48 hours

I returned last evening from a long road trip to Texas to attend my niece’s graduation ceremony. It was a very condensed trip over 5 days which included a total of roughly 48 hours of driving, yes 48 hours. I will get into some details about the drive in a bit.

I had not seen my sister or her family in around two years. In that time period the kids, especially Griffin have grown like crazy. I am pretty sure he has sprung up at least 7 or 8 inches since I last saw him.

I got to see their dog and my good buddy Ozzy who of course was beyond excited. Their house was looking great. Damon had completed a number of projects since I last visited. I have always wished I had the same degree of construction expertise as he has. He has the ability to build an entire house himself, if he wanted to.

Emily’s graduation ceremony was very cool, held in a big ballroom. The event included dinner, the ceremony itself, and music/dancing afterward. It was very well done. Afterward we headed back to their house where the kids kicked my ass in some video games, one of their favorite things to do with Uncle Shawn. We also went out for a dinner and a couple big breakfasts while there, the last of which was Sunday morning, the day I pulled out. It was really nice to see everyone and made me wish that 1400 miles was not always between us.

The drive back was just as long of course but thanks to the Tesla full self driving feature it was way less stressful than it could have been. FSD was nothing short of amazing.

If I were to guess the car drove itself for 95% of the trip and it did so pretty flawlessly. This was not a case of just allowing it to take over in wide open highways. I allowed FSD to navigate crazy busy Dallas rush hour traffic and the car did not flinch. It handled people cutting in and out, squeezing over to get to the correct exit and every other scenario you could imagine without issue. It totally changed the stress level of the journey.

Of course I could drive in that traffic but it requires your head being on a swivel as you are limited to your maybe 145 degree field of vision as opposed to seeing 360 degrees in real time as the car does. Being able to just pick a destination and have the car do the heavy lifting is a real game changer when it comes to being able to tolerate long drives such as this. In addition the seats are so comfortable that even with that amount of saddle time my ass or back was never in significant discomfort.

Charging the car was easy as well as it automatically routes you through superchargers as necessary. Most of the charge stops were 15 minutes or less. People view having to charge more often than filling up your car with gas as a huge hassle. It’s not in reality, at least for me. Each driving segment is normally between one and a half and two and half hours in length. After that period of time getting out to stretch my legs, use the bathroom and grab a drink or snack is welcomed, not annoying. To me the Tesla gets an A+ for it’s performance during this trip.

I am tired today as I did not allow myself an additional day off to get things back in order with this trip but I will survive. It was a good experience in every aspect and I’m glad I did it.