7000 miles since 11/17/2022 in Select - Cross Country Long Island/Arizona/CA plus Vegas/Tahoe/Bay

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Hi everyone!

I am writing a story about my 7000 miles since Nov. 17!

Here she is in SF on New Years Day!

More stories coming tomorrow!

xoxo

Ford Mustang Mach-E 7000 miles since 11/17/2022 in Select - Cross Country Long Island/Arizona/CA plus Vegas/Tahoe/Bay IMG_3247
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I started in Long Island. I was living in the Hamptons with a new boyfriend and he had ordered it in March. We met in April and by October it was coming in he decided it would be best if I purchased it since I needed a car. I knew nothing about this car and I had never driven an EV before. I live in Montana so I drove the car from Long Island to Arizona to visit a friend for a day starting on 11/17 and then reaching Sacramento, CA for thanksgiving. I plan on driving it to Montana and although I love the way it handles in snow (Tahoe) I don't want to deal with the gaps in charging stations combined with the cold through Northern NV and Idaho.

So, I had no plan to drive cross country and had never dealt with fast charging before and was learning on the fly. The EV community really made the trip less lonely and I am so grateful for the people who shared their knowledge with me along the way. I had no idea what I was about to embark on. I was not planning on leaving until the night I left. I drove out to Montauk and smelled the ocean air, ran over a bunny accidentally (sorry bunny) and then packed my stuff and drove to a hotel in Roslyn, LI. I parked up front at the entrance where the free charging was. It was awesome and I woke up to 100% and drove to Pittsburgh. The drive was cold and I was running out of charge and had to have my jacket and gloves on. Other people I talked to were also not running heaters and we laughed that luxury vehicles were suddenly not so luxurious.

Somehow I ended up in Cincinnati and it was so cold you guys and gals. The cords on the charging get very stiff and hard to maneuver. If you are in a parking lot at night charging it can also be very scary and unsafe feeling. If I didn't travel 12 hours a day though I would never get enough charge in the cold with the 200 range so I enjoyed the breaks even if they were cold or just napping in the car in my down coat. So without much of a memory of this part of the trip and not feeling like looking back into my charging logs, I landed in Bowling Green, KY and finally it started to warm up a bit.

Fort Smith was next. Amarillo next. Must be on day 4. I thought this area would be difficult for charging but a gentlemen in NJ said that he had done several cross country to Vegas and said that this area wasn't bad and he was right.

By Day 5 I reach my friend's house in Cottonwood, AZ and I take a day off driving. Phew.

Back on the pony. Oh also, I have about 300-400 pounds of my stuff in the car. So my range is bad and I drive like a bat out of hell especially if the speed limit is 80.

I only had one close call on the trip when a semi carrying vehicles burst into flames before I passed. They were shooting 6-8 feet out at the mach and I had to pass quickly and felt like I was in Die Hard.

On my way out of Arizona I met a woman who works for Ford driving a Select, but it had a different battery than mine and she couldn't tell me the range (with a wink). She was charging at new 600 watt stations. So that was pretty cool.

By this time in the trip I had lost my EV anxiety. Plus I had reached CA and the stations were abundant. But it was the day before Thanksgiving. Without queues and parking the Quartzite Love's had a 17 car wait before I arrived. Thank goodness mine was only 7 and there was a nice gentleman volunteering to make sure everyone knew who was next, etc. What a mess. But good for him.

I made it to Thanksgiving at 3pm just in time for dinner 11/24. 3700 miles on the Mach. I guess I took some detours...? It had 200 when I started.

Now I am totally hooked on this car. The charging stations not so much. All the apps, the fails, no carports, safety issues with darkness and scary stations behind buildings etc, the heavy cords. Here we have this incredible technology and we mimic gas station pumps and its just not a good system yet. The Ford lady said what I was doing was hard after I joked that I should tell my story to a journalist so they can convince people its easy. Its not. She's right. It's a pain in the ass. But I asked her if it would get better and she said yes so I sure hope so. Also, the whole trip came to $420 in charging. Granted I found as many hotels as I could with free charging it's not that easy to navigate all of this alone and I had no plan! I am getting better at it.

Thanks to all the chatty nice EV owners on the way. I learned so much and it was so cool seeing all the different cars and discussing this new form of transportation.

I'll write more about my trip to Tahoe/Death Valley/Vegas next.

xoxo
 

Womps

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Thanks for sharing. Hereā€™s a picture of the charging station you mentioned at Quartzite AZ day after Christmas. There are 4 chargers there but only 1 was working. Across the street is a Tesla charging station with 16 chargers and guess what, all were working.

F06D7E28-8CF8-468D-85CC-1E6D2D6FFFC1.jpeg
 

Logal727

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Thanks for sharing. Hereā€™s a picture of the charging station you mentioned at Quartzite AZ day after Christmas. There are 4 chargers there but only 1 was working. Across the street is a Tesla charging station with 16 chargers and guess what, all were working.

