Family EV Road-trip Summer 2024: Part 1

Now that we’ve safely made it back home and recovered, here’s the first part of a 3 part debrief on our journey.

Leg 1 — Knocking out a few miles after work

We packed up our EV and set out to hit the road promptly at 6pm after work on Friday to get a bit of a head start on what would be >2,500 miles of travel over the next couple of weeks.

Our first Rivi-van spotting of the trip in NH 😎

Unfortunately, poor timing and erratic New England summer thunderstorms meant that it was pouring by the time we made our first charge stop and had our first lesson at trying to manage dog, baby, food, and charge within one stop.

But after getting thoroughly soaked because our dog (Noodle) decided to take his time finding the right spot to relieve himself and re-plugging into a second station due to an abnormally slow charge, we successfully were on our way with full bellies (us, baby, and dog).

We pulled into our friend’s house just off of Onota Lake by 10pm that evening and plugged into his garage wall outlet with ~60miles left.

Leg 2 — A long trek across NY state ending with family time at Niagara Falls

We started our day at 8am because we knew we had a lot of ground to cover to make it to the other side of NY. Our overnight charge got us up to 80 miles by morning, but we knew we would need much more and fortunately we had done some research and saw a Supercharger at the nearby Chocolate Springs Cafe in Lenox, MA.

A little morning treat while we charge…☕🥐

This stop was fortunately dryer and more pleasant as we figured out a better unloading and reloading plan. What would turn into our new norm at stops was:

1. Get out and plug the car in
2. Wait to make sure it started successfully (which didn’t happen ~10% of the time on our first try) and move to another open charger if it didn’t
3. Adult #1 opens the trunk and let Noodle out to relieve himself
4. Adult #1 finds trash for Noodle waste
5. Adult #1 puts Noodle back in car and turns on “Pet Mode” (keeps the climate on) to go and meet the rest of the family inside
6. All while Adult #2 takes baby out of car seat and puts him into front carrier or stroller
7. Adult #2 takes baby to nearest restroom for diaper change
8. Adult #2 purchases snacks and drinks if needed

Usually before the end of all of this, our charge will have completed and a handful of times one of us had to rush back to unplug the vehicle so that we didn’t get charged idle fees.

Thanks to our new routine and my heavy foot down the NY Thruway, we made it to Buffalo by 3pm. More than enough time to check into the hotel, unload our luggage (which with baby and dog more than I’d like to admit), and still make it to Niagara Falls with plenty of daylight.

Paying homage to the great inventor and namesake that helped make our trip possible…⚡🪫🔌

Leg 3 & 4 — Catching up with some old friends and discovering a gem in “The Glass City”

The next day we caught up with some old college friends over a nice brunch on Grand Island and then continued making our way westward.

We decided to break up our journey and stop in Toledo before making our way into Chicago, which gave us plenty of time to explore Toledo a bit more.

Since we had just spent 2 long days in the car and were going to spend another 4+ hours on the road again, we decided to find a nice spot for us all to stretch our legs and enjoy some fresh air before traveling, which led us to find this fantastic park.

We discovered Toledo’s Glass City Metropark, a gem of a spot for anyone traveling through

One particular spot had what seemed like hundreds of glass globes with a 3D image of various objects that carried some sort of historical significance to the area. Definitely somewhere I’d like to go back to if I ever come back through.

After an hour of enjoying the wonderful park and weather, we hit the road to make our destination for the night, Chicago…