Happy 2016 (in and out the Tesla galaxy)

Now that the Creature is (finally) here, 2016 holds the promise of being an exuberant New Year as far as being a Tesla-wife on the road with a Model S is concerned (of course, the guy responsible for the "wife" and the Model S parts of the deal is coming along, how could he not, right?).
The picture on the left was taken in Hemingway's House in Key West, just after Marathon, my first sight of a Tesla supercharger, and after the resolution (or my quiet acquiescence) that Tesla would become a part of our daily lives. A few months later, we now know what that resolution truly means. So, stay tuned as the open, wide road unfolds and may 2016 bring us all joy.
Happy New Year!

Leaving Florida: DeFuniak Springs

On our way out of Florida, there was (as there had to be) a quick pitch stop at DeFuniak Springs. A quite rundown place that no amount of filters and cropping can begin to beautify. Neither can the pose of this here yours truly.

Until better knowledge, I get the impression you only go to DeFuniak if you must as in the case: you must because your batteries are kinda low and, hey, you need to get out of Florida. Also, a typical instance of my acting the Tesla-wife. Would I ever set foot in DeFuniak if Tesla hadn't made it to my life? Er... yep... I guess you've guessed...
For him it was another box ticked, though.

But ok, you have to give some credit to a place where the heat is so stiffling it acts as a natural vapoury filter (just check below to prove me right) and where the motto is that perennial epitome of originality "Where the past meets the future". Well, come to think of it, Tesla is, ideed, the future...

Ocala and Lake City, Florida

Second supercharger in one day. Ocala, of its name and grace. We stop. We take the mandatory pictures. We're off. Still, the day is not over yet. No, Sir, it isn't.
Highway 75 and, a few hours later, jackpot (not for me, mind you). Just before sundown there's Lake City and the THIRD supercharger in one, single day. We stop. There are Teslas charging and, to my alarm, there's a Tesla owner in one of the Model Ss. No need to explain what followed...

Being a Tesla-wife is, I tell you, an exercise in patience.

Still in Florida

Back to the past before the future.
We stayed in Tampa for the night and decided to go the extra mile the morning after to go to nearby Brandon, where there is a Tesla charging station. "What the heck", I thought, a tad weary of having embarked on a supercharger road trip, "as long as we move northwards and I have the chance to go and see the manatees somewhere in Homosassa or Crystal River, fine by me."

And so I thus found myself on another fine morning playing the patient Tesla-wife of a bloke flabbergasted at the astonishing quantity of superchargers all in one place.

I did get to see the manatees, though. Not all was lost but little did I know there was going to be another Tesla-moment before the sun was out...

A Merry Tesla Christmas

Once Tesla finds a way into your life, things are bound to become a bit Tesla-crazy.
For Christmas, I gave my husband a link, via text message, with this blog. The darn'd thing is he has two mobile phones and I sent the message to the one he was not using. Then I sent another one but, for all my sins, the blog was misspelt and it was only at the third attempt that he finally got the SMS. Ludicrous!
For Christmas, he finally got his Model S. It arrived safe and sound on the 23 and not before my husband went to Holland to personally oversee the car being "expedited" to Portugal. He got on a plane back home and, through the app he was constantly monitorng the process (a stress if you ask me).
For Christmas, he also thought he deserved a Tesla cap (suits him alright). And what about me? What did I get out of all this insane mode? I got the Aurland Tote to go with my Tesla-wife status. Oh, and yes, the tote got the name of a supercharger in..., right, Norway. It seems they live la Tesla vida loca up there.

Happy Christmas, y'all!

Onward to Fort Myers

As I write this, it's the Day Before Christmas and I'm here reminescing about a time of summer when my husband and I were chasing superchargers on our U.S. coast-to-coast roadtrip. Much has happened meantime, particularly as regards the contents of our garage and what's parked there-in. Still, let's resume at where we were.
After Marathon, we did get to Key West and, on the way back to the mainland, we detoured to the amazing Everglades and, before we knew it, it was time to go back to finding more superchargers. Next, on the road was Fort Myers, Fl.

