August 12, 2019

“I feel as if I’m awakening from a dream.” - Deepa, driving over the Whitestone bridge from the Bronx to our home borough of Queens, NY

After 33 days; 7,573 miles; 21 cities and towns in 12 states and 4 provinces across two countries; we’ve finally returned home.

While on the road for more than a month, we started to forget what home felt like. When we walked through our front door, a once familiar living room and kitchen seemed different - bigger than we remembered.

We set out on this journey to create awareness for the carbon emissions crisis; bust myths on BEVs (Battery-Electric Vehicles); find inspiration; and uncover ideas for scalable solutions. Through conversations with family, friends and locals, we collected many thoughtful ideas, enough to propel the next iteration of the project: more to come on that.

We did have one last adventure while off Tesla’s rapid charging network in Winnipeg, Canada.

The day before our arrival in Winnipeg, we stopped in the disarmingly charming Town of Carberry, Manitoba (pop. 1,700) to charge for a couple of hours while we enjoyed a meal and explored the town. When we arrived in Winnipeg that night, much to Deepa’s dismay, I realized that I left our charging adapter behind in Carberry (about a 90 minute drive away). Without that adapter, we couldn’t use the types of chargers common in the area, drastically reducing our charging options and delaying our return. However, Noah, a fellow Tesla owner from Winnipeg, came to our rescue. Upon hearing our story during casual conversation, he graciously offered to sell us his adapter, saving us time and expense.

We met Noah purely by coincidence at the charging station of FortWhyte Alive, a repurposed concrete production site which now serves as the local champion for wildlife and natural ecosystems. With the adapter in hand, we charged our way back onto Tesla's rapid charging network going through Fargo, North Dakota. Once on the network, we drove to Milwaukee, Detroit, Toronto, Buffalo and New York City in about a week, staying in Toronto for several nights.

The most asked question by curious locals was how much did it cost to charge the car. Using the TeslaFi service, we amassed 45 MB of minute-by-minute travel telemetry which we’ll analyze and share in the next email.

Many thanks to our hosts in the Midwest and Buffalo - we’re blessed to have such great family and friends.