Roadtrip: DFW to LV round trip - 2700 Miles - 2021 Job 1 Prem EXT AWD w/Original HVBJB

[troublebot]

“ I was having some range anxiety due to elevation changes”

I did not realize that EVs had elevation problems. Could you provide the source for this.

i.e. going uphill = using more energy. I'm used to driving in the flatlands of Texas where speed and temperature is the major factor, but I noticed ascending toward Flagstaff that my aforementioned 'buffer' was suddenly dropping a lot faster than I was comfortable with and at the rate it was dropping I was not necessarily going to make it to my next planned stop. Granted, I was going 75-80 so was already not being incredibly efficient, but I had to drop my speed to around the 67-69 region in order to match my target.

On the flip side, on long descents regen was able to add some small amount of capacity back into the battery.

Sponsored

 

[troublebot]

If you say so ?

Trust me, this is my version of a short summary.

 

[troublebot]

Gas prices in the west are way higher than this.

I'm guessing the post you were responding to was deleted so I'm responding to this one, but yes. I was specifically talking about the gas prices in the states that I drove through (plus California because it was an interesting extreme). The gas prices out in the SW are kind of shockingly high compared to where I am or the national average. I'm sure Nevadans and Californians would love the option to pay the national average for gas.

I chose mid-grade because my experience has been that auto manufacturers recommend higher octane for higher performance vehicles, including the Mustang. But if the difference is 20 cents per gallon, then the difference is 2mpg, so:

34mpg in Texas
38mpg in Oklahoma & New Mexico
45mpg in Arizona
50mpg in Nevada
55mpg in California

I wasn't trying to pull a fast one on anyone.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

My wife and I just returned last night from a 2700 mile round trip drive from Dallas to Las Vegas and back with overnight stops on each leg in Albuquerque (about the half-way point). We used only Electrify America DCFC chargers.

I’m driving a 2021 Job 1 Premium EXT AWD (Infinite Blue) with the original HVBJB. As of the end of the road trip I have 19,780 total miles on the odometer. The HVBJB has given me a lot of anxiety and I was sure that if it was going to ‘go’ any time soon, it would do so on this trip..and that if it did, it would do it at the worst possible time when I’m hundreds of miles away from a Ford dealership and with spotty cell service! Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

I was prepared to write a very long post detailing everything, but it turns out that all that’s really necessary is a fairly quick summary; pretty much a flawless trip. The car was supremely comfortable, reliable, and I discovered just how efficient (or inefficient!) it can be depending on how _you_ drive it.

I made 11 EA charging stops on the way there (a few more than necessary but I was having some range anxiety due to elevation changes and decided to “top up” more often than needed during the Flagstaff portion of the drive) and 8 more on the way back. Of the ~19 total charging, I only had hiccups on 3 occasions, which was solved by moving to a different charger (usually after checking Plugshare for recent checkins).

I will say though; the number of other people I saw having issues getting EA chargers to work was disappointing. A lot of it is on EA’s unreliability, but also it seems a lot of people just haven’t done any homework. Several people I talked to didn’t have the EA app, hadn’t activated Plug-and-Charge (or their non-Ford equivalents when they exist), never heard of ABRP or Plugshare, or would try one charger and if it didn’t work, would give up on the entire site and drive off.

Another thing I noticed is that hardly anyone actually posts positive checkins on Plugshare. I was worried because when we departed several of the chargers hadn’t had a check-in in days. Turns out, that’s a sign the site is actually mostly functioning well.

I drove probably about 80% of the trip with hands-free Bluecruise activated, which seriously reduces the fatigue of driving. I did all of the driving with my wife there for navigation, snack and napping duties (she’s my Passenger Princess and we both prefer it that way, but she can be a backup driver if needed).

The ~30 minute charging stops are also a lot less annoying than I expected, after decades of driving long distances only stopping a few minutes at a time to fill up and at best giving myself 30-45 minute power-naps at rest stops, having to actually “pause” and be able to really stretch my legs, eat an actual meal, check messages, surf the internet, plan the next stretch (and see if there’s anything neat worth stopping for) or watch a video is actually kind of nice. Yes at the end of the day it adds a couple hours of travel time, but my travel days are usually set aside from my enjoyment days so I don’t have to be anywhere until the next morning, so arriving a little late is fine.

