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Shortly after buying our Tesla Model Y Long Range in December 2023, the much faster charging compared to our 2015 Model S made the whole continent feel open to us, at least anywhere with Superchargers within roughly a 200-mile radius. We paired that with the total solar eclipse crossing the eastern United States in April 2024 and drove from Utah to Key West, Florida, and back, crossing the path of totality along the way.
Planning the trip
- Loose itinerary, firm pacing. We avoid over-scheduling road trips to stay flexible, but planned at a high level so we'd be home in time for work.
- Book what sells out. Tickets to the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri had to be bought in advance.
- Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky. Every cave requires a ranger-guided tour reservation, and they're scarce. When booking months ahead, spots for our dates were gone within seconds, but we got two cave tours over two days plus a campsite inside the park.
- Preparing the car. I applied paint protection film to the front, back, and sides of the Model Y myself (PPF video series).
The trip by the numbers
Driving vs charging
- 121 hours driving vs 24.22 hours Supercharging, about 5 hours of driving for every 1 hour of Supercharging.
- 61 Supercharger sessions, adding 2,346.74 kWh. Another 433.94 kWh came from AC (Level 2) charging over 110.12 hours (time we weren't waiting on it).
- 2,780.68 kWh charged in total (DC + AC); 2,434.73 kWh used driving.
- Average efficiency 339.63 Wh/mile at an average temperature of 64°F, with the Thule roof box on for every drive.
- Longest single leg: the very first, 203.19 miles in 3 hours 10 minutes, using 97% of the battery at 65 mph with 1,615 ft of elevation gain.
What it cost
Without free Supercharging, the cost would have been about the same as an efficient gas car: a 27 mpg vehicle would have cost $937 and a 32 mpg vehicle $790, at a $3.53 national average for gas. The big savings of electric vehicles come from charging at home most of the time.
| Admission (Mammoth Cave tours, Gateway Arch, Kennedy Space Center and more) | $730.57 |
| Hotels (4 nights, 2 hotels) and campsites | $511.33 |
| Groceries | $133.05 |
| Fast food | $108.92 |
| Tolls | $71.12 |
| Souvenirs (mostly park magnets) | $50.16 |
| Parking | $12.75 |
| Grand total | $1,617.90 |
Where we went
National parks: Gateway Arch (Missouri), Mammoth Cave (Kentucky), Great Smoky Mountains (Tennessee), Congaree (South Carolina), Biscayne and Everglades (Florida), Hot Springs (Arkansas), and Great Sand Dunes (Colorado).
States: Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado.
Nights: 12 with family, 1 with friends, 4 camping, and 4 in hotels.
What's covered
00:00Introduction02:49A brief summary of our actual route and activities04:31Planning the trip07:24Driving vs charging stats14:33Observation summaries18:26All our trip expenses