Road To A Million Ep. 2 - Dawson City, Yukon

Day 1: Winkler to Calgary

6:45 a.m. in Winkler. Ron is packing Myles (the Model 3) in his garage and switching on his camera for the first time.

Okay, this is the first time I've turned this thing on, and I did it. It's 6:45 in the morning and I'm about to set off on day one. I figured I should do a little packing video and show you what I'm taking on this trip.

We'll start with my camping gear. I bought a tent, a sleeping bag and a camp chair, so those go in the trunk. Then my Tesla air mattress. It takes up a lot of room, but I'm sure I'll be thankful for it.

New cars apparently don't come with spare tires, and I'm a little nervous going up to the Yukon without one. So Eric got me one from Modern Spare. On his Model Y it slips right into a cutout under the trunk floor, which is fantastic. Mine doesn't have that cutout, so it just lies in the trunk and takes up a good 25 to 30 percent of my space. At night, when the air mattress is up, I'll leave the spare outside or put it in the driver's seat. But if I do get a flat, I'm sure I'll be very thankful I have it.

I also brought clothes, all my electronic goodies, my camp stoves and all my coffee supplies, including an AeroPress and a grinder. Camera gear, then more camera gear. And I can't forget the stickers. Dan just made up Road To A Million stickers. Maybe we can do a giveaway or hand some out. They're really sweet. There's also a guitar that I like to pretend I know how to play.

In preparation for this trip, I've barely thought about it. I think I've got the big things out of the way. Eric gave me some adapters: one for an RV plug, and one for a regular 110 outlet, which I used last night. I got home around 10:00 at 82 percent, and now it's almost 7:00 and I'm at 97. So that's 15 percent in nine hours on a regular 110 plug. Not the greatest, but not the worst, and I'm assuming that's the slowest it'll ever be. He also gave me some others. I don't know what they're called, but apparently they work for all the third-party chargers.

I also connected with a local pet food store, and they donated a ton of dog and cat food for me to take up to the Humane Society in Dawson City. I've talked to the people there, and they're happy to receive it. I'm really excited to check out their facility, and maybe take one of their dogs for a walk. I'm hoping I can do more things like this, instead of just driving endlessly with no purpose whatsoever. But I'll let Eric decide that.

So I'll unplug the car, pack up the dog food, and we're out.

Ron climbs in, finally gets his microphone working, and picks the wrong gear on the way out of the driveway.

Apparently you have to push the "on" button for your microphone to work. Okay, let's go. Oh, that's reverse. Can I do self-driving? Let's try self-driving the whole way.

We're on route. First stop is Brandon. It says 222 km, and I'll get there with 35 percent charge. Then my next stop will be Whitewood, and then Regina. On an almost-100-percent charge it says 447 km of range. I should be able to make it, but we'll see what the reality is. I do not know. This is terrifying.

I just passed my first 100 km self-driving streak. I got a little alert on my dashboard, so that was fun.

My goal was to make it from Winkler to Calgary today totally hands-free, without touching the brake or the gas. That was my plan and my hope, anyway. But there was a tractor on the side of the road, and for some reason the car didn't want to pass it. I don't know if I have to start the passing maneuver myself. I signalled, but it wouldn't pass, so I drove slowly behind this tractor for a while. Eventually I encouraged it by putting my foot on the gas. I have no idea if that's the right thing to do. But then it took over and passed, no problem.

I still don't know if I trust this whole thing. It's putting my faith in a computer to get me there safely. But so far I am safe, and I've made it. Winkler to Calgary is around 1,300 km, so I've got about 1,200 more to go. I'm sure there'll be more things. Apparently it'll back itself right into the charging stations, so let's see if that happens. I'll keep you posted.

Later, Myles comes up behind another slow vehicle and again waits for Ron to tell it to pass.

Here's another example of passing. We're going 97. Do I signal and then put my foot on the accelerator? I don't know. It's not doing anything, so I'll encourage it. A bit of gas, and there you go. Is that what you always have to do? I have no idea.

Pulling into the Brandon Supercharger, the first charging stop of the trip. Ron keeps his hands off to see whether Myles will park itself.

First charge ever. I'm very curious to see if it actually pulls right up to the charger without me doing anything. There are the chargers, and it's signalling. Does it back in? Yeah, it's going to back right in. This is terrifying. Okay, we did it. I'm very impressed. Wow.

Back on the highway, Myles starts missing speed-limit changes. Ron talks it through as it happens.