I should also note; I have an old Android phone connected via OBDII running Car Scanner to display my live usage (mi/kwh and actual =/- wattage), speed and battery level. During a long trip you can definitely learn how much energy you're using/saving/regenerating in different conditions. I do need to refine my setup a bit (like find a way to show average usage over the past n seconds because it fluctuates wildly), but I really liked having it as a sanity check. Plus it was cool to watch the SoC go up when descending over long hills.

Alternately, I would enter the next charging stop in my navigation system, and figure out my initial "buffer" (i.e. 208 mi on the GOM and 158 miles to the next stop = 50 miles buffer). I periodically would do quick mental math to see if and how much of that 'buffer' I was burning through, and if I was safe to crank up the speed, extend to the next stop beyond the upcoming one, or if I was burning through the buffer too fast and needed to dial things down a bit. This really helped me keep my range anxiety in check, and sometimes dialing back the speed 5mph would make huge, almost immediate difference.

Mostly non-MME related stuff:

We’re not really ‘Las Vegas people’, but my wife was there for work and to catch up with old friends. We ended up staying at The Signature at MGM in a privately-owned unit that we rented through AirBNB. It was actually a really good deal, saved us from paying an extra $45/night resort fee and came with free valet parking (self-parking is quite a hike though). The view was excellent, we could see the new Formula 1 grandstands and main straight/paddock area being constructed. The Sphere was right in our sightlines and actually bigger than I expected, and the main strip was just a couple blocks down. The Valet crew was excellent even though their system was completely screwed by the hack and they were doing everything by hand and radio. And despite regularly parking Porsches, McLarens, Ferraris, etc., (usually rented, I’m sure), a few of them were genuinely enthusiastic about the Mach-E, which is always cool to see.

On the first solo day I had, I drove around the southern Blue Diamond route from an EA charging station in south LV. Drove through the Red Rock scenic loop, and then (tried) to drive up to Mt Charleston (the roads were closed so I couldn’t get all the way up, but it was still a cool drive).

Day 2 I drove up near Nellis AFB to see if I could do some planespotting. I stopped in a parking lot at Las Vegas Motor Speedway just in time to see a half dozen F35s tear past after just taking off, in a full hard left bank towards the west, engines roaring. Awesome to see them in a non-airshow setting. Caught a couple laden F-16s heading south as well.

Then I went to the North Las Vegas Airport, they have a great little airport café called Sunshine & Tailwinds (which reminds me of the Spruce Goose Café at the airport in my hometown of Port Townsend, Washington, also recommended) and a fantastic viewing deck atop the terminal. Lots of cool planes there, from smaller private jets to some aerobatic aircraft and a bit of everything in between.

After that, I drove down to McCarren/Harry Reid Airport and found a little parking lot they’ve carved out on Sunset Rd adjacent to the two main runways specifically for viewing planes taking off and landing. I got to catch some chaos as thunderstorms rolled through and stopped all departures/arrivals for a little while. I used the LiveATC app to listen to the different radio frequencies. I blew through almost 3 hours there and then went back to the hotel for a bit.

Day 3 I dropped my wife off for a meeting and parked at the Jack in the Box on the west end of McCarren/Harry Reid where you’re right under departing aircraft. Had a chicken sandwich and some of their 2 for 99c tacos and hung out for about 2 hours.

Some recommendations:

The Neon Museum: Historic LV signage, huge recognizable pieces, from before the era where everything is an obnoxious full-color LED display playing ads. Get the combo ticket and do the Brilliant projection show afterwards. We weren’t sure what it was, but they use projection mapping to bring old, non-working signs to live with some classic music in a 360-degree immersive display.

Sunshine & Tailwinds Café and the NLV Airport viewing deck atop the terminal: great classic American fare, and airplanes if you’re into that

303 in the Cut: This is a food truck that became “tiktok famous" in the last year, and now we know why. Firstly, as soon as we got in line, the owner came and greeted us. Absolutely a super nice guy, genuinely interested in his customers and working on building an amazing business. The Crackin’ Fried Chicken Fries with the roasted garlic aioli was unbelievably good. Get the two prickly pear juices they have mixed half-and-half. They’re known for their really good Cheesecake Sandwich but also try the Tiramisu. I don’t generally like Tiramisu, but theirs was exactly as I imagined it _should_ be.

