Roadtrip Diary: California to Alabama
Posted by James & Myke Savage, on Dec 24, 2024.
We’ve enjoyed spending our last four Christmases in Tahoe, often getting snowed in for the week, but decided that this year it was time to see both our families instead. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be as simple as in years past, because all of the airlines ended their emotional support animal programs during COVID (which is how Chelsea had been able to join us before). With our friends’ holiday plans, we also wouldn’t be able to find someone to watch her.
After some thinking (and vetoing of BARK Air since their flight options were very limited and they are super expensive), we finally settled on our only reasonable(-ish) option: a road trip. Ever since Myke had gotten his Rivian, we’d been joking that we should take it across the country, though without something like this to motivate us, I’m not sure when we’d have actually gotten around to that. This would also be James’s first time making such a drive (he flew from Ohio when he moved to California), and although though Myke had made the drive a handful of times before, doing so in an EV would be new to both of us.
After days of planning, searching for hotels, looking up chargers, and then re-searching for hotels we could line up with them, Myke finally had a plan nicely made up in Numbers. On paper it looked a little daunting, with roughly 2,500 miles, spread across 5+ days, and 20 charging stops; just to make it from California to Alabama; and arriving on Christmas Eve. But, we’re always up for an adventure, especially if Chelsea can come with.
Day 1: Dec 19th (CA)
The first day of our journey was only a half-day of driving. We left in the evening from San Jose and drove only 4 hours to Bakersfield, with a 15 minute stop to charge. This was uneventful and a bit boring, since the sun had already set before we left, and since this was also the route we take to L.A., we knew it pretty well already.
Day 2: Dec 20th (CA → AZ)
For our first full day of driving, we headed from Bakersfield, CA to Tucson, AZ. That’s about 8 hours of diving, plus time for stops and food, and should be pretty typical for most of the days this trip. When we woke up we had fog so thick that we couldn’t even see across the hotel parking lot. Fortunately, it burned off pretty quickly once we got on the road though.
Chelsea did great at the hotel, and was able to sleep for most of the drive. She travels great, but this will really be a test of her patience. I suspect we’ll also need to figure out how to work in some walks for her during the day. Perhaps some of the chargers will a good hike nearby, although I doubt it.
After charging for a bit in San Bernardino, we started to turn properly east, making our way to the Arizona border. We arrived not long after dark, but still weren’t able to get a clear photo of the state sign from the highway.
Our next milestone was a charger in Quartzsite, AZ, located in the parking lot of a Daniel’s Really Good Fresh Jerky (and yes, that’s the name of the store). James looked around the store for some snacks, while Chelsea and Myke explored the other nearby attractions, but eventually we settled on just getting fast food for dinner.
Our hotel for the night was at The Tuxon in Tucson, AZ, which was super cute. This was the only boutique hotel we had booked on the route, and it even had a level 2 (so rather slow) charger onsite. It was also the only hotel that I wished we’d been able to stay at longer. Maybe we’ll have to plan a trip to Tucson some day? If you’re curious, I took some more photos, but a big shout-out to Danielle who helped us check in, and doted on Chelsea.
Day 3: Dec 21st (AZ → NM → TX)
Today we started to spot some other Christmas travel, with cars whose back windows were obscured by boxes, trucks with their beds filed with suitcases, and in the case of one specific truck… overflowing and held in by only a few ropes. We gave that one some extra distance, just in case.
It’s a shame we’re doing this trip in the winter, since it’s getting dark around 5pm, but driving through Arizona in the daylight was a delight. Outside of a wedding, this was James’s first time in the state, and he got to see a lot more of the land. Big rocky outcroppings and towering formations dotted much of the highway, and more than once when we crested a hill we were treated to a gorgeous panorama of the landscape. I wish I had gotten more photos, but the highway didn’t have any good places to pull off, and our charging stop was decidedly un-scenic (a Walmart parking lot).
We made it to the New Mexico border with plenty of sunshine this time, and actually stopped for some photos. We wouldn’t stay long though. About halfway across the state we stopped to charge (outside a combination chicken & waffles slash weed store, both with chicken-based puns for names). While the chicken and waffles store was tempting, we instead got lunch at Zeeb’s (a small fast food joint about a mile away from the charger) before arriving. Once back on the road we immediately turned south, reaching Texas just before sunset.