The speed limits are another story. It didn't slow down for an 80 sign and stayed at 100. Then it didn't speed up when it passed the next 100 sign, and it took a while to register the 110 sign. Now it's missed the change from 80 back to 100, so we're doing 89 because it thinks we're still in the 80 zone. I don't know what to do with that. Do you put the accelerator down, or wait for it to read the next sign? I'm trying to stay as hands-off as possible on this trip. There's a 110 coming up soon. Will that construction sign block it? It did not register the 110. So I'll put my foot on the gas, or the electricity, I don't know what you call it. Oh, now it's got it. A little late to the show, but it worked.

I wonder if it's done by GPS, or if the cameras on the side have to see the sign. If it's the cameras, then a little obstruction means it doesn't see the sign at all. I don't know. I need to figure that out.

At the Saskatchewan border, Ron puts the first Road To A Million sticker on the inside of Myles's hood. One sticker goes on for every province crossed.

I've arrived at the Saskatchewan border. The only thing is, I had to turn off self-driving, because it wanted to pull over on the side of the highway instead of into the parking lot. So I lost my 350 km streak, unfortunately. But we're going to do a little celebration on the inside of the hood. Here we go: first province entered. For those of you travelling along, maybe you'll find the sticker one day.

Okay, I just got to Regina. It didn't quite drop me off at the chargers. Instead it brought me into an accessible parking stall, so I'll make my own way over to the chargers. That's reverse. I'll never get used to that. So this one was a fail.

I've been trying not to hit the brakes, touch the wheel or hit the accelerator at all on this trip, but there have been two times already where I had to. I wanted to stop and get a picture at the Welcome to Saskatchewan sign. I typed it into the navigation, and it tried to pull me over on the side of the highway. It was passing the entrance to the sign's parking lot, so I had to brake.

A couple hundred kilometres later, I was in the left lane with semis in front of me. It tried to overtake the semis by moving into the right lane, where the police had someone pulled over. It was trying to get me to pass the semis at about 120, right past the police. So I had to hit the brake and veer back into the left lane. Then there was this parking lot, where it put me in the accessible stall instead of at the Tesla chargers.

Overall, though, I'm very impressed by Full Self-Driving. I didn't think I would be. I thought I'd be much more nervous. In the first few turns I was pretty nervous about hitting potholes, but it avoided them very well. I'm used to being in control at all times, especially on my motorcycles. But it's fantastic. I'm a fan.

A lot of people have asked me what I plan on doing at these charging stations. Right now I have 15 percent left, and getting to 100 percent is going to take close to an hour. So what do you do for an hour while you wait? I'd like to say I'll do push-ups in the parking lot, find a nice healthy place to eat, maybe get a salad or do some reading. But this is going to be my plan: Fatburger.

I've arrived in Alberta. Time for the next sticker.

I just arrived at another Tesla charger, here in Medicine Hat. There are a couple of gremlins in the whole Full Self-Driving thing. When we entered Alberta, I tried to get it to stop at the welcome sign, and it just kept going, the same as in Saskatchewan. It refused to pull into the parking lot, so I had to cancel and do it myself, and I lost my streak again. Then, arriving here at the chargers, it took me down a one-way, the wrong way.

Still, overall I think it's a really cool feature. I'm using it 99 percent of the time, but you still have to pay attention. It's not totally foolproof, which is unfortunate for me, but that's the way it is.

I'm curious how it would act in other situations. Yesterday I was on my motorcycle heading north, and there was a row of semis heading south. Somebody tried to pass them all at once and stayed in my lane. I threw my hands up, and he finally hit the shoulder, so I rode between him and the semis. The semis locked up their brakes. It was a bit terrifying. I wonder what a Tesla would do in that situation. Would it come to a complete stop, or would it also head for the shoulder? I don't want to experience it, but I'd be curious.

On the way out of the parking lot, Myles turns toward a one-way street from the wrong end, and Ron takes over:

That is clearly a one-way, Myles. Stop it. Stop it. No. Do not enter.

Calgary, end of day one. Parked for the night, Ron hunts through Myles's touchscreen, which he calls "the iPad," for the cabin lights and the day's trip distance.

Okay, I've arrived in Calgary. Let me see how many kilometres that was. I don't know where to find it on this iPad. How do you turn these lights back on? Is that on the iPad too? I don't know what I'm doing in this thing. Okay: lights, headlights, no, dome lights. There we go. These are very bright. I'll adjust that, too. Maybe now I can find out how many kilometres I did. Trips. I did a trip today. No, that doesn't work.

