dan_meh
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Daniel
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2024
- Threads
- 41
- Messages
- 559
- Reaction score
- 1,079
- Location
- Alexandria, VA
- Vehicles
- 2024 Mustang Mach-e Premium Extended AWD
- Occupation
- Technical Writer
- Thread starter
- #1
I thought it might help to describe a weekend road trip, but one outside the coastal corridors. These are the kinds of road trips that people do often: a get away that’s about 300 to 350 miles away, a trip that requires one stop.
Before I actually owned an EV, doing a weekend getaway trip felt like an Apollo mission. Now I don’t even think about it.
My weekend one stopper was from DC to Pittsburgh. I left with kid 2 and my wife at about noon on Friday. Traffic was so bad getting out of DC that we were incredibly efficient. I was averaging near 4 miles per KWH all the way to Hagerstown.
I was excited about the efficiency because I wondered if we could skip the Bedford EA and make it to New Stanton or even Monroeville before stopping. Apple Maps, in fact said that we could do it all without a stop (dubious).
But just after Breezewood, the little voice came from the back: “I gotta pee.” So we did indeed stop at the Bedford Sheetz. I plugged in and drew just 110 because I was still at like 55%. We peed, got back in the car and we thought we were off again. But dad’s and mom’s schedule is not their own.
Especially with a family, electric car motoring for weekend trips is roughly the same as driving a gas car. We would have made that stop in the Toyota too.
Kid 2 wanted to play her mom in one of the infotainment games. We indulged because being energetic AND being strapped down in the back seat is a bit of torture. So we let her play from the driver’s seat. After three straight victories we put kiddo back in the back seat, unplugged and continued.
in Pittsburgh , I woke up early on Saturday to go charge at a local ford dealership. As a parent, having the opportunity to be by yourself, walk to Starbucks and then walk back is a luxury.
On the way back on Sunday, we stopped in Hagerstown to change I was at 3 miles per kWh on the return using the ford nav. I dropped wife and kid 2 at Arby’s for a meal, gave them my order, Ran to the Walmart, plugged in, got 158 kWh/ hour, peed, and when I got back, I unplugged. I was only supposed to charge for 10 minutes, but went 15 because that’s how long it takes to pee in a Walmart bathroom.
I drove back to the Arby’s to sit and have a meal with fam. They had just gotten their food. We ate, piled back into Bobo, and then drove home to Alexandria, arriving with about 20%. I plugged in at home and we unplaced.
That’s really it. The bottleneck in our travels is us: someone has to pee or eat or move around. We charge the car when we do it and forget about the “charging time” because it’s really “pee break time” or “blood sugar boost time.”
Before I actually owned an EV, doing a weekend getaway trip felt like an Apollo mission. Now I don’t even think about it.
My weekend one stopper was from DC to Pittsburgh. I left with kid 2 and my wife at about noon on Friday. Traffic was so bad getting out of DC that we were incredibly efficient. I was averaging near 4 miles per KWH all the way to Hagerstown.
I was excited about the efficiency because I wondered if we could skip the Bedford EA and make it to New Stanton or even Monroeville before stopping. Apple Maps, in fact said that we could do it all without a stop (dubious).
But just after Breezewood, the little voice came from the back: “I gotta pee.” So we did indeed stop at the Bedford Sheetz. I plugged in and drew just 110 because I was still at like 55%. We peed, got back in the car and we thought we were off again. But dad’s and mom’s schedule is not their own.
Especially with a family, electric car motoring for weekend trips is roughly the same as driving a gas car. We would have made that stop in the Toyota too.
Kid 2 wanted to play her mom in one of the infotainment games. We indulged because being energetic AND being strapped down in the back seat is a bit of torture. So we let her play from the driver’s seat. After three straight victories we put kiddo back in the back seat, unplugged and continued.
in Pittsburgh , I woke up early on Saturday to go charge at a local ford dealership. As a parent, having the opportunity to be by yourself, walk to Starbucks and then walk back is a luxury.
On the way back on Sunday, we stopped in Hagerstown to change I was at 3 miles per kWh on the return using the ford nav. I dropped wife and kid 2 at Arby’s for a meal, gave them my order, Ran to the Walmart, plugged in, got 158 kWh/ hour, peed, and when I got back, I unplugged. I was only supposed to charge for 10 minutes, but went 15 because that’s how long it takes to pee in a Walmart bathroom.
I drove back to the Arby’s to sit and have a meal with fam. They had just gotten their food. We ate, piled back into Bobo, and then drove home to Alexandria, arriving with about 20%. I plugged in at home and we unplaced.
That’s really it. The bottleneck in our travels is us: someone has to pee or eat or move around. We charge the car when we do it and forget about the “charging time” because it’s really “pee break time” or “blood sugar boost time.”
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