Andys Computer

 Our favourite Dim Sum spot in Las Vegas is called Yum Cha, but we always like to keep trying different places so this time we went for a spot called Orchid Gardens. It was pretty busy, which is a good sign, but the food wasn't up to Yum Cha's standard so they remain unbeaten... We got a Tesla Model 3 as our taxi to breakfast and it was interesting chatting with the driver to get his view on running an EV, specifically a Tesla, as a taxi. He said he used to spent $300 per week on fuel in his previous Toyota, and was now down to $50-60 in charging, not to mention the savings he was making on oil changes. Quick math suggested he was $1,200 per month better off with the Tesla than the Toyota and his lease didn't increase by anything like that so he was happy... We returned to Shanghai Plazza to have a wander around teh stores and decided to get dinner there, trying out a Malaysian spot called Banana Leaf. Turns out this is a chain, but the food was excellent! Tomorr...

With two full days in Vegas we were in no rush to get going so breakfast became brunch and that gave us the opportunity to try the Wynn brunch buffet. As we've done the high end buffets like the Bacchanal several times, we don't typically bother with them any more, but I wanted Hanjia to try the Wynn buffet as they're particularly known for their desserts. The good thing about TI is that its location near the center of the strip, which puts the Mirage next door (with Caesers next to that). The fashion mall is the other neighbor to TI with the The Venetian more or less across the street from TI and the Wynn next door to that. The brunch comes in at $46.99+tax per person which is a pretty fair price for what you get. The food is not up to the standards of the Bachanal buffet at Ceasers, but they're not asking Bachanal prices, and it's certainly a step up from the cheaper buffets. The desserts were as good as I remember, definitely the main reason to come t...

The next destination on our fall roadtrip was Las Vegas, some 600 miles from Albuquerque. In theory this would need three charging stops but as we were leaving early we needed to grab breakfast on the way so it made sense to do that while giving the car a small topup even though it wasn't necessary, but it would save us a few minutes late on. We hit the McDonalds drive through as we headed into Albuquerque itself where we'd plug in to the Tesla Superchargers. We had 76% battery when we arrived, enough to get us to the real charging stop in Gallup, New Mexico with about 14% remaining, but in the end we we left Albuquerque with 94% some 20 minutes later. Traffic was light once we got out of the city and unlike our spring trip there were no significant headwinds this time so we rocketed along with the Autopilot set to 5mph over the limit. The Galllup stop was uneventful, we decided to grab an ie cream from Dairy Queen a short walk from the Superchargers and use thei...

When taking long trips that span several days it's nice to break it up by not having full travel days back to back. So we spent the day in Albuquerque with friends, visiting a US CostCo for the first time. I used to have a UK CostCo membership years ago, and to be honest the US stores are pretty much the same, good prices on quality goods if you don't mind buying in bulk. We had a good wander round, eyeing up the 4K OLED TV's as our living room TV is over 8.5 years old, but mainly we were there to bulk buy some vitamins and other supplements to send to my wife's parents in China. Despite being extremely busy checkout was fast and we tried a few items from their on-site cafe including the famed $1.50 hotdog combo and the delicious chicken bake. Healthier home cooked food was on the menu for the evening, with some excellent chicken wings, delicious salmon and some healthy veggies, with my wife contributing a north eastern Chinese stew.  Tomorrow we'll leav...

The first leg of our trip was from our home just north of Dallas, TX to a friends house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where we would spend a couple of nights. As part of my trip planning I again used the "A Better Route Planner" app (ABRP) which suggested it would take 11 hours and 14 minutes to cover the 653 miles, requiring 5 charging sessions totaling 2 hours and 13 minutes. While it's not really necessary to bother with advanced planning like this, it does allow me to figure out where we will be at lunch or dinner time and figure out what food options are need whichever charging stop that is, after all, if there isn't much there, I know to hit a drive-through on the way. Once I've figured that out I extend the relevant charging stop to 45 minutes or so and get ABRP to re-calculate. ABRP is quite useful for trip planning but it's not as accurate as Tesla's own built-in nav system. It wanted us to make an additional charging stop in Tucumcari (bet...