Master Kim’s Korean BBQ off south Durango: This was my first legit KBBQ experience and while it’s not for me (too much work), the food was still quite delicious, and the service was great.

Black Bear Diner: This is a chain, but the Stuffed Blackberry French Toast where they use a bear claw instead of regular bread. Amazong.

If you're there with your SO and are looking for a little spice, Chris at The Love Store off S Rainbow near W Sahara knows his stuff quite well and will help you find something special.

In Albuquerque: National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. Seriously, if you have any interest in history, warfare, nuclear weapons or science, or anything related, this place is absolutely awesome. So many interesting artifacts, inert weapons, aircraft, etc., it was kind of overwhelming. I was just there yesterday and would go back today if I could. We went to the Nuclear Testing museum in Las Vegas as well, and while it was alright, it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, especially for the admission price.

Drive Day 1 - 733 miles, 11 hours 38 minutes:

Drive Day 2 - 593 miles, 9 hours 22 minutes:

Red Rock & Mt Charleston Day:

Planespotting day:

Return Day 1 - 564 miles, 9 hours 16 minutes:

Return Day 2 - 784 miles, 12 hours 22 minutes:

On the road near Mt Charleston:

View from our room:

View from our room 2:

My favorite from "The Sphere"

love the views! Looks like a fun adventure!

 

[dbsb3233]

i.e. going uphill = using more energy. I'm used to driving in the flatlands of Texas where speed and temperature is the major factor, but I noticed ascending toward Flagstaff that my aforementioned 'buffer' was suddenly dropping a lot faster than I was comfortable with and at the rate it was dropping I was not necessarily going to make it to my next planned stop. Granted, I was going 75-80 so was already not being incredibly efficient, but I had to drop my speed to around the 67-69 region in order to match my target.

On the flip side, on long descents regen was able to add some small amount of capacity back into the battery.

Yep. It's a wash if just going up then down before charging again, but if two charging stops are significantly different in elevation, it has big impact on range. We get a lot of that with our drives between Denver and Vegas. Some 4000' differences between stations to account for in CO and UT. Can easily make 20% or more difference in the MPK (mi/kWh) for that leg.

I put an elevation map app on my phone for that, but it's usually just easier to ask Google since I run Android Auto all the time. ?

 

[RedStallion]

Several people I talked to didn’t have the EA app, hadn’t activated Plug-and-Charge (or their non-Ford equivalents when they exist), never heard of ABRP or Plugshare

And that shows how ridiculous the situation is. As long as people need to jump through hoops and experience anxiety instead of being certain that they can just plug and charge anywhere people won't be buying EVs. Alternatively, manufacturers need to come up with 500-800 mile highway range, enough for a day of driving, so people wouldn't need to charge en route. The latter means having 300-400kWh battery and 50kW destination chargers to be able to charge overnight. Since neither seems to be happening any time soon, the adoption of EVs will continue to be dismal and limited to specific regions.

 

[troublebot]

I put an elevation map app on my phone for that, but it's usually just easier to ask Google since I run Android Auto all the time. ?

I should have looked for an app or something but ended up checking https://www.flattestroute.com/ during charging stops to help me determine what kind of buffer I wanted to leave with.

 

[Chris D]

My wife and I just returned last night from a 2700 mile round trip drive from Dallas to Las Vegas and back with overnight stops on each leg in Albuquerque (about the half-way point). We used only Electrify America DCFC chargers.

I’m driving a 2021 Job 1 Premium EXT AWD (Infinite Blue) with the original HVBJB. As of the end of the road trip I have 19,780 total miles on the odometer. The HVBJB has given me a lot of anxiety and I was sure that if it was going to ‘go’ any time soon, it would do so on this trip..and that if it did, it would do it at the worst possible time when I’m hundreds of miles away from a Ford dealership and with spotty cell service! Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

I was prepared to write a very long post detailing everything, but it turns out that all that’s really necessary is a fairly quick summary; pretty much a flawless trip. The car was supremely comfortable, reliable, and I discovered just how efficient (or inefficient!) it can be depending on how _you_ drive it.

I made 11 EA charging stops on the way there (a few more than necessary but I was having some range anxiety due to elevation changes and decided to “top up” more often than needed during the Flagstaff portion of the drive) and 8 more on the way back. Of the ~19 total charging, I only had hiccups on 3 occasions, which was solved by moving to a different charger (usually after checking Plugshare for recent checkins).

