Long time, no see!
It's been a rough year for Electric Route 66, so the blog has taken a back seat to life. Complicated things like major medical issues and deaths in the family have kept our travel limited this year, but I wanted to get a solid post in for the end of 2025 covering some of the highlights of our EV and Route 66 activity. Congratulations in advance if you make it all the way through this post; buckle up and maybe grab a snack because this is the longest post I've ever written, by far!
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| It's all fun and games until someone falls out of the hole. |
First, hardware.
Our road trip car The Blue Spirit has been showing its age a little; it's still running great but the range is down to under 230 miles, more than 25% below its original EPA range estimate of 310 miles. This is a bigger drop than typical for a Tesla Model 3, but we do drive it with abandon. As my Dad would have put it, it's frequently been "rode hard and put away wet." Odometer mileage has passed 140,000. It's a daily driver in addition to a road trip car, but with neither of us needing to visit a work office in person anymore, the ratio of around-town to road trip mileage has been shifting to a higher percentage of road trips and supercharging, even as the overall mileage per year is decreasing. I don't expect the rate of range degradation to decrease much, especially since the lower range requires even more frequent charging on trips - something of a vicious cycle for battery health. But, it's still sufficient for our travels and we don't expect to replace the car until we are able to get our hands on
other vehicles we have reserved. Those have not yet reached production, so The Blue Spirit is likely to see at least another year of service.
I have decided to retire our
Electric Route 66 Dashcam series of videos, owing to technical obsolescence. The cameras on our 2018 car were designed for the autopilot system and not video recording, so the color gamut and resolution has always been less-than-ideal, but it was still good enough for some video purposes. As the years have passed, other types of dashcam videos have proliferated in both quantity and quality. Our car's onboard video is not up to snuff by comparison. Newer Teslas have added the B-pillar cameras to their recordable resources, something that I long hoped for but unfortunately has not been made available on our older model. So I feel it's time to say goodbye to that aspect of our road-tripping.
Our local-only vehicle, the venerable 2014 Chevy Spark EV we have dubbed "Sparky Sparky Boom Car", continues to ply the streets of Las Vegas, now with over 82,000 miles on the odometer. Range is down to about 45 miles from its original EPA-rated 82 miles, but it is almost 12 years old after all, and was GM's very first modern BEV. Access to CCS fast charging for the Spark has also lagged behind newer vehicles due to a quirk in its charging firmware that GM has no plans to correct. As more and newer fast chargers dot the landscape, the charge networks must account for this oddness in order for the Spark to fast-charge correctly. Few seem consistently interested in doing so other than
ChargePoint, which has a sympathetic Spark owner near its headquarters who supplies them with his car for compatibility testing. In any case, we rarely use CCS fast charging as Sparky continues faithful service within its limited range.
Our (lighter than usual) event and road-tripping year
Due to circumstances beyond our control, a lot of time was spent close to home this year and we missed some of the big Route 66 events that we normally would have attended. Our Route 66 travel was limited to California and Arizona with just one notable exception.
In March, we attended the first annual
Roy's Route 66 Cruisin' Car Show in Amboy, CA. It was a huge turnout for such a remote location, and we spent the day staffing an info and merchandise booth for the
California Historic Route 66 Association (CHR66A). We info'd so thoroughly that I failed to get any photos of the show! We drove to the area the night before and had a wonderful stay at the
Harmony Motel in Twentynine Palms.
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| The Harmony Motel is a classic roadside motel with a Rock & Roll pedirgee. |
Also in March, we attended the grand re-opening of the
Route 66 Mother Road Museum in Barstow, CA. The museum had closed following a water issue in their building - the Harvey House known as Casa del Desierto, but has now reopened under the management of the same folks who run the California Route 66 Museum in Victorville. We wish former museum director Deb Hodkin all the best in her well-earned retirement after decades of excellent stewardship of the museum. We once again represented CHR66A with a table at the event, and were honored to rep one last time for the Route 66 EVA as the chapter logo was included on the big banner of contributors.
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| Casa del Desierto in Barstow houses 3 museums and is still an active rail stop. A must see! |
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| The CHR66A and Route 66 EVA logos made it to the banner for the grand reopening celebration! |
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| A display inside the new version of the Mother Road Museum in Barstow. |
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| The old 1st Ave. Bridge was recently replaced; but a piece was saved from the scrappers for display. |
I say 'one last time' in regards to the Route 66 EVA because, as of 2025, we have decided to disband this club. As a chapter of the
national EV Association, the Route 66 EVA held meetings periodically over Zoom for over 5 years. Following board and member approval, a decision was made that our members could be more effective in their advocacy and support of electric vehicles through involvement in their local EVA chapters, and the time had come to close this online-only chapter rather than ask members to divide their efforts. The
Route 66 EVA web site will remain up, as will
the Facebook group, so online discussion of EVs on Route 66 can continue!
