On January 31st, TxETRA completed our second EV road trip. I joined the crew for the first time, driving my new Tesla Model Y (Dual Motor, Long Range). Since I didn’t start in Austin, my route was 902 miles and it was wonderful! The other TxETRA members ended up driving 1,095 miles.
My first stop to charge was in Centerville, Texas at Woody’s Smokehouse (the east one). Behind the restaurant was a bank of twelve 250kW Tesla Superchargers. If you haven’t visited Woody’s before, I highly recommend it. Woody’s started as a small sandwich shop on the west side of I-45, with a variety of jerky for sale as well. It has grown to two stores, one on each side of the highway. The east one is like a mini Buc-ee’s, including a gas station, Tesla chargers, a gift shop and lots of food choices. I had a great brisket sandwich, which I had to inhale, because my Tesla smartphone app notified me that my car was almost finished charging before I had finished eating.
After my lunch stop, I left the interstate for small, two-lane state highways. It was a peaceful, beautiful drive. The trees were just starting to have leaves after the end of winter. I passed through Woodville, Texas, which is my mom’s birthplace. I stayed the night in Beaumont, after charging at another bank of twelve 250kW Tesla Superchargers on Walden Road. The next morning, I joined the rest of the TxETRA team at the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce to show off our EVs and meet other EV drivers.
The next morning, I joined the rest of the TxETRA team at the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce to show off our EVs and meet other EV drivers.TxETRA personnel included the Chairman of the Board, Andrew Higgins and Executive Administrator Amanda Alandzes in Andrew’s Hummer EV (pickup). Michael Chamberlain, who works for TxDOT, was driving his Tesla Model Y. Being early on a Monday morning, the Beaumont even was relatively uneventful, BUT Beaumont City Council member Albert “A.J.” Turner showed up, driving a Hummer EV (SUV version)!
We were joined on the EV Road Trip by two other organizations: the Texas Electric School Bus Project, represented by Jessica Keithan and Michelle Montague and the Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation, represented by Matt Welch, Jade Gillespie Doss & Skyler Williams. Jessica was accompanied by her whole family and was driving a Ford F-150 Lightning. Skyler was driving his Rivian R1T pickup. Matt and Jade were driving a Volkswagen ID.4.
After Beaumont, it was off to Lufkin, Texas. We had a couple media interviews, in Lufkin, but the nearby freeway noise was an issue. From Lufkin, we drove to Tyler to spend the night before hitting the road again in the morning. There was a bank of Tesla Superchargers about 19 miles from the hotel, in Linden, Texas. Unfortunately, they were in the parking lot of the Collin Street Bakery, so my caloric intake was more than I wanted it to be…
The next morning, we headed over to the Tyler’s W.T. Brookshire Conference Center for another round of meetings and media interviews.
We stopped for lunch in Longview, which was a really nice town with a beautiful downtown area. After lunch, we gave media presentations, interviews and rides at the Longview Chamber of Commerce, where we were joined by an electric school bus, courtesy of Bluebird Bus Company.
A video of the Longview media presentations is shown below:
After we wrapped up in Longview, we headed to our last stop, Texarkana, Texas. We were scheduled to present the next morning, so Michael, Amanda and I headed to a bank of eight Tesla Superchargers located near an Olive Garden and an Outback Steakhouse. We opted for dinner at Outback before heading back to our hotel for a well deserved rest.
The next morning, we headed over to the Texarkana Convention Center, where we presented to local officials and them media before heading to the parking lot to give EV rides to curious members of the media. I got to give the Mayor of Texarkana, Bob Bruggeman a ride in my Tesla and it was a lot of fun. He mentioned that Texarkana had Level 2 chargers downtown, near the courthouse (which stands on the border of Texas and Arkansas), so I had to go check that out…
The Texarkana ABC affiliate broadcast the story below about our visit to their city:
