4th of July trip

Over Fourth of July weekend, my partner and I drove from San Francisco to Vegas, but our first stop was Yosemite. We slept in the Tesla for one night.

That is the actual sentence. Not “we went camping,” because that makes it sound like I know how to tie knots or own the correct socks and we left all our camping gear in the Midwest before moving to California. We slept in the Tesla with a car mattress, privacy shades, a cooler, a folding table, two chairs, LED lanterns, and phone battery packs. Then we packed everything back in and drove to Vegas.

So this is not a full camping guide.

Yosemite first

The first stop was Yosemite. We drove about three and a half hours from San Francisco, which is close enough that it sounds easy and far enough that you still need snacks, chargers, layers, and a system for which bag has what.

Yosemite was the part of the trip where everything slowed down a little. Not in a grand way. More like: we got there, opened the trunk, started pulling out the mattress and the table and the chairs, and suddenly the weekend had a job list.

I liked that. Not every trip needs a hotel check-in as the first official activity. Sometimes the first activity is figuring out where the lanterns are.

The Tesla setup

The setup was pretty simple: memory foam mattress made for the car, window privacy shades, cooler, folding table, two chairs, lanterns, and phone batteries.

The mattress and the privacy shades were the main things. In the morning, we could still see the tops of the trees through the roof.

That was the part I kept thinking about. Without the shades, I think it would have felt like we were improvising. With the shades, it felt like we had actually planned something. Barely, maybe. But enough.

Full self-driving to Vegas

We used Tesla full self-driving to get to Yosemite, slept in the car for one night, packed everything back in, and then drove to Vegas. Or actually, full self-drove to Vegas.

The drive out was funny because the car had just been our bedroom, and then it went back to being transportation. Mattress packed, shades packed, table packed, chairs packed, everything shoved back into its place, and then suddenly we were on the road again like that was normal.

Camping is really just owning several things that fold.

Vegas after Yosemite

We packed the mattress, privacy shades, cooler, table, chairs, lanterns, and phone batteries back into the Tesla, and then somehow that same weekend became Don Toliver in Vegas.

That is not a smooth transition. But it was fun.

One part of the weekend was about making the car dark enough to sleep in. The next part was about being in Vegas, where every room is already too dark on purpose.

If you are thinking about sleeping in a Tesla, the mattress and shades matter the most.

The cooler, table, chairs, lanterns, and batteries made everything easier, but the mattress and shades changed the actual experience.