Rounding out March, the
EV Charging Summit & Expo was held in Las Vegas, and I had the opportunity to attend on behalf of the
Historic EV Foundation to learn a little bit about the current state of the EV charging industry. There were dozens of companies from all over the world offering information on what they have coming, so much so that it was a little overwhelming to someone like me who is not directly involved in the industry side of things. I was there to gather information for the HEVF as a board member, and surprisingly enough there were a couple of vintage EVs at the show that would be right at home in the foundation's Route 66 EV Museum.
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| Part of the convention floor at the EV Charging Summit & Expo in Las Vegas. |
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| This detailed model is what you might call the platonic ideal of EV fast charging. |
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| There was lots of hardware on display from dozens of manufacturers. |
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| EV history was on display with this 1912 Baker Electric... |
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| ... as well as a 1914 Detroit Electric! |
April was
Drive Electric Earth Month, and this time we stayed close to home with an event at the
Springs Preserve in Las Vegas, plus a car show put on by the
Las Vegas Cadillac Club; at both of which we helped out for the
Nevada EVA chapter. Cadillac is pushing hard into the EV space with several all-electric models, and a local Cadillac dealer showcased some of their brand new EVs at the Cadillac show alongside dozens of classic gas-powered Cadillacs.
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| This year's Vegas DEEM event was inside the Springs Preserve, not a car show outside. |
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| At the Cadillac show, over a century of progress: 2025 Optiq vs. 1908 Model S. |
The biggest event in the first half of the year was of course the
Arizona Route 66 Fun Run, held annually for over 30 years on the first weekend in May. Once again we hit the road in The Blue Spirit for the full two-plus days of the event: a Friday evening in Seligman, motel in Ash Fork, Saturday traversing 66 from Seligman to Kingman, and Sunday traveling from Kingman to the finish at Golden Shores. There was a strong EV contingent at the Fun Run again this year, who gathered in front of the Kingman Powerhouse to display together during the massive car show on May 3. We were also privileged to be among the very first to stay at a brand new lodging in downtown Kingman known as
Tin Can Alley. This property features individual Airstream trailers, fitted out with all-new custom interiors and ready to welcome Route 66 travelers with a unique experience. We have already reserved our stay there for the 2026 Fun Run, and I'm confident that Tin Can Alley will be a major gathering place for Route 66 'roadies' during next year's event. May was rounded out for us with a single-day Ride & Drive event in Flagstaff, held by
Drive Electric Arizona, which is doing great work getting the word out about EVs and how well they work as a replacement for gas cars.
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| The traditional Fun Run drive-through arch, Kingman, AZ. |
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| Some of the EVs on display at the Fun Run. |
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| Tin Can Alley welcomes with outdoor amenities, and awaits completion of more Airstreams for guests. |
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| A lineup of EVs at the finish of the Fun Run in Golden Shores, AZ. |
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| The Ride & Drive in Flagstaff brought out many owners and EV-curious. |
The summer of 2025 was unfortunately somewhat of a bust for us at Electric Route 66, owing to medical and family needs. We missed several Route 66 events that we normally attend, but we'll be back to these as much as possible in 2026! We are looking forward to next summer so much. However, this year we were able to use weekends to attend some events like the
Cucamonga Service Station's annual car show in late June, supporting the CHR66A at their info booth.
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| It's never a bad time telling folks about Route 66. |
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| Classic and interesting cars on display at the Cucamonga Classic Car Show. |
The fall continued the weekend-bound uptick in travel. These types of trips are pretty easy in an EV, necessitating only one or two charges and one overnight stay before heading home. As part of our volunteer work with the California Historic Route 66 Association, The Blue Spirit had a lot of transport duty but did not go on display, at either the Cucamonga Classic Car Show or the
Cruisin' Reunion in Ontario, CA. The Cruisin' Reunion event focuses exclusively on classic vehicles, so it did not feature any EVs. The Blue Spirit merely served admirably hauling gear and merchandise for the CHR66A info booth, as it so often does.
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| A lot of cars at the Cruisin' Reunion, but sadly no EVs except behind the scenes. |
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| Another weekend event, another chance to spread the word about Route 66! |
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| A drone show at the Cruisin' Reunion featured Route 66. |
One more big event held in September was
Doors Open California, a statewide series of tours organized by the California Preservation Foundation, who partners with other organizations to highlight historic attractions all over the state. This year they worked with CHR66A to include a bus tour of Route 66 sites from Barstow to Needles. The Blue Spirit was largely left to rest at our hotel as we boarded a tour bus for the majority of the sights on this tour. I have no doubt that at some point in the future the tour buses will switch to electric as the older buses retire, and I look forward to seeing that happen!
