Trip to the Wild West – Columbus, OH to Columbus, ND

[CA RTE 1]

It is always good a read a wonderful travel event. Thanks for sharing.

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[KadeBR]

Didn't see this tell now so a little late to the party all the Simonson's gas stations have 50kw chargers that aren't listed in some areas and the 350 kw charger opened up in Jamestown. Glad to see that cenex charger might work for some lol I've tried it 2 times and it would only charge 20 kw a hour, but never had issues with Simonson's besides the 50kw max

 

[OhioTodd]

Didn't see this tell now so a little late to the party all the Simonson's gas stations have 50kw chargers that aren't listed in some areas and the 350 kw charger opened up in Jamestown. Glad to see that cenex charger might work for some lol I've tried it 2 times and it would only charge 20 kw a hour, but never had issues with Simonson's besides the 50kw max

Hey, Devin. Nice to hear from you. I had heard about the charger in Jamestown and saw it on EA's app. I was a little worried about the distance and weather affects. Also, it didn't show up on Ford's navigation or on Plugshare or anywhere else except the EA app. There was pretty strong wind and it was chilly that day, too. Probably not that cold for you. I like the color of your Mach-E. How is it owning a BEV in NoDak? I used the Chargepoint app to start the charger at the CENEX station and got about 70 KW out of it. We flushed 4 sharptails walking in the grass on the grass on the southeast side of the CENEX parking lot.

 

[KadeBR]

Hey, Devin. Nice to hear from you. I had heard about the charger in Jamestown and saw it on EA's app. I was a little worried about the distance and weather affects. Also, it didn't show up on Ford's navigation or on Plugshare or anywhere else except the EA app. There was pretty strong wind and it was chilly that day, too. Probably not that cold for you. I like the color of your Mach-E. How is it owning a BEV in NoDak? I used the Chargepoint app to start the charger at the CENEX station and got about 70 KW out of it. We flushed 4 sharptails walking in the grass on the grass on the southeast side of the CENEX parking lot.

Good for the most part I live/from Williston, kinda have had to accept the fact that 50kw chargers are the best I can get so Ive only taken the car to minot as it's farthest point from home?. Worst thing that happened with the cold and the car is it cold soaked on a -40 degree day in February. (hospital for a few days wife had a c section) car was at 80% charge and only had a 30-40 mile range.

 

[OhioTodd]

Good for the most part I live/from Williston, kinda have had to accept the fact that 50kw chargers are the best I can get so Ive only taken the car to minot as it's farthest point from home?. Worst thing that happened with the cold and the car is it cold soaked on a -40 degree day in February. (hospital for a few days wife had a c section) car was at 80% charge and only had a 30-40 mile range.

I remember some of those days back in the 60s, 70s and 80s living in Minnesota. It got hard to get the engine to turn over when it got to -30 or lower. Lots of people didn't get theirs started. IBM in Rochester used to have roving starting service in the parking lot at the end of each day's work period to help anyone whose vehicle didn't start. And, cars ran like crap at those temperatures. I had a little Opel Manta back in the day and when it got that cold, it could barely make 35 miles per hour on the 4-lane running through Rochester into the wind. I had to drive in third gear because it didn't have enough power to overcome the cold and wind. And, it was so cold, the car never really warmed up inside. I drove 600 miles home to Toledo one year, overnight, and we wore our winter coats the whole way home and our feet were freezing the whole trip.

 

[that_macheguy]

I can confirm that there is a working EA charger here in Jamestown, ND!

 

[TheVirtualTim]

This will seem an odd comment ... but the first thing to grab my attention in this post was that you drove through Fort Wayne instead of heading west through Indianapolis before heading north toward Chicago.

Fort Wayne has been a charging desert. A few dealerships had low speed DC charging, but nothing with 100kW or more for a road trip.

You mentioned the Tom Kelley Cadillac dealer and I think you said it was 62.5 kW. According to PlugShare these are ChargePoint network units. So I pulled up ChargePoint which said the two in front of the dealer should be 125 kW units ... the one around the side is a 62.5 kW unit.

