This, I call ‘Wild’…

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These past few months, which I’d call our ‘Social Media Warm-Up Phase’, we worked hard on getting the word out that hubby Rolf, Golden Lab Kye and I are going to cross Canada in a 100% electric Tesla Model X this summer to promote sustainable energy and zero-emissions transportation. I hope you’ve had fun following us so far! Now it’s time for a surprise:

The one thing we kept from you, the one thing we had planned from the start, but wanted to keep a secret for a little while longer, is…

Dalli Klick1

…ah, not so fast 😉 Let’s get back to how it all started:

Rolf and I never expected to get an invitation to the launch party of the Tesla Model X. When we got the invitation email, we were thrilled. So much so, that Rolf had to call his friends to share the exciting news before even accepting the invite online – until I interrupted him and asked him to better accept the invite RIGHT.NOW! – which he did (good hubby!). Lo and behold, about 10 minutes later, the party was fully booked. Late November 2015, we flew from Victoria BC to Fremont CA for just that one night. What a great party it was! Thank you, Tesla Motors, for a great evening! Best of all: I stood in the 2nd row and enjoyed my first time seeing Elon Musk live in action. Gosh, that guy is such an inspiration! The great features of the Tesla Model X got us more and more excited – we had ordered one about 15 months before the launch party. At some point during the presentation, I had an “aha moment”. To be precise, it happened when the Model X pulled an airstream trailer onto the stage…

So, this is it, this is our ‘One Wild Idea’: This summer, we will cross Canada in a 100% electric Tesla Model X while towing a camping trailer!

Dalli Klick2

Now, why is that ‘One WILD Idea’??? Several reasons, actually: It’s never been done before, huge distance to cover in a 100% ELECTRIC car, impact of trailer on car’s range a big question, few Superchargers, no pre-planned route, dog travelling with us, just the two of us doing it all (driving, exploring, blogging, videographing, photographing, etc.), camping trailer is solar-powered, social media experience rudimentary AND…

…WE DON’T EVEN HAVE THE MODEL X YET! 😉

It’ll probably take us about three months from West to East with a – so far – big Supercharger desert in the ‘middle’. We’ll be taking Kye, of course. And we’ll be taking you – vicariously – through Social Media, if you like. We will let you in on what EV camping is like. We hope to meet tons of people, answer your questions, share our adventures and show you our beautiful country. While doing that, we hope to spread the word and inspire others to switch to sustainable energy and zero-emissions transportation – just as Elon Musk inspired us.

Dalli Klick3

There’s still some more background info to this idea: We won’t travel with an airstream trailer. I’ll get to that in a bit. Let’s start at the beginning – again ;-). We used to have a motor home, with which we explored most of the Pacific West Coast of North America, from Oregon, Washington State to British Columbia, Yukon, North-West Territories and parts of Alaska. We also crossed the US Victoria BC to Ft. Lauderdale FL – and back. We loved every minute of it! It’s our favourite on-land way of vacationing! Then two things happened around the same time: 1. Our motor home got older, it needed more and more repairs, so we sold it and started looking for a new one. 2. Hubby Rolf got his Tesla Model S. Driving an electric car changed us. All of a sudden, we just couldn’t ‘live’ with the fact that vacationing in a motor home would produce a vast amount of CO2 emissions!

Now that we had switched to an electric car, somehow, at some point, it became just ‘impossible’ for us to buy a gas-powered motor home!

No way were we going “back”! It was just so contradictory to our new philosophy. Did that mean that we would have to say good-by to our favourite on-land way of vacationing? That would have been so sad! And then the Model X launch party happened, and we had our solution: let’s have the Model X pull a camping trailer!