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| Outside the El Garces Harvey House in Needles. |
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| Tour attendees were afforded a rare look inside the long-closed Needles Theatre. |
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| Palo Verde College gave a short tour of their Needles campus, inside the 1930 Claypool Building. |
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| Lunch and history lesson at Roy's in Amboy. |
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| The chapel in Amboy was opened for the tour group. |
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| For perhaps the first time ever, a tour bus visits the Road Runner's Retreat near Chambless. |
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| The Bagdad Cafe was one of the tour stops in Newberry Springs. |
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| Alf's Blacksmith Shop is a window to the past in Daggett. |
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| A 1920s California welcome center is under restoration in Daggett. |
We finished up September with the Las Vegas
National Drive Electric Month event, where both of our cars came out to support the local EV community. During the event, our Spark EV charged up from a Ford F-150 Lightning.
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| A nice turnout for National Drive Electric Month in Las Vegas. |
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| A big EV, providing some electrons to a little EV. |
In October, we were finally able to take a long trip outside of our NV-CA-AZ area, to attend the
Route 66 Neon Fest in Arcadia, Oklahoma. We have missed this event the last two years and were happy to see so many of our roadie friends for a fun weekend on 66. We took as much time as we could getting there and back again, stopping for as many of our favorite Route 66 attractions as possible. With Route 66 friends all along the way, it's not hard for the day's drive to last longer than planned!
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| We enjoyed a tasty lunch at Highway Hot Dog, a new stop on 66 in Seligman, AZ. |
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| The view from 32 - looking out at Tucumcari Mountain from our room at the Roadrunner Lodge. |
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| We were happy to stop by for a visit with our friend Rich, the new owner of the Motel Safari. |
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| Rob & Dawn at the Blue Swallow are EV-friendly, with chargers on site for guests. |
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| The U Drop Inn in Shamrock is world-famous, and also has fast charging for Teslas. |
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| The Phillips 66 in McLean sells no gas. But that's ok; we don't need any! |
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| The Den in Groom, TX is new to the Route 66 corridor, with great coffee and local products. |
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| During this trip we finally had a chance to visit the 66 Diner in Albuquerque for the first time. |
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| Meteor City has recently reopened with new family-oriented attractions. |
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| Our friend Ruben's Minibago project is making progress at Valentine Station, Valentine AZ. |
During the Neon Fest event in Arcadia, we stayed in nearby Edmond and were pleased to find fast charging near our hotel, as well as a very handy set of level 2 chargers in downtown Edmond. This is a wonderful walkable downtown area with many shops and restaurants, and numerous murals; the chargers make it very convenient to charge up while checking out all there is to do. Two evenings in Arcadia with friends was a wonderful high point to a challenging 2025, and we enjoyed hanging out with everyone and catching up after a long period of not seeing most of them.
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| A beautiful sign at Neon Fest. |
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| A wonderful time with old friends and new. |
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| Which are original, and which are homages? I leave that as an exercise for the viewer. |
Speaking of murals, we must give a big shout-out to Chris Small, a fantastic artist who recognized our car and stopped to chat as he refreshed a huge mural in El Reno, OK. The city of El Reno recently purchased an underutilized vintage service station on one of the main Route 66 corners in the center of town, and revamped it into a showcase visitor center called
The Filling Station. Chris's mural had already adorned a wall of the property for many years and he was bringing it back to fresh condition. The city has even more plans for this corner, as work was underway across the street on improvements to a formerly derelict property, which will include additional parking for the downtown area and EV chargers as well. Much like Edmond, this set of chargers can entice EV drivers to stop, shop, and support El Reno on their Route 66 travels. Chris has also painted murals in Edmond, and he told us about a recently-completed Route 66 mural that we then sought out, and it's one of the best we've ever seen on all of 66.
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| El Reno's new visitor space, The Filling Station. |
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| Artist Chris Small was hard at work restoring one of his creations. It was great to meet you, Chris! |
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| Chris told us about a new mural he recently completed in Edmond, and it's a masterpiece! |
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| We spotted this mural as we headed to breakfast with our friends John and Sandy. |
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| Downtown Edmond is bursting with beautiful murals, even in the alleys. |
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| Murals turned into a theme of this trip; here's a great one in Yukon, OK next to City Hall. |
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| A mural with community pride in Shamrock, TX. |
While we were in Oklahoma City driving an alignment of Route 66, we came upon the Owl Court, a vintage property that has recently gotten a new tenant,
Chuck's Shave Shop. The owner of this single-chair barber shop just happened to be nearby on a day that the shop is normally closed, and he graciously gave us a view inside this nearly century-old building. We had a wonderful chat and now another great memory from the Mother Road. Thanks, Chuck!
