This week we left Aurora behind as we took off on the first annual Kraft Family Vacation!
This content was originally posted on Aurora the Airstream.
We have had this trip planned for a year, but due to COVID-19 our plans changed a little bit when it came to travel arrangements.
Our family and my husband’s immediate family had planned to fly to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and stay in a beach house for a week. The extra hands from his parents and siblings were going to be helpful as we navigated air travel with two children for the first time (we’ve got it down pat with Parker, he flew ten times before his first birthday!). However, with COVID making air travel potentially unsafe, we decided to change our mode of transportation to one where we could appropriately social distance. That meant road tripping from Texas to North Carolina, and over 22 hours and 1500 miles in the car with two babies under two! What better time to do our first road trip in our Tesla?
When you think about it though, it actually makes a lot of sense. Obviously the Tesla is significantly cheaper to take across the country than our gas-guzzling Volvo (as much as we love Ygritte). Jordan also claims that the Tesla is roomier inside than the Volvo, although I have my doubts about this. Additionally, we needed to plan to stop every 2-3 hours to feed Charlie and get her out of her car seat (we did this with a lot of success with Parker on his first road trip, picking up Aurora from New Mexico when he was six weeks old!). This meant our charging stops would be perfectly timed with our stops to feed the baby.
Planning our stops was really easy using the Better Route Planner app, which we specifically downloaded for this trip. The app has a free version as well as a monthly subscription. We managed to get a 14 day free trial for this trip. We could have just used the navigation on the Tesla to plan our stops, but this app allowed us to adjust specific parameters (how long you want to stop to charge, your expected speed, your car’s average power consumption) to tailor our stops to our needs.
A few things to keep in mind while on a long trip with a Tesla:
- No spare tire – this means if you have a flat you will have to call their roadside service to come assist you.
- Keep an eye on your power usage and give yourself plenty of leeway, as driving conditions may affect your usage. Temperature and weather conditions can drastically affect the range you may have.
- Charging arrangements at your destination – make sure to bring your charger and an extension cord, and keep in mind that you may be plugging your car into a standard 120V outlet. These typically charge at a rate of 5mph, and even less if you have to use the extension cord to reach it.
We set out from Fort Worth on Friday morning with the plan to drive half way to North Carolina, stopping overnight in Oxford, Alabama. We left at 5am, with our first stop planned for Collin Street Bakery in Lindale, where we would meet up with Jordan’s family.
From there we made our way across Louisiana, Mississippi, and into Alabama before stopping for the night. We averaged about 130 miles between stops, with our average stopping time about 20-25 minutes. The kids did pretty well with the time between stops, with Charlie snoozing between feeds and Parker playing on the Amazon Fire tablet and phone most of the way.
Day two of travel also dawned bright and early after a semi-rough night in the hotel using the toddler bed. Charlie slept like a champ, but Parker had a tough time settling in. Everyone was thrilled to finally arrive at the house around 7pm.
We had a fun-filled week of early morning fishing, late night game playing, beach days, pool days, family workouts, and ate a ton of food. The kids had a blast too. Check out some of our photos below! As always, thanks for following us and feel free to ask questions in the comments or via email. We’ll be back next week with an Aurora update!
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