I will say though; the number of other people I saw having issues getting EA chargers to work was disappointing. A lot of it is on EA’s unreliability, but also it seems a lot of people just haven’t done any homework. Several people I talked to didn’t have the EA app, hadn’t activated Plug-and-Charge (or their non-Ford equivalents when they exist), never heard of ABRP or Plugshare, or would try one charger and if it didn’t work, would give up on the entire site and drive off.

Another thing I noticed is that hardly anyone actually posts positive checkins on Plugshare. I was worried because when we departed several of the chargers hadn’t had a check-in in days. Turns out, that’s a sign the site is actually mostly functioning well.

I drove probably about 80% of the trip with hands-free Bluecruise activated, which seriously reduces the fatigue of driving. I did all of the driving with my wife there for navigation, snack and napping duties (she’s my Passenger Princess and we both prefer it that way, but she can be a backup driver if needed).

The ~30 minute charging stops are also a lot less annoying than I expected, after decades of driving long distances only stopping a few minutes at a time to fill up and at best giving myself 30-45 minute power-naps at rest stops, having to actually “pause” and be able to really stretch my legs, eat an actual meal, check messages, surf the internet, plan the next stretch (and see if there’s anything neat worth stopping for) or watch a video is actually kind of nice. Yes at the end of the day it adds a couple hours of travel time, but my travel days are usually set aside from my enjoyment days so I don’t have to be anywhere until the next morning, so arriving a little late is fine.

I should also note; I have an old Android phone connected via OBDII running Car Scanner to display my live usage (mi/kwh and actual =/- wattage), speed and battery level. During a long trip you can definitely learn how much energy you're using/saving/regenerating in different conditions. I do need to refine my setup a bit (like find a way to show average usage over the past n seconds because it fluctuates wildly), but I really liked having it as a sanity check. Plus it was cool to watch the SoC go up when descending over long hills.

Alternately, I would enter the next charging stop in my navigation system, and figure out my initial "buffer" (i.e. 208 mi on the GOM and 158 miles to the next stop = 50 miles buffer). I periodically would do quick mental math to see if and how much of that 'buffer' I was burning through, and if I was safe to crank up the speed, extend to the next stop beyond the upcoming one, or if I was burning through the buffer too fast and needed to dial things down a bit. This really helped me keep my range anxiety in check, and sometimes dialing back the speed 5mph would make huge, almost immediate difference.

Mostly non-MME related stuff:

We’re not really ‘Las Vegas people’, but my wife was there for work and to catch up with old friends. We ended up staying at The Signature at MGM in a privately-owned unit that we rented through AirBNB. It was actually a really good deal, saved us from paying an extra $45/night resort fee and came with free valet parking (self-parking is quite a hike though). The view was excellent, we could see the new Formula 1 grandstands and main straight/paddock area being constructed. The Sphere was right in our sightlines and actually bigger than I expected, and the main strip was just a couple blocks down. The Valet crew was excellent even though their system was completely screwed by the hack and they were doing everything by hand and radio. And despite regularly parking Porsches, McLarens, Ferraris, etc., (usually rented, I’m sure), a few of them were genuinely enthusiastic about the Mach-E, which is always cool to see.

On the first solo day I had, I drove around the southern Blue Diamond route from an EA charging station in south LV. Drove through the Red Rock scenic loop, and then (tried) to drive up to Mt Charleston (the roads were closed so I couldn’t get all the way up, but it was still a cool drive).

Day 2 I drove up near Nellis AFB to see if I could do some planespotting. I stopped in a parking lot at Las Vegas Motor Speedway just in time to see a half dozen F35s tear past after just taking off, in a full hard left bank towards the west, engines roaring. Awesome to see them in a non-airshow setting. Caught a couple laden F-16s heading south as well.

Then I went to the North Las Vegas Airport, they have a great little airport café called Sunshine & Tailwinds (which reminds me of the Spruce Goose Café at the airport in my hometown of Port Townsend, Washington, also recommended) and a fantastic viewing deck atop the terminal. Lots of cool planes there, from smaller private jets to some aerobatic aircraft and a bit of everything in between.