Anyway, it was about 1,330 km. This trip usually takes me about 12 hours. Today it took just over 15. I did have an extended lunch with a friend, and I took my time at the start. I was charging to 100 percent at the first couple of stops, because I didn't trust these computers to be accurate. I didn't know if charging my phone or running the AC would burn energy faster. I know that last 20 percent takes a lot more time. But now I feel comfortable enough to trust the computer to know where I need to go and how long I need to be at each stop. We'll see.

Overall I'm very, very impressed. Myles tried to kill me a few times, though. He tried to speed me past the police while they had someone pulled over. He tried to take me the wrong way down a one-way twice. And I found out he doesn't recognize construction speed limits. Multiple times I had to take control and slow down, because he had no idea we were in a 40, 50 or 60 zone and kept going 110 or 120. That's not great. Those few things need to be adjusted.

Oh, and I don't know if I've said this yet, but we've named this car Myles. So when I'm screaming "Myles," I'm not screaming at some person who doesn't exist. I'm screaming at the car.

Also, the streak thing. I didn't know what it was before, but Tesla tracks how long you've kept Full Self-Driving going. Every 100 km without you touching the brake pedal or anything like that, you get a little celebration on your screen, and it's awesome. I got one for 250, and I think I got up to 420 km. It's addictive, I love it, and I'm a degenerate. It felt like a slot machine. I hope I can make it over 1,000 one day.

Other than that, it's very different from what I'm used to, and a lot of fun. You still have to be mindful, though. You can't totally check out. You have to pay attention, or you'll get a lot of tickets. A lot of the construction zones today had speed cameras, and fines in those zones are higher. So if I end up getting a ticket, Eric, I hope you'll pay for it. All right, until tomorrow.

Day 2: Calgary and Drumheller

Day two. I was planning on leaving early this morning, but I couldn't get my Starlink working. I also forgot everything. I don't have a blanket, a pillow, cutlery, anything to eat with, or any food. I have nothing. I didn't plan anything, because I'm an idiot.

So I picked up my sister, Jenny. She's my first passenger princess. We're doing a little side quest to Drumheller to see the big dinosaur before it gets taken down in a few years. She's never been in a car on Full Self-Driving, so this is her first time. Let's do it.

For the Starlink, I have to buy a power station from the guys at Craze Outdoors here in Calgary. Hopefully that'll work for us.

Okay, bumper-to-bumper traffic isn't the most exciting, but here we are. Jenny's first thoughts:

I don't trust it yet, but I don't trust drivers either. So it's a lose-lose for me in a car. This would be great for long-distance travel, like driving through the Prairies. I think about all the years I drove back and forth between Calgary and Winkler. That would have been amazing. But how does it know what other people are doing? Can it be on alert for a driver who suddenly decides to come into my lane?

— Jenny

I have no idea. It hasn't happened to me yet. Let's not try it.

Jenny also educated me about yellow speed signs. Apparently they're just advisories, not legal speed limits. So on a 110 highway like Highway 1, when you go through little villages and see yellow signs that say 80, that's only a suggestion. If those are the ones Tesla missed, that's great. But there were also several white 80 signs that it just didn't see. I don't know whether it gets that information from GPS or from the cameras reading the signs, and it just missed them.

Okay, we've made it out of the bumper-to-bumper traffic in Calgary. Any more thoughts on Full Self-Driving, or FSD as the cool kids call it? Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who still drives a car with roll-down windows.

I can appreciate some of what self-driving in a Tesla is. If there were more of these cars, the commute would be smoother, because everyone would be doing the same thing. Hesitation is taken out of the mix, aggression is taken out of it — unless you put it in Mad Max. But because there aren't enough Teslas on the road doing this, we kind of need Mad Max to keep up with the aggressive drivers out there. So we're not at the sweet spot yet. We still have to be on the lookout.

— Jenny

The other thing she pointed out as soon as she got in: there are no grab handles above the doors, the ones you hold on to when your driver is being aggressive. That's a bold move from Tesla. It's telling you that you should feel safe in this car.

Day 3: The last Supercharger, and into BC

Okay, I just left the northernmost Tesla Supercharger in Canada, in Grande Prairie, Alberta. I came in from Calgary this morning, about 750 km on the road. From here on out, it's all third-party chargers.

I've downloaded something like eight different apps. PlugShare seems to be the one that shows exactly where all the chargers are, so that's the one I'm paying the most attention to. BC Hydro seems to have a lot of its own chargers. I've heard some of them are even powered by diesel generators, which seems a little counterintuitive. I have no idea what lies ahead. They seem to be at least every 250 to 300 km all the way to Dawson City, so hopefully that's actually the case. I'll let you know when I get to the next charger and whether I have the right adapters. I don't know what any of these abbreviations stand for, so hopefully I get there.

