Family vacations are always the best of all worlds. We live and work for a good, relaxing break, but then the planning of our vacations can be a lot of stress and work. I grew up in rural America, around Garnett, Kan. Family vacations were not always plentiful; but when they happened, they would tend to be road trips to some interesting places. I made the trip to California a few times in my youth, and always returned with a memorable story or two. Taking the Oldsmobile Delta 88 Diesel (a vehicle that produced more black smoke than James Bond in a getaway) to the Grand Canyon always stands out in my memory, along with seeing the same vehicle totaled by a mountain sheep near Hoover Dam. Another trip included what I remember to be a Pontiac Horizon hatchback whose air conditioning went out just ahead of Death Valley.
Needless to say, these trips still get plenty of laughs and produced memories I will never forget. Now with a 7-year-old daughter, I am trying to make those memories with her, knowing that no vacation will ever be perfect. Ahead of the National Ethanol Conference this year, I drove my family across the country from Kansas City to San Diego. We made the entire trip in the RFA flex fuel plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (FFPHEV). Here, for your reading enjoyment (and education on the pros and cons of hybrid electric technology), is my travel log.
Day One
We left home with a full charge and a full tank of E85 fresh off of a Super Bowl victory by our Kansas City Chiefs. My wife, who does not like road trips, and my daughter, who can state “I’m bored” in under 20 minutes some days, decided to give it a try. Our first stop was in Pratt, Kan., where we topped off with E85 and then again in Liberal, Kan. While the vehicle wasn’t empty yet, there were other reasons to stop, and with this spacing in fueling, we could make it all of the way to Albuquerque on one charge and 100% E85. And we did just that. We stopped for the night at a Holiday Inn Express, one I had stayed at two times previously as I made the first trek back and forth to California for emissions testing in this car. I also knew this hotel had free EV charging; I had used this amenity twice already. It worked great those times, so why not use it again?
Day Two
I awoke to a surprise on my phone. What started off as free charging somehow changed in the middle of the night. I was notified in the middle of the night that once charging was complete the charge would be five dollars an hour if I didn’t move the vehicle! I had the only electric vehicle at this hotel and was not expecting this at all. It was still too early to sneak out to unplug the car without waking up my family. I decided that a well-rested family is probably worth more than a few five-dollar bills. But once the family finally stirred, I was on the hook for $32 in “non-movement” charges. The car was ready to go on 29 miles of charge. Wow! That means for electricity it would cost $1.10/mile. There were plenty of options for E85 in the area, and we filled for just over $2/gallon. That translates to just $.05/mile. Using E85 would save us over $1/mile.
We headed for the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. I knew we would need to refuel before we would get there, but I also knew gas stations would be few and far between in this area and E85 would not likely be available. However, I knew there were E15 options in the area, thanks to Maverik, the new owners of Kum & Go. They identify E15 as Eco 88 Unleaded and it was priced a dime under regular unleaded in Gallup, N.M. Once at the Petrified Forest National Park, one charger was available there, but at an extremely slow rate of 1kWh. Our car would’ve taken more than 14 hours to charge for the ~29 miles of range as seen early this day. Imagine how long it would have taken a Tesla, needing more than 80 kWh!
We plugged in while we were in the visitor center and gift shop and came out to two miles of additional range. After a stop for lunch on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, we headed on to the Grand Canyon area for the night.