I don't know if ChargePoint does the "sharing" thing (e.g. are the two 125 kW units only 125 kW if there is only one car charging and they cut to 62.5 kW if two cars are charging to share the load??)

 

[OhioTodd]

This will seem an odd comment ... but the first thing to grab my attention in this post was that you drove through Fort Wayne instead of heading west through Indianapolis before heading north toward Chicago.

Fort Wayne has been a charging desert. A few dealerships had low speed DC charging, but nothing with 100kW or more for a road trip.

You mentioned the Tom Kelley Cadillac dealer and I think you said it was 62.5 kW. According to PlugShare these are ChargePoint network units. So I pulled up ChargePoint which said the two in front of the dealer should be 125 kW units ... the one around the side is a 62.5 kW unit.

I don't know if ChargePoint does the "sharing" thing (e.g. are the two 125 kW units only 125 kW if there is only one car charging and they cut to 62.5 kW if two cars are charging to share the load??)

I was getting 75-ish on their charger. It was one of the pair with no fellow traveler to share with. I chose to go that way for a couple reasons. One, it was shorter distance than either going via Indianapolis or via Toledo and the Ohio Turnpike by 35 to 50 miles by angling toward Chicago on US 30 and/or US 33. That's 10 to 17-ish fewer KWh to charge. From Columbus, you angle across west central Ohio and East Central Indiana to get to Fort Wayne. Also, it's a long run from Columbus to Indy's EA chargers, roughly 190 miles. The car could do it, but I'd need a stop somewhere anyway. There's an Electrify America on the east side of Dayton, but that's only about 60 miles from home, so if I stopped there, I'd be charging at 35KWh since I'd still probably be close to or above 80% charge still after leaving home with a full "tank". Then, the next stop after Indy is Lafayette, which also seemed to have iffy ratings on Plugshare. If you go via the Ohio Turnpike, the second stop is Electrify America in South Bend, and those stations there had poor ratings. If they're running degraded, they're usually at 50 KW, so you might as well use the 62 KW chargers at a dealer. Also, after you get past Richmond, IN on I-70, it's pretty barren of anything until you get to the outskirts of Indy. I believe the Pilot/Flying J co-op with EVGo will be putting chargers west of Dayton somewhere. I also figured I'd need to stop for restrooms every couple hours anyway, at my age. So, I figured I'd lay out my stops about 120 to 140 miles apart. Fort Wayne fit pretty well with that from my house. And with 30 or 40 KWh to charge, I just took the dog for a walk for 20 or 30 minutes

 

[Jeremy stones 121]

that's a nice trajectory to take ! I bet you have ton of nice pics taken

Tutuapp 9Apps​

 

[OhioTodd]

that's a nice trajectory to take ! I bet you have ton of nice pics taken

Unfortunately, I did not get a lot of pictures. It was a pretty busy trip. I did get some shots of the trees turning in Wisconsin and a sunset over the prairie in western Nortrh Dakota reflecting off one of the sloughs. Sloughs are ponds in North Dakota. Here are a few.
in sequence,
1.) Me and my co-pilot (Ary) when we got home to Ohio.

2.) Grain Elevators in Devils Lake, ND. I stopped near here to charge at Lakes Cheverolet, Buick, GMC

3.) The farm where I stayed whose family has known my family for more than 60 years.

4.) Ary hunting in the grass while we charged at Cenex in Minot. A little while after this 4 sharptail grouse flushed from under some of the farm implements.

5.) Prairie on US-2 in eastern North Dakota

6.) An old farmstead at our destination. As a kid, my brother and I played with some kids who lived here in the early 60s. Now, some guys use it as a hunting lodge when they're out duck hunting.

7.) More blue sky and prairie on US-2

8.) Rugby, ND. the geographic center of North America.

9.) A typical ND slough

10.) Sunset over the slough behind the house on my land in the exurbs of Columbus, ND. I purchased the land from my mother and her siblings who inherited it from her mother and step-father.

I should have put some of these in the post earlier.

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