After that, I drove down to McCarren/Harry Reid Airport and found a little parking lot they’ve carved out on Sunset Rd adjacent to the two main runways specifically for viewing planes taking off and landing. I got to catch some chaos as thunderstorms rolled through and stopped all departures/arrivals for a little while. I used the LiveATC app to listen to the different radio frequencies. I blew through almost 3 hours there and then went back to the hotel for a bit.

Day 3 I dropped my wife off for a meeting and parked at the Jack in the Box on the west end of McCarren/Harry Reid where you’re right under departing aircraft. Had a chicken sandwich and some of their 2 for 99c tacos and hung out for about 2 hours.

Some recommendations:

The Neon Museum: Historic LV signage, huge recognizable pieces, from before the era where everything is an obnoxious full-color LED display playing ads. Get the combo ticket and do the Brilliant projection show afterwards. We weren’t sure what it was, but they use projection mapping to bring old, non-working signs to live with some classic music in a 360-degree immersive display.

Sunshine & Tailwinds Café and the NLV Airport viewing deck atop the terminal: great classic American fare, and airplanes if you’re into that

303 in the Cut: This is a food truck that became “tiktok famous" in the last year, and now we know why. Firstly, as soon as we got in line, the owner came and greeted us. Absolutely a super nice guy, genuinely interested in his customers and working on building an amazing business. The Crackin’ Fried Chicken Fries with the roasted garlic aioli was unbelievably good. Get the two prickly pear juices they have mixed half-and-half. They’re known for their really good Cheesecake Sandwich but also try the Tiramisu. I don’t generally like Tiramisu, but theirs was exactly as I imagined it _should_ be.

Master Kim’s Korean BBQ off south Durango: This was my first legit KBBQ experience and while it’s not for me (too much work), the food was still quite delicious, and the service was great.

Black Bear Diner: This is a chain, but the Stuffed Blackberry French Toast where they use a bear claw instead of regular bread. Amazong.

If you're there with your SO and are looking for a little spice, Chris at The Love Store off S Rainbow near W Sahara knows his stuff quite well and will help you find something special.

In Albuquerque: National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. Seriously, if you have any interest in history, warfare, nuclear weapons or science, or anything related, this place is absolutely awesome. So many interesting artifacts, inert weapons, aircraft, etc., it was kind of overwhelming. I was just there yesterday and would go back today if I could. We went to the Nuclear Testing museum in Las Vegas as well, and while it was alright, it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, especially for the admission price.

Drive Day 1 - 733 miles, 11 hours 38 minutes:

Drive Day 2 - 593 miles, 9 hours 22 minutes:

Red Rock & Mt Charleston Day:

Planespotting day:

Return Day 1 - 564 miles, 9 hours 16 minutes:

Return Day 2 - 784 miles, 12 hours 22 minutes:

On the road near Mt Charleston:

View from our room:

View from our room 2:

My favorite from "The Sphere"

Such a nice write-up. So refreshing to read another positive review. I'm sure that's what most of us experience with our Mach-E, but few go through the trouble of reporting it.

Almost makes me want to plan next vacation traveling in the US. Thanks for sharing that.

 

[0t60-3.5]

Curious what is your map / navigation app that produced this breadcrumb trail of where you drove? Maybe you mentioned it in the original post, but didn't see it.

 

[RedStallion]

It's dismal because the trip in the EV basically added an additional driving day to the trip.

That's just one factor. Anxiety about charging affects people even more. The chargers are placed with huge gaps, unreliable, the places are dirty, there is no canopy to hide from the sun. I'm traveling several times a year from Bay Area to LA, and charging stops are always dreadful. You are never sure the chargers are working well (or working at all, or there are lines). Often it's rather hot and there is nowhere to spend time, especially when travelling with dogs, other than sitting in the car with AC at full power.

One charger of four was working. It wasn't occupied when I arrived probably because it was separate quite a distance away from other chargers, so people didn't realize it existed. Also parking at the charger was blocked when we arrived, but we luckily were able to park on the opposite side.

The whole place was dirty and a homeless crazy guy was rambling and cursing for half an hour while we were charging.

 

[troublebot]

Curious what is your map / navigation app that produced this breadcrumb trail of where you drove? Maybe you mentioned it in the original post, but didn't see it.

Timeline in Google Maps. If you use Google Maps and have timeline activated/allowed, you can go to http://timeline.google.com to see it, but it can be a little alarming if you didn't realize you had it tracking. It's been incredibly useful for me for a number of reasons. I can basically pinpoint everywhere I've been and when since 2013, but I don't go anywhere that I would worry about being tracked tbh. I figure anyone at a higher level could find out no matter what if they really wanted to.

