Suneel's Travel Adventures

 I tested positive for Covid yesterday morning, 3 days before my planned start date for the US road trip.  I am resting and quarantining right now and will decide on a new start date based on my recovery and how I am doing. The symptoms are not too bad right now. It is a bummer to have this happen, but the silver lining is that I got it before starting the trip and not a few days later. My feeling is similar to what astronauts might be going through, if their space mission is delayed a few days before launch. Some of these rocket launches are scrubbed just seconds before takeoff.  Must be quite an emotional roller coaster. There is a lot of uncertainty,  how quickly the problems can be fixed and making sure everything is in order for a new launch date.  I have a number of decisions and tradeoffs to work through over the next few days. I need to have recovered and feel well enough to start the road trip. However, I can't wait too many days because that increases the chances of runni

  Route planning How does one create an optimal driving route that touches all 48 lower states in US, while minimizing the distance covered? This was a problem Dr Randal Olson worked on in 2015 using genetic algorithms: Computing the optimal road trip across the U.S.  In 2016, he also created the Optimal U.S. National Parks road trip . Using these blog posts as the starting point, I investigated the plethora of online resources available for route planning. I had an additional constraint of mapping the route for an electric car, my Tesla Model 3.  Charging locations are still a problem off the beaten track, away from the interstate highways, especially inside some national parks. The resources I found most useful and ended up utilizing for my route plan: A Better Route Planner Recommends supercharger stops for route, how long to stop to charge. PlugShare - Useful to identify chargers beyond Tesla in hotels, restaurants, RV parks, etc. Tesla Supercharger Map and Tesla Go Anywhere -