I posted a message last year on the Tesla forum about an upcoming round trip of about 200 miles and whether I could make it on my then Model S 60 in Winter. The consensus was that I’d have to find some charging solution at my destination. Shortly before the trip, Tesla opened its Supercharger in my destination of Columbia, SC. Problem solved.
My next challenge was a round trip to Birmingham, AL. Again, I was going to have to find some local charging solution that was going to be very inconvenient. But a month before the trip, Tesla opened its Supercharger in Birmingham.
So a couple weeks ago, I was visiting family in Martinsburg, WV. Now with my Model S upgraded to 75 kWh, this round trip was fairly easy, but still if I drove a lot at my destination I’d have to find some charging. When I got there, I was greeted with “Oh, did you know they’ve built a new Supercharger here in Martinsburg?” It’s not on Tesla’s map, but the station is physically complete (photo following), but wasn’t online. I’ll be back there often.
Now I have several likely trips coming up to Charlottesville, VA. Last time I went there, charging was messy. I had to use some 120 V AC charging, and then for an unexpected side trip I had a 20 minute drive to get to Martin Horn Inc. to charge at his solar-powered HPWC, with a long sit in the car. On another trip there I had a long sit in the car at a Nissan dealership in the middle of the night. Guess what Supercharger is under construction now?
[Update: 9/23/2017] The Charlottesville Supercharger is complete, and I charged there this week.
Reading this article now in 2021, it seems rather quaint. There are so many more Tesla Superchargers now. Since then I got a Tesla Model 3 LR RWD and took a 5,000-mile trip across the US and back. No problem.