 

[Auto Motive]

My wife and I just returned last night from a 2700 mile round trip drive from Dallas to Las Vegas and back with overnight stops on each leg in Albuquerque (about the half-way point). We used only Electrify America DCFC chargers.

I’m driving a 2021 Job 1 Premium EXT AWD (Infinite Blue) with the original HVBJB. As of the end of the road trip I have 19,780 total miles on the odometer. The HVBJB has given me a lot of anxiety and I was sure that if it was going to ‘go’ any time soon, it would do so on this trip..and that if it did, it would do it at the worst possible time when I’m hundreds of miles away from a Ford dealership and with spotty cell service! Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

I was prepared to write a very long post detailing everything, but it turns out that all that’s really necessary is a fairly quick summary; pretty much a flawless trip. The car was supremely comfortable, reliable, and I discovered just how efficient (or inefficient!) it can be depending on how _you_ drive it.

I made 11 EA charging stops on the way there (a few more than necessary but I was having some range anxiety due to elevation changes and decided to “top up” more often than needed during the Flagstaff portion of the drive) and 8 more on the way back. Of the ~19 total charging, I only had hiccups on 3 occasions, which was solved by moving to a different charger (usually after checking Plugshare for recent checkins).

I will say though; the number of other people I saw having issues getting EA chargers to work was disappointing. A lot of it is on EA’s unreliability, but also it seems a lot of people just haven’t done any homework. Several people I talked to didn’t have the EA app, hadn’t activated Plug-and-Charge (or their non-Ford equivalents when they exist), never heard of ABRP or Plugshare, or would try one charger and if it didn’t work, would give up on the entire site and drive off.

Another thing I noticed is that hardly anyone actually posts positive checkins on Plugshare. I was worried because when we departed several of the chargers hadn’t had a check-in in days. Turns out, that’s a sign the site is actually mostly functioning well.

I drove probably about 80% of the trip with hands-free Bluecruise activated, which seriously reduces the fatigue of driving. I did all of the driving with my wife there for navigation, snack and napping duties (she’s my Passenger Princess and we both prefer it that way, but she can be a backup driver if needed).

The ~30 minute charging stops are also a lot less annoying than I expected, after decades of driving long distances only stopping a few minutes at a time to fill up and at best giving myself 30-45 minute power-naps at rest stops, having to actually “pause” and be able to really stretch my legs, eat an actual meal, check messages, surf the internet, plan the next stretch (and see if there’s anything neat worth stopping for) or watch a video is actually kind of nice. Yes at the end of the day it adds a couple hours of travel time, but my travel days are usually set aside from my enjoyment days so I don’t have to be anywhere until the next morning, so arriving a little late is fine.

I should also note; I have an old Android phone connected via OBDII running Car Scanner to display my live usage (mi/kwh and actual =/- wattage), speed and battery level. During a long trip you can definitely learn how much energy you're using/saving/regenerating in different conditions. I do need to refine my setup a bit (like find a way to show average usage over the past n seconds because it fluctuates wildly), but I really liked having it as a sanity check. Plus it was cool to watch the SoC go up when descending over long hills.

Alternately, I would enter the next charging stop in my navigation system, and figure out my initial "buffer" (i.e. 208 mi on the GOM and 158 miles to the next stop = 50 miles buffer). I periodically would do quick mental math to see if and how much of that 'buffer' I was burning through, and if I was safe to crank up the speed, extend to the next stop beyond the upcoming one, or if I was burning through the buffer too fast and needed to dial things down a bit. This really helped me keep my range anxiety in check, and sometimes dialing back the speed 5mph would make huge, almost immediate difference.

Mostly non-MME related stuff:

We’re not really ‘Las Vegas people’, but my wife was there for work and to catch up with old friends. We ended up staying at The Signature at MGM in a privately-owned unit that we rented through AirBNB. It was actually a really good deal, saved us from paying an extra $45/night resort fee and came with free valet parking (self-parking is quite a hike though). The view was excellent, we could see the new Formula 1 grandstands and main straight/paddock area being constructed. The Sphere was right in our sightlines and actually bigger than I expected, and the main strip was just a couple blocks down. The Valet crew was excellent even though their system was completely screwed by the hack and they were doing everything by hand and radio. And despite regularly parking Porsches, McLarens, Ferraris, etc., (usually rented, I’m sure), a few of them were genuinely enthusiastic about the Mach-E, which is always cool to see.

