Sunday, March 3rd.  Today, was a single charge record for us, 280 miles traveled with 16 miles left on the battery.  Leaving Grand Canyon Park in the early afternoon we travel at a leisurely pace of around 52 to 55 mph and arrive to Gallup without a sweat.

In the morning we tour the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  The weather is quite good and with some mild cloud cover.  The majesty and beauty of the Grand Canyon leaves us in awe.   How to describe the Grand Canyon?  Magnificent,  awesome, amazing, breathtaking, a natural wonder of the planet.   I plan to come back soon and spend more time exploring and hiking down into the canyon.    The afternoon drive is well planned and drama free-for once.   With a relatively flat trip in store for us, we actually “gain” range  by traveling at this modest speed.

Along this leg we passed near to the Petrified Forrest National Park.  It was late in the afternoon and the park was near closing so we went to the next best place.  Jim Gray’s Petrified Wood Co. is the biggest rock store you will every find.  They have thousands of rocks, stones, crystals, petrified wood, and logs.  Apparently, he owns or leases land outside of the National Park, but still within a zone where petrified wood exists, buried underground.  They simply dig this stuff up, then work it and polish it.   I guess a lot of the rest of the products are bought elsewhere or imported from overseas.  Check it out if you are anywhere close to Holbrook, AZ.

We set our sights on Gallup, call in advance to the USA RV park and arrive in the early evening to charge the car overnight.  We arrive with around 25 miles to spare on the battery and decide drive up another exit on the highway for dinner at Cracker Barrel.  Returning to the RV park, John the owner, very pleasant and an active traveler himself, agrees to charge us $10 for the night.  We are the 4th Tesla to charge in his park.  Several motels are nearby within a 0.5 mile walking distance.   This is the first day we perfectly execute  at  managing our range and distance traveled.  It’s a reprieve from the stressful days where we ran into complications.   Perhaps, in the next week we can manage some 300+ mile days.

We are at 3,000 miles and counting.  We need to post the names of more battery winners!!!