August 22-23, 2018
Have you ever had one of those "material items" which, when you see it at a store, you consistently want to have it? The Motawi Tileworks (check out Motawi Tileworks) art tiles have been that for us. We finally planned a trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan to visit and tour the tileworks. Of course it would also mean a visit to the many Zingerman entities too! So an excursion that includes food and art tiles - a chance to take another Tesla trip. What could be better?
This was just a quick trip with one hotel overnight. I set the Tesla for a full charge (approximately 255 mile range on my Model S) overnight at home. We would start early on Wednesday morning (I guess 8:30 AM really isn't early) with a direct route to Ann Arbor. The navigation system says it required one charge for the 250 miles from home to Ann Arbor. That seemed reasonable.
The traffic was as expected. Pockets of congestion around Chicago. Summer also is the construction season, so expect lanes necked down and contests for merging. We got what we expected.
But the Auto Pilot is a blessing. For the majority of the highway journey, Auto Pilot was set and the road was consumed with little disruption. Even during the severe construction bottle-neck entering the state of Michigan, we traveled without fatigue from the 5 mile traffic crawl.
We arrived at the St. Joseph, Michigan Super Charger around noon (lost an hour due to the time zone change). Time for a required 30 minute charge, according to the navigation system - good for lunch too. After 45 minutes, we returned to the car - all three of us were filled.
After an exchange of pleasantries, we pulled out to the Interstate, heading to Ann Arbor. St. Joseph was approximately the half-way point. The road was clear and smooth. Traffic was relatively light.
We arrived at our hotel by late afternoon. Ann Arbor, Michigan is the classic college town (University of Michigan). Ann Arbor is over 100,000 in population, with the University of Michigan's undergraduate student population at around 29,000. Classes had not yet begun so the town was "somewhat" calm. We checked out the city scene and planned our following day stops.
One of our planned stops was at the Blom Meadworks.
At only three months old, this street-level establishment brewed and served meads and ciders. Very refreshing, especially served with a cheese platter of Michigan;s finest.
We had dinner reservations at Zingerman's Roadhouse, which was only one mile from the hotel. We discovered that Zingerman's was not only a restaurant, but a deli, bakery, creamery and coffee purveyor. Their operations are scattered around Ann Arbor center and at the outskirts.
Dinner was mussels for an appetizer and splitting a slab of ribs for the main course. Washed down with the local brews, of course.
We digested our meal during an evening Super Charge of the Tesla, located at a Meijer's Store outer parking lot. Tesla has contracted with some Meijer Stores to co-locate their Super Charger in the outer parking lot of these stores. There was also about 5 restaurants within easy walking distance of the charger.
We debated how long to charge, anticipating our explorations tomorrow and then our return trip home. About 40 minutes of charge satisfied our needs.
After a good nights sleep we explored a bit in the morning before heading to Motawi Tileworks.
We planned time in the gallery before the tour. And then selecting our treasures. Motawi is located on the West side of Ann Arbor in an industrial park area. Their owned clay supplier is a few miles away from their tile design and fabrication facility. All I can say is a worthwhile visit!
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| Noel Motawi and mold-maker |
Motawi is run by Noel Motawi. She started as a one-person ceramic tile design and fabrication entity and now manages 40 people in their operations, Noel stopped by our tour to say hi.
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| Original design and tile fabrication |
Art tile fabrication is a heavy manual activity. After the design is developed, molds are made, clay is prepped and mixed. Then the clay is pressed, edged, waxed and fired. The raw tile is then glazed with the planned materials to give it the color, finish and design. The intricate designs are hand 'painted' with painter bulbs filled with glazing compounds of various colors. The fired colors in no way resembles the painted color.
We had a difficult time choosing our treasures, but concluded with several pleasing art tiles.
A late lunch at Zingerman's Deli was next on the plan. This was complicated by the fact that every street around Zingerman's Deli was being torn up. A few zig-zags on the one-way streets and blocked by street closures finally brought us to food. A Binny's Brooklyn Reuben #48 was the plan. Wonderful pumpernickel!
Last stop in Ann Arbor are the Zingerman's facilities outskirt operations. This included a brief stop at the coffee shop, the candy store, the creamery and the bakery. We could not pass up a gelato break before departure home.
24 hours after arriving in Ann Arbor, we were ready to start the trip to home. The navigation system indicated two charges was necessary: one in Marshal and another in St. Joseph. The reason two were required was that we did not start with a "full tank" like we did on day one.
About 60 minutes of travel brought us to the Super Charger in Marshal, Michigan. The navigation showed the charger immediately off the highway. We turned off the Interstate and looked for the Tesla chargers. A hotel a short distance down the road looked like the right place for a Tesla charger. But it was not there. We turned back toward the highway to search its location out. The only commercial entities were a fast food restaurant and a Citco gas station.
Beverly commented that it certainly wouldn't be the gas station.
But there it was on the edge of the Citco station. Now, co-habitation with a fossil fuel is not something I have seen before. A quick 20 minute charge gave us enough to proceed.
We hopped back on the Interstate to St. Joseph for a battery charge and a planned dinner.
To our surprise, when we arrived at the St. Joseph Super Charger, two new Model 3s were parked charging. The Midwest has been slow in delivering the Tesla Model 3, and this was two of the four 3s that we have seen on the road.
More on Model 3 in my next posting.
They were gone when we returned from dinner - our Tesla was all charged and ready to go home. Except for one more stop.
We planned to stop at the farm market in Sawyer, Michigan, a favorite place for fruits and vegetables of Michigan. Five pounds of blueberries, 3 varieties of plums, Red Haven free-stone peaches, Ginger apples and a squash satisfied our buy need.
Next stop - home. Traffic was moderate. Michigan has a posted speed limit of 70 mph, which is surpassed by most. The Chicago-land posted speed limit is 55 mph and clearly no one follows this. So the trip home was fast.
The journey was 600.6 miles, door-to-door. We consumed a total of 184.4 Kwh of energy at a rate of 307 Wh/mile. This is very consistent with the long-term consumption rate. All electricity "purchased" on the road was free. No glitches or concerns. A wonderful trip!
