Electric Route 66

It is time once again for a new Electric Route 66 Dashcam video! This time we are driving The Blue Spirit in Joseph City, Arizona. In the video I have uploaded, we drive from the overpass at I-40 exit 274, eastbound on Route 66 into Joseph City, then proceed south away from Route 66. On this day there was a bad traffic backup on I-40 heading into Holbrook. So, we took the 'back way' to Holbrook, south out of Joseph City on Westover St., Obed Road, and eventually McLaws Road to enter Holbrook from the south. This video ends after a short distance on Obed Road, after we cross the long, one-lane, 1912 St. Joseph Bridge over the Little Colorado River. It was Tony at the world famous Jack Rabbit Trading Post who confirmed for us that this was a good way to get to Holbrook when there's trouble on I-40. Thanks, Tony! It's always worth it to stop at the Jack Rabbit, which we did just before we took the video. You can view the video embedded be

I recently uploaded the second video of the new Electric Route 66 Dashcam series. This one lasts under 5 minutes, and covers a short stretch of Route 66 leading to Grand Canyon Caverns in Arizona. Parked at the restaurant and caverns entrance   EV charging is available at the adjacent RV park for restaurant and motel guests! Grand Canyon Caverns is a long time Route 66 attraction 12 miles east of Peach Springs, Arizona. It features tours of a large cavern system, after an elevator ride over 200 feet below the surface. A store and the Cavern Inn motel is located at the Route 66 entrance to the property, while the caverns entrance, restaurant and RV park are located about 1 mile away from 66 via private road. This dashcam video starts on eastbound Route 66, enters the Grand Canyon Caverns property at the motel and store, and then travels to the cafe and caverns entrance. I hope you enjoy this short Sunday drive! You can view the video embedded below, or follow this link directly to YouT

I am happy to announce the premiere of a new feature for Electric Route 66: real-time dashcam videos! Like all Teslas, The Blue Spirit has many cameras that are used for self-driving, safety, and security features. Our car can record 4 of its 6 camera views onto a USB drive in a continuous loop. A feature called Sentry Mode records when the car is parked for security, and a dashcam feature allows drivers to save the previous 10 minutes of footage at the press of an icon on the screen, to be viewed later in the car or copied from the USB drive. We decided to start recording some of our driving on Route 66 to share with everyone, thanks to the wonderful suggestion from Ruben at Valentine Station . Cheers, Ruben!  Visit Ruben at Valentine Station, Arizona if you get the chance! Cameras Overview Here is a brief explanation of what you will see in the Electric Route 66 dashcam videos.   Currently, four cameras are recordable by the Tesla dashcam software Top row center: front camera. The B

In an effort to get out of the Vegas heat once more, we took another short weekend trip at the end of August. We did our best to avoid the interstate and did a short loop around the back roads of southwestern Utah. I hope you enjoy our photos of some of the sights. Amazing views abound in southwest Utah Day 1: Las Vegas to Cedar City Our two-lane route on Day 1: from I-15 exit 112 to Cedar City   For the first 75 miles of our journey from home in Las Vegas, using Interstate 15 is unavoidable as there is no other through road. We left home in The Blue Spirit with a full charge, which showed as 284 miles on our car. (This is just an estimate. I'm working on resetting the estimate back closer to the car's original EPA range of 310 miles, but this process of recalibration can take a long time in a Model 3.) We exited I-15 at Exit 112 onto Nevada State Highway 170. This two-lane route mostly follows the alignment of old US 91 through Bunkerville and into Mesquite, then takes several

National Drive Electric Week is September 26 to October 4, and there is finally a little bit of activity after a tough summer! The ongoing pandemic has kept us and The Blue Spirit close to home for most of the summer. I have another short Utah trip to post about; that will come a little later. Right now I want to let you know about some upcoming events, where you can meet up with us in person (at a safe distance!) or learn more about EVs. National Drive Electric Week in-person events have been severely curtailed this year as could be expected, but there are a couple of events on or near Route 66. There are online events as well, some with local information such as incentives by local and state governments. Please visit the NDEW web site to find out about online presentations in your area. September 26: Kingman, Arizona The Powerhouse in Kingman The Route 66 Electric Vehicle Association was founded recently by "EV Jerry" Asher and Jim Stack, as a brand new chapter of the Ele

With travel still being mostly discouraged, there hasn't been very much to write about for Electric Route 66, but we did manage to take a single-day short trip to Utah on June 7. I hope you enjoy this account and our photos. Stay safe, everyone! Utah is closed on Sunday June 7 was a Sunday, so you might think it strange that we would decide to visit Utah when it's closed. OK, Utah is not technically closed, but a higher-than-average number of things in Utah are indeed closed on Sunday due to its religious makeup composed of a very high percentage of Latter-Day Saints members. But this trip was basically just a cruise, to get out of the house for a change in scenery. We weren't planning on shopping or otherwise interacting with many people or businesses. Despite owning The Blue Spirit for almost 2 years, we still had not yet ventured into Utah with it, even though it lies just 100 miles away from home and there are no issues with Tesla charging infrastructure to stop u