On the first solo day I had, I drove around the southern Blue Diamond route from an EA charging station in south LV. Drove through the Red Rock scenic loop, and then (tried) to drive up to Mt Charleston (the roads were closed so I couldn’t get all the way up, but it was still a cool drive).

Day 2 I drove up near Nellis AFB to see if I could do some planespotting. I stopped in a parking lot at Las Vegas Motor Speedway just in time to see a half dozen F35s tear past after just taking off, in a full hard left bank towards the west, engines roaring. Awesome to see them in a non-airshow setting. Caught a couple laden F-16s heading south as well.

Then I went to the North Las Vegas Airport, they have a great little airport café called Sunshine & Tailwinds (which reminds me of the Spruce Goose Café at the airport in my hometown of Port Townsend, Washington, also recommended) and a fantastic viewing deck atop the terminal. Lots of cool planes there, from smaller private jets to some aerobatic aircraft and a bit of everything in between.

After that, I drove down to McCarren/Harry Reid Airport and found a little parking lot they’ve carved out on Sunset Rd adjacent to the two main runways specifically for viewing planes taking off and landing. I got to catch some chaos as thunderstorms rolled through and stopped all departures/arrivals for a little while. I used the LiveATC app to listen to the different radio frequencies. I blew through almost 3 hours there and then went back to the hotel for a bit.

Day 3 I dropped my wife off for a meeting and parked at the Jack in the Box on the west end of McCarren/Harry Reid where you’re right under departing aircraft. Had a chicken sandwich and some of their 2 for 99c tacos and hung out for about 2 hours.

Some recommendations:

The Neon Museum: Historic LV signage, huge recognizable pieces, from before the era where everything is an obnoxious full-color LED display playing ads. Get the combo ticket and do the Brilliant projection show afterwards. We weren’t sure what it was, but they use projection mapping to bring old, non-working signs to live with some classic music in a 360-degree immersive display.

Sunshine & Tailwinds Café and the NLV Airport viewing deck atop the terminal: great classic American fare, and airplanes if you’re into that

303 in the Cut: This is a food truck that became “tiktok famous" in the last year, and now we know why. Firstly, as soon as we got in line, the owner came and greeted us. Absolutely a super nice guy, genuinely interested in his customers and working on building an amazing business. The Crackin’ Fried Chicken Fries with the roasted garlic aioli was unbelievably good. Get the two prickly pear juices they have mixed half-and-half. They’re known for their really good Cheesecake Sandwich but also try the Tiramisu. I don’t generally like Tiramisu, but theirs was exactly as I imagined it _should_ be.

Master Kim’s Korean BBQ off south Durango: This was my first legit KBBQ experience and while it’s not for me (too much work), the food was still quite delicious, and the service was great.

Black Bear Diner: This is a chain, but the Stuffed Blackberry French Toast where they use a bear claw instead of regular bread. Amazong.

If you're there with your SO and are looking for a little spice, Chris at The Love Store off S Rainbow near W Sahara knows his stuff quite well and will help you find something special.

In Albuquerque: National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. Seriously, if you have any interest in history, warfare, nuclear weapons or science, or anything related, this place is absolutely awesome. So many interesting artifacts, inert weapons, aircraft, etc., it was kind of overwhelming. I was just there yesterday and would go back today if I could. We went to the Nuclear Testing museum in Las Vegas as well, and while it was alright, it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, especially for the admission price.

Drive Day 1 - 733 miles, 11 hours 38 minutes:

Drive Day 2 - 593 miles, 9 hours 22 minutes:

Red Rock & Mt Charleston Day:

Planespotting day:

Return Day 1 - 564 miles, 9 hours 16 minutes:

Return Day 2 - 784 miles, 12 hours 22 minutes:

On the road near Mt Charleston:

View from our room:

View from our room 2:

My favorite from "The Sphere"

Very interesting trip and well planned. We own a GTPE and love it but for trips in PA the charging infrastructure is poorly maintained. We use tge new model y awd long range for trip especially for the many superchargers and at 75 I want it to be enjoyable. We travel the PATurnpike at 65mph vs 70 and ib especially in sumner. We can get 250 miles with 50 mile buffer to alway be able to get charged. The y picks next charger on nav and preconditions battery along the way to the charger. We get 140 to 160 miles in 16 minutes.

