Second half of Route 66 trip

[2sleep]

Last year, my son and I did the first half of Route 66, from Chicago to Amarillo TX. I flew him from his home in Northwestern SC to Chicago and I drove up to meet him at the airport from Western Noth Carolina. We drove from Chicago, through Springfield, St. Louis, Missouri, through a small bit of Kansas, on into Oklahoma and finally to the Halfway Café just west of Amarillo Texas. He flew because unlike me, he still has to work. I picked him up in Chicago on a Saturday and few him back home the next Saturday.
2 weeks ago I left for LA on Monday to pick him up at LAX on Saturday. We drove to the Santa Monica pier and hit a lot of the high spots on Route 66 in California, Arizona, New Mexico before ending up in Amarillo again on this past Friday. Took him to the Amarillo airport at a ridiculously early 4 AM Saturday to fly him back home. I drove the trip back to NC from Amarillo in 2 days.
I never worried about finding a charger. Did one charge at a Walmart branded charger. Took some hoop jumping to down load the app and set up payment but after that was a pretty good charge stop.
All told, these are the stats.
5075 total miles and 106 hours in the saddle over 13 days.
Great trip that I would highly recommend. It will be time with my son that I will always treasure.

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[On the Road with Ralph]

Over the last few years, my Lightning and I have seen a fair amount of Route 66, particularly the remaining portions of it west of OKC. Charging is definitely easy along the route; even in the sketchy summer of 2023 there were plenty of chargers in the Interstate 40 corridor. Interestingly, there was a plan for making Route 66 an EV highway two decades ago (see map from room at the historic Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, NM - which installed L2 chargers years ago).

 

[NWilson]

I'm in the process of researching and planning a family Route 66 trip this summer in the Lightning pulling a camper. I have the ER battery, but towing I expect to get about 1 mile per kWh, meaning we'll need to stop to charge about every 100-150 miles depending on how much we're using the A/C.

I've used ABRP and Plugshare to get a sense of chargers along the route and for the most part it looks like it should be fine. I'm just wondering if those who have done the trip know if there are any stretches where we might get into trouble with the reduced range towing the trailer?

 

[On the Road with Ralph]

I'm just wondering if those who have done the trip know if there are any stretches where we might get into trouble with the reduced range towing the trailer?

That must be a BIG trailer.

The Good News: If you are really committed to driving Route 66, you won’t be driving 70 mph very often, so your miles per kWh may exceed your expectations. Also, I do A LOT of desert driving and live part time in the Mojave, and rarely see a hit to range of more than 5% due to running the air conditioning. In addition to the usual DCFC chargers, I assume you will also be using a L2 mobile charger at the campgrounds. All these factors may have you charging less frequently on the road than you imagine.

The Bad News: This route includes some major elevation changes, particularly in Arizona, east and west of Flagstaff. Coming from the East Coast, you are going to be surprised by climbs to nearly 8000 feet. Welcome to the West. Be particularly careful if eastbound on Interstate 40 between Kingman and Williams; that’s a climb of almost 6000 feet.

Other News: The stretch of Route 66 between Kingman and Seligman through Peach Springs is not to be missed. But you’re away from I-40 for quite some distance, and you’re not going to find any chargers out there. Also, west of Kingman, the route through Oatman is the real and old 66 along a mountain road that is VERY narrow.

Recommendations: Get Tesla and EA Pass+ memberships to reduce your DCFC charging costs (and, of course, have both DCFC and J1772 adapters for Tesla chargers). Be prepared for insanely high kWh costs at GM Energy (Pilot & Flying J) and Rivian stations. Take advantage of the new iONNA station in Tucumcari.

 

[Bushwood CC]

Just did a big part of this in February. Drove from MN to OKC and then to Sedona. Sang that song every time we went through one of the towns listed. As a bonus for eagles fans, you get to go to through Winslow Arizona.
Loved the Ionna chargers especially the ones in Tucumcari NM. Besides being fast they were only $0.20/kwh that weekend

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