Ford Mustang Mach-E 7000 miles since 11/17/2022 in Select - Cross Country Long Island/Arizona/CA plus Vegas/Tahoe/Bay F06D7E28-8CF8-468D-85CC-1E6D2D6FFFC1
holy shit
 


Logal727

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On my way out of Arizona I met a woman who works for Ford driving a Select, but it had a different battery than mine and she couldn't tell me the range (with a wink). She was charging at new 600 watt stations. So that was pretty cool.
Hmm, this part is interesting, by 600 watt, do you mean she could charge at 350kw? 600 watt doesn't make sense. It's possible she was in a test unit with faster charging, that would be cool if that is coming
 

Msnwcpa

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I started in Long Island. I was living in the Hamptons with a new boyfriend and he had ordered it in March. We met in April and by October it was coming in he decided it would be best if I purchased it since I needed a car. I knew nothing about this car and I had never driven an EV before. I live in Montana so I drove the car from Long Island to Arizona to visit a friend for a day starting on 11/17 and then reaching Sacramento, CA for thanksgiving. I plan on driving it to Montana and although I love the way it handles in snow (Tahoe) I don't want to deal with the gaps in charging stations combined with the cold through Northern NV and Idaho.

So, I had no plan to drive cross country and had never dealt with fast charging before and was learning on the fly. The EV community really made the trip less lonely and I am so grateful for the people who shared their knowledge with me along the way. I had no idea what I was about to embark on. I was not planning on leaving until the night I left. I drove out to Montauk and smelled the ocean air, ran over a bunny accidentally (sorry bunny) and then packed my stuff and drove to a hotel in Roslyn, LI. I parked up front at the entrance where the free charging was. It was awesome and I woke up to 100% and drove to Pittsburgh. The drive was cold and I was running out of charge and had to have my jacket and gloves on. Other people I talked to were also not running heaters and we laughed that luxury vehicles were suddenly not so luxurious.

Somehow I ended up in Cincinnati and it was so cold you guys and gals. The cords on the charging get very stiff and hard to maneuver. If you are in a parking lot at night charging it can also be very scary and unsafe feeling. If I didn't travel 12 hours a day though I would never get enough charge in the cold with the 200 range so I enjoyed the breaks even if they were cold or just napping in the car in my down coat. So without much of a memory of this part of the trip and not feeling like looking back into my charging logs, I landed in Bowling Green, KY and finally it started to warm up a bit.

Fort Smith was next. Amarillo next. Must be on day 4. I thought this area would be difficult for charging but a gentlemen in NJ said that he had done several cross country to Vegas and said that this area wasn't bad and he was right.

By Day 5 I reach my friend's house in Cottonwood, AZ and I take a day off driving. Phew.

Back on the pony. Oh also, I have about 300-400 pounds of my stuff in the car. So my range is bad and I drive like a bat out of hell especially if the speed limit is 80.

I only had one close call on the trip when a semi carrying vehicles burst into flames before I passed. They were shooting 6-8 feet out at the mach and I had to pass quickly and felt like I was in Die Hard.

On my way out of Arizona I met a woman who works for Ford driving a Select, but it had a different battery than mine and she couldn't tell me the range (with a wink). She was charging at new 600 watt stations. So that was pretty cool.

By this time in the trip I had lost my EV anxiety. Plus I had reached CA and the stations were abundant. But it was the day before Thanksgiving. Without queues and parking the Quartzite Love's had a 17 car wait before I arrived. Thank goodness mine was only 7 and there was a nice gentleman volunteering to make sure everyone knew who was next, etc. What a mess. But good for him.

I made it to Thanksgiving at 3pm just in time for dinner 11/24. 3700 miles on the Mach. I guess I took some detours...? It had 200 when I started.

Now I am totally hooked on this car. The charging stations not so much. All the apps, the fails, no carports, safety issues with darkness and scary stations behind buildings etc, the heavy cords. Here we have this incredible technology and we mimic gas station pumps and its just not a good system yet. The Ford lady said what I was doing was hard after I joked that I should tell my story to a journalist so they can convince people its easy. Its not. She's right. It's a pain in the ass. But I asked her if it would get better and she said yes so I sure hope so. Also, the whole trip came to $420 in charging. Granted I found as many hotels as I could with free charging it's not that easy to navigate all of this alone and I had no plan! I am getting better at it.

Thanks to all the chatty nice EV owners on the way. I learned so much and it was so cool seeing all the different cars and discussing this new form of transportation.

I'll write more about my trip to Tahoe/Death Valley/Vegas next.

xoxo
Thanks for sharing, I postponed a trip to Dallas from Philly when I heard many of colleagues with EVs stated it was a bad idea.

You story is daring me to try it out.

@Ford Motor Company pls create a travel blog space on your site and allow curated blogs from travellers.
 

Logal727

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Holy shit is right.
This is why I wouldn't recommend a CCS EV to a family member that I cared about.
I think this is a rare case, and only in certain regions, I certainly havenā€™t run into this yet, but who knows
 
 




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