 

[Jack]

We use the Mach-E for local driving only because of all the limitations mentioned. I don’t want range anxiety, charger anxiety, or HVBJB anxiety. We simply take the ICE car for long trips like Phoenix to Houston or even Phoenix to the West Coast. Who wants to drive 67 across west Texas when the speed limit is 80? I feel certain there are many more like me. Yes it would be nice to take the Mach-E but it is highly impracticable.

 

[troublebot]

We use the Mach-E for local driving only because of all the limitations mentioned. I don’t want range anxiety, charger anxiety, or HVBJB anxiety. We simply take the ICE car for long trips like Phoenix to Houston or even Phoenix to the West Coast. Who wants to drive 67 across west Texas when the speed limit is 80? I feel certain there are many more like me. Yes it would be nice to take the Mach-E but it is highly impracticable.

Having just done it, I don't think it's really that impractical. More planning? Certainly. But this was probably one of the most flawless road trips I've ever had, and I would do it again. With NACS coming sometime next year, most of the potential charging issues all but disappear. The HVBJB issue is obviously looming, but in an ICE car on road trips, I've had a tire explode, a fuel pump fail, experience severe transmission issues that required a multi-day stop to fix, cracked an oil pan, etc., so it's not like ICE cars aren't plenty prone to issues on long distance trips. I would actually expect my MME to be more reliable than anything else I've driven across country, except for the HVBJB which is now a well-known issue that is easily fixed under warranty.

For the most part the anxiety faded into the back of my mind fairly quickly. There were only a couple stretches where driving in the 65-70mph region was strictly necessary and usually that was due to me extending a stint and skipping a charge, hauling ass in the early part in a stint and needing to chill out for a bit, or just a lack of comfort since this was my first really long multi-day trip with the MME. It wasn't until I was ascending into Flagstaff that I had any real concern, and that was just a screwup on my part not taking the climb into account, which was mostly fixed by getting behind a semi-truck that was doing ~65-70 and leaving BC on and relaxing until my comfort level increased.

I was a little more cautious on the drive out and stayed mostly at the speed limit but generally made it to charging stops with a comfortable, possibly excessive, buffer (typically 40-50 miles minimum). On the drive back I skipped several charging stops that I had taken on the way out, and as soon as I made it through Flagstaff I pushed Bluecruise to 80mph for most of the drive back (any faster and hands-free disengages). I had skipped the Williams AZ stop because I was able to charge in Kingman, so I was a little slower going up to Flagstaff because we also wanted to stop by the Lowell Observatory before we charged.

Our ICE car (Mazda CX-5) is currently not up for a long trip, so we would have either needed to fly out and rent a car there, or rent a car locally and drive that out. Either of those options would have cost significantly more. Just in gas alone it would have likely been at least $200-400 more, and $500+ for a comparable rental (I did put a reservation on one just in case, total for a standard SUV from my local Enterprise was $620). DCFC charging was just over $300 total, which saved us quite a bit of money over those other options.

Also, we were in the car for ~40ish hours over 4 days. Hands-free bluecruise for 80%+ of the drive? Game changer. No droning engine noise? Amazing. Instant torque when I need to get a move on? hell yes. I would happily deal with some range/charger/hvbjb anxiety now for the comfort and performance of the MME coupled with the BC and safety systems. Those things make a hell of a difference. It's a damn good road tripping car once I got settled in and stopped worrying.

 

[Billyk24]

And that shows how ridiculous the situation is. As long as people need to jump through hoops and experience anxiety instead of being certain that they can just plug and charge anywhere people won't be buying EVs. Alternatively, manufacturers need to come up with 500-800 mile highway range, enough for a day of driving, so people wouldn't need to charge en route. The latter means having 300-400kWh battery and 50kW destination chargers to be able to charge overnight. Since neither seems to be happening any time soon, the adoption of EVs will continue to be dismal and limited to specific regions.

Road tripping and charger reliability is an issue. Limited charger locations in rural areas and those far off the beaten path. Higher price tags than ice vehicles are issues hindering widespread adoption. Big city crime and charger station abuse is for someone else to figure out.

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