Planning for something big, New to me, Holiday play

My girlfriend and I have started planning to do something I have not done for a very long time, a significant western road trip. I have done a number of these type of trips dating back to my marriage with Alison when we used to do them in my shitty conversion vans with Nicki and Sadie along for the ride. I did several of these with Cindy as well however once I got chickens I never felt like I was able to be away from home long enough to do another western journey.

My girlfriend and I have done some road trips, the longest being the drive to Texas for my niece’s high school graduation but this is an entirely different level of trip. Last night I did some preliminary mapping and if things go as planned it would be damn close to a 6000 mile trip overall. I have done a similar route in the past but I believe I did it in two weeks before. I only have 11 or possibly 12 days allocated this time so it’s going to be challenging. The farthest most point in the journey would be Yellowstone Park with us seeing a number of cool things along the way.

Doing this in the Tesla is going to have positives and negatives. The biggest negative is doing long trips in an EV definitely takes longer because charging is not as fast as filling a tank with gas. However not filling a tank with gas is also a big positive especially now with gas prices sky high thanks to big D’s blunders in Iran. The other positive is my full self driving subscription is going to be a huge help in making hundreds of miles of driving each day much more tolerable. I expect the car to likely do at least 90% of the trip in FSD mode. The seats in the Tesla are also amongst the most comfortable I have ever sat in so that’s a plus as well. Road trips like this can be a grind for sure but they are countered by the diversity and experiences you have along the way. We still have details to finalize but hopefully it all comes together.

The seat that I designed for the Commander GT Pro Plus finally completed printing last night. It was a two day plus print that took closer to a week in real time due to me running out of a filament. The seat looks pretty good although it isn’t as soft as I imagined due to the print settings I used. I will have to try affixing it to the wheel this weekend and see how well it works out.

The new to me dishwasher I installed Tuesday evening has been working well even without me installing the correct counter hardware or replacement door switch. I plan to leave it as is unless I have some sort of issue. I have always been an if it’s not broke don’t fix it type of person normally.

I plan on celebrating Memorial Day this weekend by playing in my second pickleball tournament. It looks like it will have a slightly bigger field than my first tourney I played in October which should be fun. I am competing with one of the guys I play with regularly at lunch during the week so we both are very familiar with how each other plays. Of course I am hoping for a winning outcome but I hope to just play well and come out of it without a limp.