We’ve been properly racking up the miles on the new Model Y as well as taking advantage of the 30-day free trial of Full Self Driving these past few weeks. Our first road trip was to Redwing, Minnesota—the home of one of my favorite products, Red Wing Boots.
After living with the new car for a couple of weeks I have to say that FSD is a lot better on this 2026 Model Y than I was on my 2022 Model 3. The Y has the updated computer and cameras (HW4) making the autonomous driving feature much more capable.
The car no longer nags you every few minutes to grab the steering wheel and you do feel more like a passenger in a train than a driver of a car. It’s so much more relaxing to be able to watch the scenery go by instead of worrying if the car next to you will drift into your lane or if the car in front of you will slam its brakes on. Almost every FSD drive now is done flawlessly, without intervention.
Here's a quick video of the car's Smart Summons feature. This allows you to summon the car from a parking spot or your garage. This particular feature is still slow and can be a little glitchy at times but, once it's perfected, I can see it becoming very useful in bad weather and for those with mobility issues.
While in Redwing we stopped at the Redwing Boots headquarters and I immediately found the staircase down to the outlet in the basement for the deals. Most of the boots and shoes being sold in the outlet are 25%-50% less than retail price. The footwear in the outlet is all seconds, meaning they aren’t perfect, but most of the imperfections are very minor. A lot of Redwing Boots fans are jealous of us who live in close proximity to the headquarters because the deals can be pretty insane. This is one thing I’ll truly miss if we end up moving out of state.
We finished the day with a late lunch at the restaurant in the historic St. James Hotel. One of the employees in the shoe store recommended this place to us and it didn’t disappoint. I had a Mediterranean bowl with salmon and it was absolutely delicious.
A few days later we hopped in the car, typed the destination into the Model Y's navigation and FSD drove us to another historic Minnesota town, Stillwater. Stillwater, founded in 1848, was the birthplace of Minnesota. It was a city before Minnesota was even a State.
Stillwater is on the west bank of the Saint Croix River and has a wonderful vibe. They’ve done an amazing job preserving the history of the city while making it a top regional destination for good food, shopping, and live music.
Other Things
My brother just got back from Kona, Hawaii and while he was there on a family vacation he picked up a bag of this local coffee for me.
My go-to coffee always used to be dark roast but over the last few years I've gravitated more towards medium/light roasts. However, this Medium-Dark roast from Kona is some of the best coffee I've ever tasted. The volcanic soil it's grown in gives the beans a lower acidity and that results in a very smooth and flavorful brew. I'm going to be sad when this is gone because there's no way I'll pay what they're charging to ship it here.
All for now. Thanks so much for reading.