I’ll give it away at the beginning of the post. Yes, we did make it to Ren Fest. But it was the closest we got to stranded in the Rivian, and we were way later than expected. (Disclaimer: This trip happened near the end of October, 2023. I’m getting caught up on my posting.)
The Route and Charging Plan
Without charging and on the most direct route, it takes about 2 hours and 20 minutes to get from Austin to the campgrounds. But of course, hauling the Tourtoise and needing a good charge for camping and starting the route home, we needed pretty much full charging on the route there.
When Aneel and I planned the route before setting out—the charging didn’t look spectacular, but it looked okay (maybe on the low-end of okay). The first charge would be only 20-30 minutes or so after we set out in Manor, Texas at a medical center (edit: Aneel has correctly pointed out that it was a school campus not a medical center). Then we would charge again near-ish the end at a ChargePoint in Navasota , which was supposed to be mid-speed. Based on ABRP, we had about a 3 ½ – 4 hour trip estimated. We left at 8am. Getting us into Ren Fest, optimistically at 12pmish.
The Charging Reality
Problem number 1 hit at the first charger. It… was charging so slow, it basically wasn’t charging. We waited around for 20 minutes and didn’t even get a mile of charge. We gave up because it looked like we would have a reasonable cushion without it. Maybe 30-40 miles left by the time we hit the second charger.
Either because of fast speeds or high winds or hills, we did not have that much cushion when we got to the second charger. I think we were down to maybe 12. Both Aneel and I were nervous. That little cushion does not feel great.
Problem number 2 hit at the second charger. It charged, thankfully… but much, much, much slower than estimated. We were there for about 3 hours. We walked to Mallett Brothers Barbeque, which had good sides and a very sweet bread pudding dessert. Then we pulled out our hiking chairs and just sat at the charger for the rest of the time.
Aneel, very kindly offered to drive me to Ren Fest, drive back to charge again, then meet up with me later. But a) that seemed like a lot of work and b) I like hanging with him at Ren Faire… his snark is top tier. So we just hung. It was a pretty day.
That did put us at Ren Fest at near 4, but that still gave us a few hours in daylight and an hour or so at the Fest at night time and the evening to hang out at camp.
The Camping Site
We paid more to camp at an actual RV pad/camping site. No power or water, but definitely more stable ground. I was pretty mixed on it… The pros? Firm ground and good location: it’s really close to the entrance.
The cons? RVs were very close to each other and the pads were minimal, but the biggest issue was the noisy generators. People had loud gennies and lacked good (or in lots of instances any) baffle. Actually one of our neighbors had a baffle… great? Well, it only covered the side that faced THEIR RV, so we got the full blast of their noisy generator. How rude. You realize you need a baffle because your genny is loud, but you don’t give a shit enough to be polite to your neighbors too? The gennies ran all night, and with no power at our site, we slept with our windows open. I had ear plugs, but… just not my favorite environment.
I’d consider not paying for an actual RV camping site next time because you can bring in an RV to the normal camping area. No pad, but much more open space and quieter, for sure. If we do get a pad again, we’ll bring our own generator… which feels… weird since it’s really nice enough to sleep in late October, early November without one.
The Fest
After we actually got into the Fest, we had a good time. It was a Halloween themed weekend, and it’s just nice seeing the diversity of costumes with a less restrictive costume theme. Aneel’s commentary on the costumes is literally my favorite part of going. A++ observations and jokes and enjoyment.
My shopping was mixed. I got a few great things for me including some creature statues for my garden, a fun bat wall art piece, and new chimes (Seriously, my favorite chime company ever—check them out: https://www.musicofspheres.com/). But I always like to do Christmas shopping there from the local artisan vendors, and I failed quite a bit at the Christmas shopping side of things. I tried, but nothing really jumped out at me.
We drank beer and mead. We ate delicious, terrible fest food including perogies and baked goods. We watched the birds of prey show, always my favorite. We picked up some of the things I bought and stumbled back to our camp and hung out for a little while before crashing. I was drunk enough on Texas Ren Festivities that the noise wasn’t awful.
The Route and Charging Plan to Get Home
The next morning, we just packed up quickly and skedaddled. After numerous lessons learned (how bad the chargers were) on the ride up, we took a different route home. Instead of going the slightly north, mostly east/west direction, we went on a much more south direction hitting I-10 and then heading up to Austin before hitting San Antonio. It’s definitely longer in distance but more and better charging options. It took 4 ½ to 5 hours… but with much calmer charging stops and better moods.
Sadly, I forgot to take many pictures, so that was a lesson learned for this year. I look forward to camping again, and charging WILL be much better because 1) we know of at least one fast charger that has been added on that route and 2) there are some Tesla options that it looks like we’ll be able to use.
Huzzah.
