To EV or not to EV? Wanderlust Weekly Feb 10, 2024
That is the don't-make-me-angry-you-wouldn't-like-me-when-I'm-angry question.
Warning: I’ve got a bit of a rant coming. Normally I’m all happy-happy-joy-joy, but I had an experience with a rental car company that needs to be shared. I promise my next email will be back to my regularly scheduled happy-fest!
Three Travel and Adventure Shows in four weeks. That’s a lot for this extroverted introvert. If you’ve met me in person, you know I can be quite gregarious. I love people. However, peopling too much drains me, and this past week I’ve been running pretty close to empty.
We got back from California late Tuesday night. Since then, I’ve been playing a bit of catch-up. Mostly on sleep. Normally an early riser, I slept in one morning until nine!
Part of that exhaustion is because my oncologist put me on a new drug in November. Letrozole. Blech. I thought Tamoxifen was bad. It’s a breeze compared to this one. If I met you at any of the shows and I looked like I was stiff and limping, I was. The joint pain has been crazy and the hot flashes have been awful. I called him and he’s taking me off it until I see him late next week. One night skipping the drug and I already feel better.
However, he originally prescribed it to prevent my cancer from returning. It’s a trade-off, but I’m hopeful he’ll have something else up his sleeve.
Enough grousing about that. Let’s talk EVs.
Because I specialize in road trips, I’m often asked about the practicalities of traveling in an electric vehicle. Up until this last week, I’ve had to say I don’t know.
Now, my answer would be: No.
At least, not yet.
I purchased an air, hotel, and rental car package for our trip to LA. The rental car portion was through Thrifty and it was a “mystery car.” Since we’d only be driving it to and from the airport and to and from the hotel during the convention, I didn’t care what we got.
Except I had no idea one of the options was an EV.
I’ve been EV-curious. I want to do my part to combat climate change. But with the exception of an afternoon in a Ford F-150 Lightning (which is suh-weet!), I’ve never driven one. I certainly had no idea how to charge it, where to find charging stations, etc. etc. I told the man at Thrifty that. My husband told him he’d never driven one. Instead of providing any instructions, he tried to “upgrade” us to a gas-powered vehicle for $240.
Nope. We took the keys. I decided it would be an adventure and I’d finally be able to answer those questions.
It was an adventure, alright. Nothing in the manual told us what type of connector we needed. We didn’t know how to find charging stations. We didn’t know how long it would take. We knew nothing we needed to know to safely drive an EV.
Fortunately, we’re both pretty sharp and we figured it out.
So why wouldn’t I drive an EV on a road trip, or rent one while traveling anywhere?
It’s the time involved. I know how to find charging stations now, and what the different connector types are, but filling up an EV is not as simple as stopping at a station for a few minutes.
You have to charge for at least an hour. Depending on where the charging station is, you may have to sit in your vehicle the entire time. You have to adjust for traffic and speed, because the display may say you’ve got 200 miles remaining, but if you take the interstate on a hot day and you’re driving 70mph, you may only have a range of 130 miles.
Those uncertainties, of how far you can drive and where you can fill up and how long it’s going to take, are three major reasons I won’t be recommending EVs for road trips any time soon.
I met a couple in LA who’s planning an epic road trip in an electric vehicle, but it’s one they own. That’s a different story. They already know the limitations. For someone like me, or for anyone who doesn’t drive one regularly, the challenges may outweigh the benefits.
Another thing I won’t be doing any time soon is renting from Thrifty. I knew I should have upgraded my package to Enterprise, and next time I will. I have always had wonderful experiences with Enterprise, and it’s worth paying a little more to be treated like a human being and not like a chance for an upsell.
On a happier note, meeting so many people this past month has been such a joy. We talked to thousands at these shows, gave away hundreds of pounds of candy, and sold several dozen books. And I’ve got one more show to go! I’ll be at the Atlanta Travel and Adventure Show in March. This time my mom will be my booth babe. She’s never seen me speak, so this’ll be fun. Girls’ weekend, here we come!
As I mentioned at the very beginning, my next email’s going to be much lighter, so if you’re new here, don’t be turned off by my grumpiness. I’m normally a ray of sunshine.
Oh! And here’s something that makes me really happy - my fourth Alex Paige novel is out! Ruin on the River is now available for your reading pleasure. (If you’d like an autographed copy, order by February 13.) If you’re new to the Alex Paige world, you can meet her in Peril on the Peninsula. It’s free! It’s like a Costco sample: you’ll love it so much, you’ll want the rest.
Until then…
Love and Wanderlust,
Theresa Goodrich
