Time Event Range Remaining 9:05 am Departed Logan 243 11:07 am Arrived Blackfoot Bear 119 Range/Distance ratio: 1.06 Conditions: Fast We packed and checked out of Springhill Suites in Logan to head north and cross into Idaho for the first time on our trip. I wanted our next stop to be lunch in Idaho Falls, a little over two hours away. I knew the car had enough charge to make it in one shot. When we approached the Pocatello Supercharger, which was partway to our lunch stop, I asked the children if we wanted to stop here and they said no. I was so proud of driving a mobility solution that had more Superchargers than the car needed to accomplish such an ambitious trip I was perfectly happy to carry on.

But we didn't make it to Idaho Falls in one drive. We had to stop in Blackfoot Bear at some local trucker rest stop convenience store (with no charging) where the kids rushed out of the car to run to the bathroom. If only the kids asked for a bathroom break back at Pocatello when I asked.

This is where you and I need to have a little talk. Too many people falsely claim that EV drivers universally experience white-knuckled "Range Anxiety". If that were true, you'd expect it to occur on a 4647-mile road trip. No that didn't happen on this 4647-mile trip. That had no chance because "Bathroom Anxiety", a phrase I coined right here in Idaho in the trip, always hit first. Anyone can see here, and in several other instances before and after on this trip and on our other trips, the car had enough range to make it, but the physiological limitations of the humans demanded a stop first.

Bathroom Anxiety: worry on the part of a person riding in a car that their bladder or bowels will be unable to hold its accumulating contents before the destination or a suitable location to relieve oneself is reached.

For the sake of the children, I should've stopped at the Pocatello Supercharger. They would've been far more comfortable. It became a pattern from this stop forward that we visit almost every Supercharger on our route, not because the car needed charge, but because the children need the restroom. You will see in the numbers that the car could've gone further.

Time Event Range Remaining 11:06 am Departed Blackfoot Bear 119 11:44 am Arrived Idaho Falls Supercharger 81 Range/Distance ratio: 1.23 Conditions: 80-mph speed limit, 87°F After departing Blackfoot Bear, we arrived at the Idaho Falls Supercharger where a biking event was occurring. We had lunch at MacKenzie Pizza, Grill, & Pub. Cost to Charge: $0

We decided that we would take the car to another car wash here in Idaho Falls, since we probably weren't going to have nice facilities near Yellowstone. After my wife joined us in Logan, we already planned to ship one of her suitcases back home. After a stop at the Snake River Rapid Wash, we didn't quite make it to the FedEx before they closed 1 pm Saturday, so we had to go to a UPS store. That delayed our departure from the city.

Time Event Range Remaining 12:59 pm Departed Idaho Falls Supercharger 234 2:01 pm Departed Idaho Falls 222 11:34 pm Arrived Snake River 130 Range/Distance ratio: 1.15 Conditions: Mountain highway, 95°F Now we could finally get back to driving away from the Interstate. A few other conference attendees gave my wife a few tips for sightseeing along this route, and one of them was a stop at Snake River (see top picture).

We hiked down from the parking lot to see the river up close, including several small boats of river rafters. My wife and I wanted to do it, but my daughter said "No way". After taking some pictures, we continued northeast.

US Highway 26 approaching Hoback, Wyoming

Such beautiful scenery was a reason I wanted to drive this road trip. Every curve in the road brings us to new natural beauty we had not seen before. Time Event Range Remaining 4:06 pm Departed Snake River 128 4:46 pm Arrived Jackson, Wyoming 94 Range/Distance ratio: 1.1 Conditions: Mountain highway We checked into the Lexington in Jackson Hole which is on the Tesla Destination Network and just north of the central square of Jackson. Once we loaded the luggage into the room, I plugged the car into the Tesla charger near some trees. Cost to Charge: $0

While the car charged, we enjoyed the pool, then went out to dinner at a restaurant in the town square. It was a bit touristy but still fun to look around.

My daughter insisted I take a picture of the passing horse and stagecoach, a form of long-distance travel that in a previous century was considered modern but, as has happened so often before, is later relegated to exist only as a nostalgic echo of the past.