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| The Owl Court front office is a true Route 66 survivor. |
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| Chuck invited us in for a chat and to see the Owl Court building's beautiful interior. |
We enjoyed every bit of our long trip to Oklahoma, our only big road trip of the year. But all good things must end and there was still more to do a little closer to home. After our return home to Las Vegas, we headed back to California once again at the end of October, for the CHR66A annual meeting, which included a visit to the
South Pasadena Preservation Foundation's museum and lunch at
Twohey's, a venerable local restaurant which has been around for over 80 years, but only recently moved to a new home on Route 66.
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| The South Pasadena Historical Museum was a great host for a presentation by Escott O. Norton. |
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| Twohey's is not new, but it is new to Route 66! |
In November, we helped staff the CHR66A booth for the annual
Pistachio Festival in Newberry Springs, CA. This was a short day trip for us and there was no car show, so The Blue Spirit didn't need a lot of charging or even a wash, just shuttling gear for the event. It hauled the gear again the very next weekend for a special event: the relighting of the
Road Runner's Retreat neon sign. This Route 66 property east of Amboy, CA has been in the process of refurbishment for several years, and the restoration and relighting of the huge 1960s neon sign is their biggest accomplishment so far. It looks gorgeous, and soon they're planning to set up a way for visitors to light the sign when they visit even if there is no event going on.
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| This was CHR66A's first booth at the long-running Pistachio Festival; it will not be the last! |
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| The Road Runner's Retreat sign restoration was many years in the making. |
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| It's lit! Fully illuminated for the first time in over 50 years. |
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| The Blue Spirit has been taking us to help at the RRR since 2019. |
Back in Kingman, AZ, we attended and helped at a couple of events for the
Historic Electric Vehicle Foundation. This foundation has their Route 66 EV Museum in the Kingman Powerhouse since 2014, and they are moving ahead with a museum expansion in downtown Kingman, in a vintage building one block off 66. They hope to have phase one of this new space open with many vehicles on display, in time for the Fun Run in 2026. Also in Arizona but this time in Sedona, we attended another Ride & Drive event with
Drive Electric Arizona. We had never been to Sedona as EV drivers (or even as adults!), and we began our drive from the Phoenix area which has ample charging available. The event itself was near some fast chargers, so our after-show drive back home north via Flagstaff was no trouble at all.
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| Christmas decorations at the HEVF office open house, Kingman, AZ. |
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| A new Lucid Gravity was among the many EVs attending the Ride & Drive event in Sedona, AZ. |
The State of Route 66 EV Charging in 2025
As I write this post, we are in northern California in the midst of another road trip - this time to visit family. It's pretty well known that California has the most EVs and best EV infrastructure in the US, but even here the networks continue to expand. And even as our car loses range over its life, EV charging on trips such as this continues to get easier.
Much the same is true of Route 66. The larger gaps between fast chargers get filled in, so what was already reasonable in the past becomes even easier. During the Fun Run last year, a GM Energy charger was still under construction in the town where we were staying; that station is now open. Stations have been popping up in smaller towns like Bellemont, AZ and St. Robert, MO, and additional station choices are appearing in places that already had some, like Williams, AZ and Litchfield, IL. New stations are in the works in tiny towns like Adrian, TX, Seligman, AZ, and Ludlow, CA. Major truck stop chains like Pilot are expanding their offerings with fast chargers all across the country. Larger Route 66 cities such as Amarillo, TX and Oklahoma City, which previously hosted one Tesla supercharger station each, now have several each in addition to the expansion of other networks such as Electrify America. (In fact, the Edmond fast charger that we found so handy on our trip to Neon Fest had opened less than 4 months earlier.)
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| A GM Energy fast charge station under construction in Ash Fork, AZ. This station is now open. |
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| A new Buc-ee's in Amarillo, TX has 20 Tesla superchargers near this huge mural. |
Another aspect of Route 66 charging infrastructure is AC charging. Progress continues there as well. One highlight of our Oklahoma trip was a stay at the
Sunset Motel in Moriarty, NM during our return. The Sunset has been very supportive of EV owners by allowing charging via wall outlet, but now they have taken it to another level with the installation of 4 dedicated EV chargers. This is the ideal of EV road-tripping: easy charging on the way, and even easier charging at your hotel overnight.
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| The classic Sunset Motel in Moriarty, NM now has 4 chargers available for guests! |
See you in 2026!
That's a wrap as they say for this extremely long, but hopefully interesting, year-in-review from Electric Route 66. You have my sincere thanks for reading if you made it this far! Happy New Year to all. We'll be out on Route 66 again soon in the new year, driving electric, seeing the sights, meeting the people. If you spy us in The Blue Spirit, don't hesitate to say hello.
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