surrounds it like a tornado. At these magical sites, trees often exhibit this swirling or twisting of their trunks due the powerful vortex energy at the core of a Sedona Vortex.”

After charging up with vortex energy we said goodbye to Paul and Colleen and started driving to Santa Fe. We had to slow down in Winslow Arizona cuz it's such a fine site to see, just as it was 10 years ago. Yes, we are those tourists.

We have started getting into a rhythm of driving for a few hours then charging for 30 to 60 minutes. While the car is charging we take a walk and perhaps shop or get a bite to eat.

The last two days we have traveled 900+ miles but we don’t have those “stuck in the car, unending road, sucking those gas fumes blues”. We have fallen into a pleasant relaxing rhythm of driving for a few hours then charging for 30 to 60 minutes. We always take a walk and combine that with a little shopping, snacking or browsing.

Despite all the jokes about RANGE ANXIETY (fear of running out of energy before getting to a charging station) we have just had 2 times where our car told us we had to slow down to make it to the next charging station. Both times we had joined a high speed flow of traffic and decreasing our speed for a bit corrected the situation. I guess we can’t drive coast to coast at 90 mph.

There is a trade off between charging just enough to get to the next station under ideal conditions, and charging a bit more to have extra energy for driving faster or taking a detour to see something interesting. If you drive faster you get there sooner but then you have to charge longer. In a gas car you can rocket across the country just stopping for fast food and gas. In the Tesla you have to relax and smell the roses.

Trip Stats

430 miles 137 kWh  319 Wh/mi  today

1339 miles  432.5 kWh  323 Wh/mi  TOTAL