Dalli Klick4Now, if it’s not going to be an airstream trailer, then what will it be? Hubby Rolf spent some time researching and found this amazing, light weight camping trailer, tear drop shaped for better aerodynamics, with huge windows because you can raise the roof when parked! And to top it off, it was built in Canada! Quebec to be precise. So, we’ll be crossing Canada with an Alto trailer, R1723, built by SafariCondo. Rolf is going to do a few modifications on it with regards to solar panels and lithium batteries and we might be able to operate the trailer entirely off the grid. Only the Tesla Model X will require charging. (At least that’s the idea at this point ;-)…) Sounds exciting? It certainly does for us!

Before I finish this post, I’d like to stress one thing: We have not been endorsed by Tesla Motors, and we are not affiliated with Tesla Motors. It’s our ‘wild’ idea, it’s our story and we’ll tell it as it is. We invite you to vicariously travel with us and join us in our adventures. Get in touch with us, we would love to meet you if we can and share stories! And last but not least, please:

Help us spread the word and show the world that sustainable energy and            zero-emissions transportation is not only doable, it’s fun.

Because future generations need our voice and our actions NOW.

Thank you!

Dalli Klick5

Meet Marvin, our solar-powered Camping Trailer!

28 thoughts on “This, I call ‘Wild’…”

  4. I look forward to following your adventure! Please consider joining the Altoiste group on Facebook so you can interact with other Alto owners and we can all follow along. It’s a great resource if you ever have Alto-related questions, and we’d love to learn about your mods.

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  6. There is a Facebook group of English-speaking Alto owners called Altoistes. Please join the group and post your adventures there as well. Not only will you get many more followers but you will get a lot of support from many who have years’ of experience with their solar-powered Altos. We are just finishing up 8 months on the road in ours and the group has been an immeasurable resource of technical support.

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  8. So excited for you!!!!!!!!!! Not only is the X the only electric car that can tow, it’s the only one that can hold my family of 7! You 2 are living my dream, including the Alto – I have been looking at them for months trying to figure out how my family could make it work for us. Maybe in 20 years when my kids are grown, I’ll be able to follow in your footsteps… I’ll be 80, so it might be a little tricky. Oh, I do like the name of your adventure too…. 😜

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  9. Sounds like a great trip is planned! I just picked up my Alto 1743 on May 2, and will drive (not so ecologically) back to Seattle by end May (my website is http://www.wynnworlds.me). I will be following your progress and cheering you on!

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  10. Silke and Rolf… What a great adventure! I caught the EV bug many years ago, before any vehicle was commercially available. Started with a conversion, then graduated to a Tesla. As you know, it is a wonderful company, making wonderful vehicles. You’ve noted that the Canadian Prairies are still a hinterland when it comes to Superchargers. They will come. Sun Country Highway has been instrumental in establishing level 2 charging stations across the West. You’ll also want to get the Plugshare app to help find charge locations. You’re welcome to use our HPWC (80A) while passing through Southern Manitoba. Would love to meet you (and see both the X and the Alto)!

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  11. You definitely need to drive the Cabot Trail, a scenic roadway on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. It’s such a beautiful coastal highway. You could certainly take lots of great pictures there driving your Model X and Trailer. Would be at the end of your trip though.

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  12. I was just thinking about this combination the other day! Once our kids are a bit older we would like to go across the country and back – hopefully in a similar set-up. We’ve had our Leaf now for 2 years and can’t imagine getting another petrol vehicle in the future. We keep our experiences on kootenayEVfamily.ca. Any chance you would be coming through Nelson on your way through BC? If so would love to say hi!!

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    • We can’t imagine to ever going back to a non-electric car either! 🙂 Coming through Nelson…hm, still difficult for us to say at this point. We will definitely go East through Kamloops and Jasper and/or Banff to Calgary and Red Deer, so it’s not quite on our way. But since our plans are not final, we have to see. I’ll definitely make a note.
      Are you following us on Facebook by any chance? I’m planning to announce upcoming locations in the ‘Event’ section and if we get Glympse to work, everybody might be able to see where we are almost all the time. That should make meeting each other a lot easier, should we be in the area!

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