Charging Down Route 66

[rkarl89203]

Thanks Ed.
We leave late tomorrow, and start down the Route in Chicago on Saturday just before noon.

[JoeS]

Perhaps at the end of each week we can put them on a photo host site...

That would certainly work and all you need to do is provide a link to that website.

You should be off by now - Godspeed, warm weather, and tailwinds.

[rkarl89203]

We left today at 1PM. Drove to McHenry County College in Woodstock Il. Topped up our charge at their Semaconnect L2 charger. Good Conversation, administrator said "I didnt know Mitsubishi made an Electric Car. " Drove to Algonquin IL , charged for 20 minutes at their Semaconnect L2. Then we drove to Palatine IL and charged at EVGO chademo at walgreens($8.00). We arrived at our days destination . Great Lakes Navy Lodge at 5 PM. So, 1/2 day of travel, 84 miles. 35 miles RR left(8 Bars).
Cool start. We should hit the start of route 66 at about noon tomorrow!

[rkarl89203]

Day 2 on our trip began quietly. Breakfast at Navy Lodge and a 2 hour L2 charge at Knauz BMW at Lake Forest Illinois. They had 3 Chargepoint Chargers. Two were being used and the third wouldnt activate. Went inside and a truly nice supervisor came out and rebooted the inactive charger. It worked great. They really impressed us. The drive to Chicago was uneventful until we pulled into the Grant Avenue parking garage. Their level 2 charger was out of order. We had to use our EVSE upgraded L1 charger to get enough range to get to the Berwyn quickcharger. Took 3 hours. That got us 21 miles RR. With only 9 miles to Spare we got to Berwyn about 4PM. Quickcharged to 80%.
Evgo, altho pricey, really rocks! Stopped at White Fence Farm for an awesome Chicken dinner. Then topped up at Adventist Hospital at Bolingbrook. Great L2 chargepoint charger. Due to the L1 Chicago fiasco only did 85 miles today. Had a great time!. Tomorrow, on to Dwight and Bloomington/Normal. So much to see.
Imiev running flawlessly as usual.

[JoeS]

Off to a good start! Yes, our experience with EVgo is that they are horribly expensive (if you don't sign up for their monthly plan), but I've found them to be very reliable.

Presumably this is the charging station in Berwyn: https://api.plugshare.com/view/location/5256

For those of you trying to track the trip, here is the link to their original itinerary:

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2677&start=70#p30395

Here are EVgo's rates (for us here in the SF Bay Area) which would make sense for this trip:
(words from their website)

FOR FREQUENT FAST CHARGING
Monthly fee $14.95
DC fast 10¢ / min.*
Level 2 $1.00 / hr.*
Contract term 12 months
Setup fee None
Early termination $29

Compared to their non-contract rate:

GREAT FOR OCCASIONAL CHARGING
Monthly fee None
DC fast $4.95 session + 20¢ / min.*
Level 2 $1.50 / hr.*
Contract term Month-to-month
Setup fee $4.95
Early termination None

[rkarl89203]

Yep. We really like EVGO. We have had a good day today. Lots of stops and all of the chargers work! Will post later tonite on the particulars. Charging right now at the Dwight Il rte 66 visitor center. Cool!

[rkarl89203]

One MAIN bit of advice, 3 days into the 55 day round trip. GET YOUR EVSE UPGRADE!. This upgraded quicker charger is a massive improvement.
It has saved us twice on this trip already!

As far as today went, we charged at the Adventist Hospital in Bolingbrook. Crazy fast L2 Chargepoint!. Then we topped up at Joliet Junior College also L2 chargepoint. At the Dwight IL rte 66
Visitor center charged for 2.5 hours!
All the chargers worked well.
Currently staying at Quality Inn in Pontiac IL where i am charging L1 with my EVSE upgraded charger. Will charge enuf tonight to get to Obrien Mitsubishi in Bloomington/Normal in the morning. Thats where we bought our imiev 3 years ago!

[rkarl89203]

Day 4 began with Thunderstorms big time. Still, they cleared out quickly enuf for us to Charge for 2 hours before we left for Bloomington. Drove to Obrien Mitsubishi where we charged at their L2 for an hour while we talked with our
Salesman, Jay Miller who sold us our imiev. Then, drove to the L3 DCQC 2 miles away and quickcharged for Free!
Topped off for free at the same parking garage at L2. Awesome. Drove to the Dixie Truck stop in McLean and had a HUGE meal! Then drove to Atlanta IL and charged to 75 miles on their L2. After all that drove to Lincoln IL and we are staying at the Econolodge. Charging at L1 with the plug virtually right outside our window
A good but very long day!

[JoeS]

Rick, thanks for keeping us up-to-date. I started trying to keep track of your predicted vs. actual mileage and was wondering if you could post your odometer reading or actual mileage covered at the end of each day? Can you go back and post that for day #3 and day #4? It should result in an interesting metric for anyone contemplating a long trip in the future.

[rkarl89203]

Hi all;
Day 5 was AWESOME!

First. A word to Joe S; i am sorry i forgot to post total miles for days 3 and 4.
On day 3 we drove 87 miles.
On day 4 we drove 76 miles.
Today, on Day 5 we drove 97 miles.

As i said, today Day 5 was great! We awoke at 7 oclock and charged L1 right outside our window at the Econolodge. After a great Breakfast we sww many historic sites on the way to Springfield IL. Of course we got lost in Springfield and just coincidentally found the Cozy Dog Drive in on Route 66. As we were eating Buzz Waldmire came over. He is Bobs surviving brother and we talked for at least 1 hour. This is a route 66 legend and we talked to him. We were in Awe. Afterwards we drove past the Illinois Capitol Building. We stopped to charge at Green Mitsubishi.
Plugged into their L2 charger. In 45 minutes we got TW0 miles. Horrible.
So we drove to the nearby Hyvee charger (L2 Chargepoint) and charged for 2 hours. I will post more in the next entry about Day 5