Yet another road trip thread, OC to DFW

[mdolan92869]

Finally getting a chance to write down the four day drive from Orange County California to Fort Worth Texas. 1413.5 miles, 2.7 miles/kWh. ER, AWD, FE. Absolutely love the car, drives well, comfortable seat, good storage (never could have taken the luggage I did in my old Mustang GT ) Unhappy with the ICC seeing signs on frontage roads and slamming on the brakes at 75 when it sees a 45 on the side. That will wake you up! And the navigation system got me screaming at the inanimate voice telling me what to do. Traffic and construction in Fort Worth had me really wanting help. It said stay right to Riverside. No signs anywhere on the freeway said Riverside, so I kept staying right (while screaming “What Riverside!”). Wrong move. Apparently stay right didn’t mean that, it mean go straight. I really want the person who did that part of the navigation to take the route I did and try to follow the directions they gave.

Charging was good over all, hit a few places with poor charging, Arizona Mills, Casa Grande and El Paso, but for Arizona MIlls I went 7 miles down the road and got great charging at Arizona Premium Outlets. For Casa Grande, I still had plenty of electrons from the previous charge to get me down the road for another great charge at Marana. For El Paso, I was charging after checking in to the hotel. Hopped from one charger to the other, one faulted, the others just trickle charged like it was my 240v charger at home. So, I ate my dinner then went in to the Walmart and bought paper towels and some Windex (that are probably still sitting on the shelf in the garage where I put them before I left) and let it charge. Got some juice, then had to go back to the hotel. Next morning, went over nice and early, charged up good and fast like it should.

Now, the greatest charge of them all. As anyone who has done a road trip knows, the stations are usually out in the back 40 of the parking lot. So, when ABRP said that in Pecos Texas I’d be charging at a Sonic Drive-In, I figured that it’s around lunch, so I’ll drive thru, get my food and head to the back at the kids table. Nope. They have the chargers in the stall. Pulled in, plugged in, pressed the button to order my food and then sat there while my car charged and they brought me lunch. Shade from the canopy, tunes from the radio, tasty burger, it was the best!

But I do notice that here in Texas there aren’t a lot of DCFC. I was a bit worried in El Paso, the one that didn’t work well was the only shown on the charger maps. So I’ve made sure to always hit 80% and not worry about putting just enough in to get me to the next stop.

So, great car that I love and am very happy I got. Going to show it off to my cousin, maybe even let him drive it, while I’m here. That and find a touchless car wash, wow that nose is quite the bug killer!

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[SyNRG]

Nice road trip and glad to hear not a lot of hiccups with charging along the way. ??

 

[TRP]

Now, the greatest charge of them all. As anyone who has done a road trip knows, the stations are usually out in the back 40 of the parking lot. So, when ABRP said that in Pecos Texas I’d be charging at a Sonic Drive-In, I figured that it’s around lunch, so I’ll drive thru, get my food and head to the back at the kids table. Nope. They have the chargers in the stall. Pulled in, plugged in, pressed the button to order my food and then sat there while my car charged and they brought me lunch. Shade from the canopy, tunes from the radio, tasty burger, it was the best!

This is brilliant!! Love me some Sonic burgers and being able to charge in the stall, well..........

 

[mdolan92869]

One other update, I’ve seen only one other Mach-e on the trip. In Lordsburg NM on Sunday the 12th, while charging up, went in to use the facilities and grab a snack. Came out and two spots down from me was a gray Mach-e. Gave a ? and got a wave back.

 

[jglor]

Charging at the Sonic stall sounds awesome, but what if you're not hungry? Did they have chargers outside of the stalls as well? Or do you have to hog a stall just to charge?

 

[mdolan92869]

Charging at the Sonic stall sounds awesome, but what if you're not hungry? Did they have chargers outside of the stalls as well? Or do you have to hog a stall just to charge?

You could park in a non-food stall on the other side. Just pull the cable from the food side and plug in. You can’t see the screen from that side, but the car will let you know. But you could always get an ice cream or something and not a burger

 

[mdolan92869]

I copied this from the Google Earth app. You can see where the EA chargers are

Sonic Drive-In
(432) 445-9035
https://goo.gl/maps/mFSLXme31dKcWiBz7

 

[mdolan92869]

Yet another update. Went to Walgreens to pick something up and remembered that I’d seen one with an EVGo charger. Went there. Opened the app, plugged in, swiped the arrow on the app and charging started, easy peasy. Only 50kWh, so about ⅓ the normal DCFC charge, but I mainly wanted to test it out. Started at 64% when I plugged in. Went into the store, did the shopping and came back to the car. At this point, into the 70s %-wise, so I sat and waited a bit more for 80%. Overall, added 16% in 18 minutes, so just under 1% per minute for $6.16. Wouldn’t want to do a 20-80 charge unless I was going to do a sit down meal for an hour, but nice to know I can top it off here near my aunt’s house where there are no real DCFC chargers nearby.

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