All right, I made it to BC. I'll show you the other side of the sign so you can see that it's actually BC. Let's see if I can get this sticker on. Perfect. Third provincial crossing for Myles, with more to come.

I'll be stopping somewhere along here for the night. I have no idea where yet. Like I said, there are no more Tesla chargers. When it was all Superchargers, it was super simple. I put the destination into the navigation, and it told me exactly what route to take, how long to stay at each stop and what percentage I'd get to. Now that those don't exist, I'm relying on, I think, mostly BC Hydro in northern BC. The PlugShare app works pretty well.

There are very few other Teslas on the road so far. Even an F-150 doesn't fit in here. Everyone's got a 250 or a 350. Big jacked-up trucks, and a little Tesla like me. We're few and far between. It's getting a little chillier, but it's gorgeous out here. I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.

At the first BC Hydro site past the border, Ron tries all three chargers. Each one shows the same error.

"Unit not active." Okay, so no. All three of them aren't working. I'll keep going and hope for the best. Stupid thing.

Okay, I'm in Pink Mountain, BC. I was hoping to camp at an RV site tonight and just plug the car in to charge. But the RV plug I have isn't the RV plug they have. Thankfully, there's a BC Hydro EV charger here. I believe it's diesel-powered. There are solar panels on top too, but I'm sure those aren't doing much.

I'll charge up to 100 percent here. It looks like that'll take an hour and five minutes from 29 percent. It says it's doing 45 kW, which is pretty slow. So I'll be here a good hour, to have a good charge for the night, and I can come back and top up in the morning if I need to. I have no idea what it'll take to keep this thing warm overnight. While I wait, I'll go inside and grab some dinner, then come back out, sleep, and head to the Yukon tomorrow.

Day 4: The Yukon and Dawson City

Day four starts in northern BC with a construction detour, and Ron leaves Myles on Full Self-Driving to see how it copes. The commentary is aimed at the car.

All right, let's see how this does with construction and a detour. We're going to hit the wall. No, we're turning. Are you going to go into the river? Easy peasy, Myles. Good job. Well done. I still don't fully trust it, but it's impressing me more and more.

All right, I've just arrived in the Yukon, in Watson Lake. Obviously they don't have the BC Hydro charging stations here, but they do have FLO, and they're very slow. I didn't want to take the time to pull over at the Yukon sign and film myself putting a sticker on. I don't have the time if I'm trying to get to Whitehorse tonight, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen either. These ones take a good hour and 20 minutes to charge up. Right now I'm getting 46 kW, which they say is 338 km of range per hour.

I just went inside the visitor centre, and they said these are often not working. They've had a lot of people who've had to stay here overnight. Hopefully the rest of the journey is a little easier, but probably not. We'll find out.

Oh, but here's the sticker. They've got a great flag. It looks like it has a little husky on top. I'll go put it on the inside of the Tesla. That's for the Yukon. And the very friendly ladies at the visitor centre gave me another one, too.

All right, I just made it to Dawson City. It took a lot longer than I expected. I had no idea the chargers would be as terrible as they were. Regardless, I made it. Myles got a bit dusty on the road, but so far, no stone chips. Full Self-Driving did drive over a 2x4 on the road, but I didn't notice anything break, so that's good news. I'll give Eric a call shortly and see what he wants me to do next.

The call with Eric

I called Eric from the Dawson City sign. I'd figured I could get here in three days. That didn't happen. I made it four nights later. I had to stop in Calgary and find that Starlink stuff so I could get operational for the road, and I'm very happy I did. There's no cell service between roughly Grande Prairie and here, and I still don't have any. I'm very thankful for Starlink.

Eric's response: "So what you're saying is I didn't properly set you up before you left Winkler." He definitely did not. He set me up for failure. Also, I don't know what the deal was with that RV plug at the campground. Either way, I made it.

But the chargers out here are just terrible. I still don't know what all the numbers mean, but some of them are around 12, and yesterday I got down to about 6 kW. That would have taken me hours and hours. Eric explained it: kW is how fast the car is charging, and kWh is how much energy has gone back into the battery. He'd been tracking some of my charges, and said 45 kW for an hour is brutal. That's the max you get out here. The FLO stations say 50, but 45 is the most I've seen.

He asked if I was going to drop off all the dog food at the Humane Society. They're expecting my delivery. Then he gave me my Dawson City assignment: go to the Sourdough Saloon, order the Sourtoe Cocktail and report back on how it tastes. On the company card. I can happily do that.

