Houston, to Baton Rouge, LA – 270 miles.

Sunday, March 10th.   Saturday night was pretty uneventful,  Juan was worn out from the stressful afternoon of almost running the Tesla down to zero charge in The Woodlands, me I wanted to stretch my legs and explore the the City Center shopping area near our Four Point Sheraton hotel in West Houston.  Another great deal hotel deal of $46 from Priceline, name your price.

Sunday upon waking we are ready to move on, heading East we take a short detour to pass through downtown Houston and snap a few pictures.   We head East on I10 and stop in Beaumont for lunch at a truck stop and to charge the car at a local RV park about a half mile from the lunch spot.   The short charge has added about 50 miles on the battery, we want to avoid a repeat of Saturday.  Baton Rouge is not only 184 miles away and we settle on a cheap motel Southeast of downtown, by I12 and Airline Highway.  We make Baton Rouge by evening, tThe motel is about one and a half miles from a Nissan dealership which does not gate the lot after hours- sweet.   We are able to charge the Telsa at the EV charger in the center of the dealership lot and we run back to the motel.  It’s raining and Juan pulls his calf muscle during the run back.  I guess it will be my turn to do the running from now until the end of the road trip.  Juan covered for me a few times earlier in the trip.  Juan retires for the night while I venture back out in the rain to grab dinner at an Applebee’s up the road.  Getting back to the motel, I find Juan has locked me out of the motel room (AGAIN).  Second time this has happened on the trip.  It take ten minutes of banging on the door and the motel front desk clerk calling to the motel room.  I was about ready to call the fire department and he opens the door (Hey, you trying to get in?) da.

The next morning I run back over to Royal Nissan to retrieve the Tesla.  Again, it’s raining.  I stop to thank the dealership staff for use of their charger.  I’m told many of the staff were ogling the Tesla during the morning.  Every dealership we have been to for charging the car has been more than pleasant, friendly and happy to host us.  It’s fun to tell them about our trip across the country.