Posts

Electric Route 66 Dashcam: Edge of California

Image
It's May 2023, and I have once again assembled and posted another edition of Electric Route 66 Dashcam. This video comes to us from the eastern edge of California, south of Needles near the Colorado River.   The Blue Spirit has a little bit of suspension lift, for better clearance when it goes off-pavement.   We visited Needles in February 2023 to attend and assist with their annual Route 66 info fair. We had enough time to check out a couple new things in the area before we headed out to abandoned 66 south of town. In addition to two new Tesla Supercharger stations, Needles also boasts a new business named The Filter Change , which serves up helpful liquids for both cars and people. While our EV doesn't need oil changes, we loved their menu of coffee, tea, and smoothies for ourselves!   The Filter Change on Route 66 in Needles - oil & lube: not needed. Tea & smoothie: yes, please!   The rarely-traveled section of Route 66 in our video is a dead-end road in poor condit

Join us at DEED and the Fun Run in April and May

Image
It's been pretty quiet here at Electric Route 66, but coming up soon are two (count 'em!) events that will likely be just the beginning of a very busy road-tripping season. If you are in the vicinity of Kingman, Arizona, we'd love to see there!     Drive Electric Earth Day On April 29, Kingman will be hosting their second Drive Electric Earth Day event at the Powerhouse Visitor Center. Hosted by the Historic Electric Vehicle Foundation , EV owners will bring their cars for display, and to answer questions from the public about owning and driving electric. It looks like it will be a small gathering this year, but the Powerhouse is a busy place: in addition to the Arizona Route 66 Museum, visitor information and gift shops, the Route 66 EV Museum will be open to all for free.   The Powerhouse Visitor Center is Kingman's biggest Route 66 attraction. Last year's Drive Electric Earth Day in Kingman had a great turnout for a first event. If you have a plug-in vehicle and

Trip Report: National EVA meeting

Image
It's been quite some time since I've written a trip report, but I thought this would be a good subject to get back into it. In January, we took a weekend trip in The Blue Spirit to the Electric Vehicle Association annual meeting in Carlsbad, California. This was the first EVA annual meeting we have attended, and we had a wonderful time which I'd love to tell you about. Day 1: Las Vegas, NV to Cardiff, CA The majority of our first day was spent in travel mode - lots of freeway driving and very little sightseeing. The I-15 travel corridor has a lot of traffic with numerous EV chargers along the way. We fully charged The Blue Spirit at home, and made good time to the Barstow area. We often stop for our first break and charge at Eddie World in Yermo, a great stop with Tesla Superchargers, ChargePoint fast and slow chargers, gas, restrooms, massive candy & snack selection, and several hot food options. This time, we decided to drive a little further before stopping to char

Electric Route 66 Dashcam: Springfield, IL

Image
Happy New Year, everyone! I took a little break in December for the holidays; I hope everyone had a good December and that your new year is going well so far. To get back into the swing of things, I have posted a pretty short dashcam video this time. It comes from our road trip to Illinois in October 2022. We had a great first half of the trip, but the second half was cut short by covid, so I didn't get as many dashcam videos as I had wanted, but I will still be sharing quite a few this year. To begin 2023, this dashcam comes from Springfield, Illinois. Our good friend and fellow roadie Penny was guest driver this time. She showed us around a number of Route 66 alignments in Springfield, which has a lot of Route 66 to offer.   The Cozy Dog Drive In is one of the many Route 66 attractions in Springfield, IL The dashcam footage I've uploaded this time is a section of Old Chatham Road, inside Lick Creek Wildlife Preserve. The old road has a dead end in this area, with a 1919 brid

Shop local or online for Route 66!

Image
With the Christmas season upon us, and so many businesses clamoring for our gifting dollars, I would like to shout out for all the Route 66 businesses who deserve to be supported with our Christmas shopping. Winter is the off-season for Route 66, so for many small businesses on the Route, getting a sales boost in December is a great help to get through this down period for visitors.   If you live near Route 66, I encourage you to head down to one of your local Route 66 businesses to see what they have on offer for your gift-giving. And if you don't live near Route 66, there is still a way you can help! Listed below are many Route 66 businesses and attractions that you can support through their online stores. Spread that Christmas cheer around and get some cool & unique Route 66 gifts for your loved ones! If you know of another Route 66 store with online shopping that you think should be included, email me and I will add it to the list!   The Jack Rabbit Trading Post is a world

Drive Electric Week and a Dashcam Special

Image
To celebrate the upcoming Drive Electric Week , I have uploaded a super short special edition of Electric Route 66 Dashcam. This one is just 30 seconds and features the Musical Highway in New Mexico! But first, I need to tell you about National Drive Electric Week. This nationwide effort by the Electric Vehicle Association , Plug In America , the Sierra Club , and EV Hybrid Noire spans two weekends and the weekdays in between, and includes hundreds of events where attendees can learn about EVs from actual owners, and see many models of EVs in person. Below is a listing of Drive Electric Week events that will be happening on or near Route 66! We will be attending two events in person: in Las Vegas, NV we will have both of our EVs, The Blue Spirit and Sparky Sparky Boom Car; and we'll be in Kingman, AZ in The Blue Spirit. Stop by and say hello! Wilmette, Illinois: St. John's Lutheran Church, 1235 Wilmette Avenue Saturday, September 24   Aurora, Illinois: Fox Valley Mall, 195 Fox

Electric Route 66 Dashcam: Oro Grande to Victorville

Image
Electric Route 66 Dashcam is revisiting California for this edition. This video comes from the same day as my previous post. In this instance, we begin our trip from Antique Station in Oro Grande, and then proceed south to Victorville on Route 66. Scroll to the bottom for the embedded video, or take your time with some photos first!   We visited Oro Grande during their yearly festival, Oro Grande Days Oro Grande Days includes a car show with some amazing vintage vehicles. Antique Station is in a very large building containing many antique vendors.     Along this stretch of 66, one of the interesting sights is Rockfield Bridge , a historic road bridge dating to 1930 that has an interesting offset truss structure. We always love to drive across neat bridges like this one. The Rockfield Bridge, north of Victorville Another notable part of this drive that I've included in the dashcam footage is Turner Road. A very short piece of this road was originally used as Route 66 in its earlies