Then he gave me my next challenge: head down to Vancouver Island, to Mile Zero of the Trans-Canada Highway in Victoria, and give him a call. I don't know how long it'll take, but I'll get there as quickly as I can.

And then Eric said, "You know, now that I think of it, I probably should have got you the Long Range Model 3. You probably could have got there a lot quicker, instead of in the small-battery rear-wheel drive."

What do you mean, there's a Long Range one?

According to Eric, the Long Range has about 530 km of range, compared to about 420 for the one I have. I'm getting more like 350. That would have been real nice to have. I've been sitting here with clenched butt cheeks for the last two days, with all these chargers going down. I could have skipped so many of those stops with another 100 to 150 km. Once I get down to Vancouver and the Trans-Canada, I hope I won't have to worry about that anymore.

So the next step is Vancouver Island. I'm happy about that. I love Vancouver Island. But the step before that is a cocktail. Let's go.

Around Dawson City

Before leaving Dawson City, Ron takes Myles across the Yukon River on the free car ferry to West Dawson and the start of the Top of the World Highway.

Myles is getting his first ferry experience, crossing from Dawson City to the other side of the river. Then we're going to drive a bit of the Top of the World Highway. I don't think we'll do much of it, but we'll see how far we get. Let's see if we even fit on this thing.

All right, I'm off to the Humane Society to drop off all the donations. I'm very excited to get this dog food out of my front seat, so I can use that space for my belongings when I'm camping instead of having everything crammed in the back with me. I'm dropping off about 125 pounds of dog food, a bunch of cat food, and some smaller things like leashes and collars.

The next morning, after Eric's assignment at the Sourdough Saloon.

Let's start with what the Sourtoe Cocktail was. It was definitely not a cocktail. It's a shot of Yukon Jack whisky, which I didn't mind, with a severed human toe in it. I don't know how old that toe is or how many miles it's been through, but I think the whisky should act as a sterilizer. So thanks for that, Eric. I appreciate it. I'm having a bit of a rough morning, and so is Myles. Dawson City will do that to you. Good times, but it's time for me to head back.

I made it to Dawson, but it was a little sketchy in places. I didn't know whether I'd find working chargers at every location, and several were down. It definitely bottlenecks, too. There's usually only one charger per location, so a lot of the other EV travellers out here have to wait in line. Yesterday I was the first one at a place called Stewart Crossing. Another vehicle pulled up behind me as soon as I plugged in, and I had about half an hour to charge. They said, "I guess you just have to wait." As soon as they left to get lunch while I charged, another person showed up. They're going to be waiting a long time at that location. So it's definitely not convenient, but I'm very happy the chargers are there, especially when they're working.

It's a bit different, too. That last one was outside a library. Compared with a gas station, there are a few things you miss: going to the bathroom, grabbing a snack or a drink, wiping your windshield clean. It's very different when your EV charger is in the middle of nowhere.

One thing I'd recommend for every EV driver, and here's a shameless plug for the guys at Drive Protected: get their glass ceramic coating. Let me go grab it and show you. It's called Defense+ Glass Ceramic Coating. I highly recommend it for every EV driver out there. You put it on, wait a few minutes, then buff it out, and bugs are so much easier to clean off, especially when there isn't a squeegee at every EV charger. They also sell Glass Cleaner. Spray it on, and those bugs come off so much easier. There's nothing like a clean windshield, especially with all the cameras built in. I think that's really important. It makes a world of difference.

All right, time to leave Dawson City. The next challenge is Vancouver Island, which I'm really excited about. I don't know what Eric has planned for me out there. Maybe there's another body part in a shot glass waiting for me. I'm not sure, but I'm sure he'll find something fun for me to do.

- Ron (the driver) & Myles (the Model 3)

By the numbers

• Distance, Winkler to Dawson City: 4,642 km over four days
• Driven on Full Self-Driving: 4,415 km (95 percent)
• Longest FSD streak: about 420 km
• Energy used: 722 kWh, at an average of 155 Wh/km
• Charging stops: 24 (12 Tesla Supercharger, 12 third-party)
• Average stop: 24 minutes at a Supercharger, 40 minutes at a third-party charger
• Time plugged in: 12 hours 46 minutes
• Coldest and warmest: 2°C leaving Pink Mountain, 30°C crossing into Alberta on day 1
• Provinces and territories crossed: 5 (MB, SK, AB, BC, YT)
• Stone chips: 0

Next time on Road To A Million

Mile Zero of the Trans-Canada Highway in Victoria, BC. And Eric has an extra job for me: grab a jug, fill it up with water from the Pacific Ocean, and bring it back to HQ.

Follow along on the live Road To A Million tracker.