And, this time, the supercharger came with a bonus: a Model S charging and one of those moments one really feels a Tesla-wife.

After midnight tonight, the Tesla aficionado pictured above (literally in the dark as to this yours truly having a blog about things Tesla) is in for a surprise as this is my Christmas present to him. I think I'll text him with the blog's address and a note of Happy Christmas!

Miami-Marathon-Key West

There was a plan, a quite simple one, actually: to do the first leg of a coast-to-coast road trip. We would start the journey in Miami, have a viapoint in Key West and then circumdrive the Gulf of Mexico up to Texas to end in Houston, where we would resume the trip next year.

However, as it so often happens, plans are meant to be unplanned. My husband was considering placing an order for a Model X but the car was only going to be out in the market in October, which meant that it would take much, much longer to get to Europe and he was impatient. Besides, those falcon wings were unappealing to both of us and we could imagine that the price for a Model X was going to be, well..., ludicrous. Because I'm a sufferer of range-anxiety (I never let my tank below half its capacity), we thought the Thought: why not do as we had intended but with a twist? We would make our road trip based on the super-charger network that exists in the U.S., that is, we would coincide the stretches of the road trip with the super-chargers along the way. Long story short, there was a super-charger right in the middle of the Overseas Highway on our way to Key West.

And so, despite driving conventional, which I now know better to call ICE (internal combustion engine), we role-played owning a Tesla already and check if the planned coast-to-coast road trip was feasible on an all-electric vehicle. This is truly where the story begins and Marathon, Florida, was our first pitch-stop, or I should better say, our first super-charger stop.

My husband was the proverbial kid in a candy shop...

It was just a test-drive

He had done a Model S test drive somewhere in Europe. He said something about going to Belgium or Holland to test the car and I did not give it a moment's attention. I might have driven him to the airport (we live in Portugal) and that was my sole contribution for that Tesla-moment of his. But, it so happened we had holidays in the United States planned and I ventilated the thought of him asking for another test-drive in Miami and asking all questions he had not asked in Europe (he was considering ordering a Model X but there were no test-drives available because the car was not out in the market yet).
We arrived in Miami on a late Saturday evening. His test-drive was scheduled for the following Monday morning but, alas (alas, for me), right on Sunday morning we were at the shopping mall with the Tesla store and he, of course, had to go check where the Teslas were parked.
I..., I was the Tesla-wife taking the pictures and just wishing we might still have the time to do something else, go somewhere else on that glorious Sunday of Miami by the beach instead of being stuck inside some nondescript mall.

The journey starts

Some say there are Instagram husbands, I say there are Tesla-wives. I am one.
My husband's über-love for Tesla has provided me with ample opportunities to exercise my ungift at photography, scour Tesla shops in search for anything not car-related, force myself to knowing what superchargers are and understand that, in this whole wide world of ours, there are ludicrous speeds, insane modes, a ton of Tesla aficionados in Norway and cars with falcon wings that do not belong in Star Wars. Not loving cars in general and not much conversant with Teslas in particular, I found myself sharing my life with Tesla-moments (in virtually infinite quantities and always more than I had, could, ever have anticipated).

Ironic as it gets, I have also come to believe that Tesla is just the best car ever made although I seldom share this view with my husband for fear of unleashing the beast, an engineer PhD grabbing all chances to speak Engineering (eat your heart out Sheldon Cooper 'cause you don't stand a chance!).

Out and about with my husband, either chasing superchargers or engaging in some Tesla-like activity (whatever that is), this is what I look like: a woman musing over her infinite patience and still flummoxed by the fact that Tesla happened to her.

This blog happens as a sort of mirror to my husband's own "On the road with Tesla", a road I sometimes happen to share, and because I sense there's not much of a feminine voice writing about Tesla. Join me as I embark on a journey that will take me throughout the Tesla galaxy and beyond...