The saying “everything’s bigger In Texas” was repeatedly shown to be true here. We entered the state just north of El Paso, and one of the first sights of the city was UTEP, a massive, towering complex of buildings, dwarfed only slightly by the even taller highway interchange we took next. From here to our hotel, in Odessa, every building looked like a supersized version of what we were used to, including the Walmart, PF Changs, and Texas Roadhouse off the highway (that or we temporarily shrank; it felt similar).
Odessa itself was a relatively small, but sprawling, town. We didn’t spend much time there, outside of our hotel, but did note that there were no fewer than four Starbucks within two blocks of the (also quite large) college campus there.
Day 4: Dec 22nd (TX)
This whole day was spent just in Texas! Again, I can’t stress how big this state was. It didn’t hurt that we were driving fewer hours today, with only about 6 hours of driving time from Odessa to Dallas, where we’d be staying with one of Myke’s friends.
Before setting out, James wanted to find somewhere local for coffee (so not one of the four Starbucks), and I think we really nailed it with The Human Bean. Somewhat worrying name aside, James’s iced latte was good, came with a bonus chocolate-covered espresso bean, and the barista at the drive thru also provided her artistic rendition of Chelsea (who had been loudly trying to “protect” us from the “stranger” at the car window).
A nice thing about Texas is that the highways are great to drive on. They’re flat, straight, and mostly 80 mph, so we made good time, and got to Dallas a little before 7pm. After dropping our bags, Brian took us to The Porch Pour for dinner[1]. Everything there was great, but the atmosphere and the drinks really stood out. The restaurant itself was in an old home, which had been renovated and moved to a block with several others, as part of spot called Founder’s Row. The dining areas were spread throughout the house, even across two floors, and the tables and chairs were all unique and gave the rooms their own special feel. They also had a good sized spirits menu, and both James and Myke liked their cocktails (a London Fog and Pomme Creme respectively).
Day 5: Dec 23rd (TX → LA → MS → AL)
After being trapped in the truck for several days with Myke, who was still recovering from a flu, James started to get sick today. He mostly rested while Myke did more of the driving. After making it through Texas and through the uneventful Louisiana, we crossed the Mississippi River. We charged at a Tesla supercharger in the parking lot of a riverboat casino just as the sun was setting over the river.
Our route plan had called for potentially being able to make it all the way to Auburn today, depending on how the drive was going, but we decided to take a more conservative route instead. Continuing across I-20 directly to Auburn would have taken us across US-80 from Meridian, MS through Selma, AL and Montgomery, AL, but it was a completely dead zone for EV chargers. We decided instead to go up to Birmingham, which the route planner said would only add about 20 minutes, despite it looking much further out of the way on the map. We wound up taking an even further route on back roads so that we could stop at a random charger in Mathison, MS.
One of the small towns we drove through appeared to have three churches and only two houses, although there must have been more houses off the “highway.” We finally made it to the relatively larger town of Guin, Alabama where we stayed at a Holiday Inn with Tesla superchargers onsite.
Day 6: Dec 24th (AL)
This was our last day of driving to Auburn. We woke up in Guin, drove through Birmingham, and then continued on some more backroad highways into Auburn. Many of these roads were one or two lanes wide in each direction, but there were quite a few traffic lights as we drove through each town so it made for slow going compared to the Interstate.
We arrived at Kelly’s house in time for a late lunch. After spending some time demonstrating the truck to the family, we wrapped presents while everyone else went to Christmas Eve mass.
Mid-Trip Thoughts
Heading in to this trip we were both unsure what issues we might have doing a road trip with an EV. Happily, we don’t really have much to report here. Routing to chargers did take a bit more planning, since there are far fewer of them than gas stations, but the truck’s routing software handles this for you.
Planning our hotels in advance was a good call. This helped break up the drive and set boundaries so we didn’t push too far on any one day. Charging at hotels was also nice, when we could swing it, though it also worked out fine when one wasn’t available.
Now we’re going to spend the next couple of days with our family in Alabama, before driving up to Ohio. That should be a short trip, one we could make in a single day even, although we’re going to stop near Cincinnati to visit some friends instead. After the New Year we’ll be heading back to California, going through Lake Tahoe, and taking a more northern route. This will be where we’re expecting to hit some actual winter weather, and possible delays, but hopefully things will go just as smoothly as our trip east.
Related Links
- Collection: Roadtrip Diary
- Part 1: California to Alabama
- Part 2: Alabama to Ohio, and back to California
- Part 3: The Roadtrip in Numbers
- Photos: The Tuxon in Tucson
1 Our runner up spot, Penn to Paper also looked neat though. ↩