Advice Needed: Northern Colorado to San Antonio Area Texas

[boxedlunch]

Nobody's mentioned this yet, but searching plugshare for EV-friendly RV spots with 50A service might help reduce anxiety.

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[mm01rivian]

Following this thread. Live in SA about 5' from the Rivian Adv station at La Cantera. We get out of the heat in the summer and trek northwest to Ouray/Telluride areas. ICE drive is typically SA/Junction/Eden/San Angelo/Big Spring/Brownfield/Roswell/Vaughn/ABQ/north up 550 to CO but as others have noted, the NW TX / NM area is sparse right now. Curious to see how people dial this in as more networks open up. Tesla opening in 2024 will make this MUCH better I suspect. Waiting on R1S late 2024 I suspect

 

[Marchin_MTB]

Following this thread. Live in SA about 5' from the Rivian Adv station at La Cantera. We get out of the heat in the summer and trek northwest to Ouray/Telluride areas. ICE drive is typically SA/Junction/Eden/San Angelo/Big Spring/Brownfield/Roswell/Vaughn/ABQ/north up 550 to CO but as others have noted, the NW TX / NM area is sparse right now. Curious to see how people dial this in as more networks open up. Tesla opening in 2024 will make this MUCH better I suspect. Waiting on R1S late 2024 I suspect

Plan is still to take the R1T and leave late next week. Will post a trip report here on how things go. My biggest worry right now is the Amarillo-Lubbock-Sweetwater leg.

 

[Marchin_MTB]

Thanks to all those that gave advice in this thread!

Quick summary. We just returned last night. No charging issues and no contingencies were triggered. Trip went pretty much according to plan. R1T was a very comfortable road trip vehicle. Can’t wait for our next adventure.

R1T quad with 21s. Boulder CO to Gonzales TX. Leaving home with 100%. Temperatures in the 50s to 70s F. Drove almost entirely in conserve mode. Just over 1000 miles one way.

Gory details below.

• Tesla SUC in Lamar CO. 150 kW peak. This was a deep charge. Couldn’t do better than blocking 1/3 of the stall to the right of me but there are 8 stalls and almost no one there so it was fine. The CP there looked functional but did not use it. On Friday the 17th, donut shop and coffe shop were both open as well as the visitor center. If you’re there on the weekend, Quiznos and the Mexican restaurant down the street will be your options.
• EA in Amarillo. Worked as advertised and peaked just above 200kW. Walked to applebees but if you want to keep going there are plenty of other options.
• Break for the night in Lubbock. Charged at the hotel L2 to 100%.
• Sweetwater TX EA. This is a Walmart so we picked up supplies and gave the kids $15 each to pick out an item of their choice. Fun way to break up the trip and watch their minds work. There’s some fast food options around as well.
• Junction TX EA. This one includes a motel and a cliff. That is all.
• Skipped the RAN in San Antonio, didn’t need it.
• Reached destination at dinner. The in-laws live down the street from a park so the next two days I used a 50A at the camp site that I reserved ahead of time.
• We headed up towards Austin a few days later to stay with sister-in law. Charged there from a 120 plug and extension cord.

Return trip started Friday morning after Thanksgiving. Left with about 80% and went straight to Junction. Rest of the trip was the exact reverse of the above with a few exceptions. Temperatures in the 10s to 50s this time.

• Sweetwater EA. Had to swipe several times in the app before the station activated. Then, as we were starting lunch, the charge stopped. Walk back to the truck and decide to move over to the next stall just in case. However, after reviewing gear guard footage when the charge started up again, I saw that a confused Mach-e owner tried to use the other cord on our pedestal and pressed the stop button before doing so. This wasn’t malicious and is more of an issue with EA’s convoluted activation procedures.
• We wanted to see if we could skip Lubbock and overnight in Amarillo instead, thus making the second day shorter. The Rivian NAV was telling us the margin was dwindling to 10 miles or less as we approached and I was already driving below the speed limit. Rivian Nav directed us to a 24kW charger at a Harley dealership and said an hour there would be fine. Had I checked PlugShare I would have known that is totally false but I was driving and it was a split second decision. At that point, the kids were getting cranky so we decided to stay the night in the same hotel as before. Their single L2 was available so it worked out and we were all probably better served by getting sleep. I know there are some other dealership chargers in this vicinity but this whole trip would be well served by an actual DCFC installation the Lubbock area. I hear that one is coming (travel center?) and we should have access to the SUC there in a year so maybe next time we do this will be even better.
• We ran into wintry conditions the next day (freezing rain starting around Amarillo). I dropped the family off at a Jimmys Egg and went to charge at the EA. Picked up some rain x, scraper (I know, I left mine at home!), and some gloves at the Home Depot across the street from the charger. Amarillo to Lamar CO was slooow on account of the weather. Defrost worked fine and the truck handled great. At one point the road became packed snow and ice and we slowed to 30mph driving in snow mode for about an hour. Temperatures were way below freezing but the truck handled great, we were all super comfortable, and we reached Lamar without a problem!

 

[Rivian in CO]

• Tesla SUC in Lamar CO. 150 kW peak. This was a deep charge. Couldn’t do better than blocking 1/3 of the stall to the right of me but there are 8 stalls and almost no one there so it was fine. The CP there looked functional but did not use it. On Friday the 17th, donut shop and coffe shop were both open as well as the visitor center. If you’re there on the weekend, Quiznos and the Mexican restaurant down the street will be your options.
• Break for the night in Lubbock. Charged at the hotel L2 to 100%.

Marchin_MTB, thanks for the detailed write up. I'm looking to head to the Austin area for the eclipse next month and have a couple of questions:

1) Is there any reason you chose to charge in Lamar instead of at the EA in Trinidad?

2) What hotel did you stay in in Lubbock? I'll probably stop & charge overnight in Lubbock as well.

 

[Marchin_MTB]

Marchin_MTB, thanks for the detailed write up. I'm looking to head to the Austin area for the eclipse next month and have a couple of questions:

1) Is there any reason you chose to charge in Lamar instead of at the EA in Trinidad?

2) What hotel did you stay in in Lubbock? I'll probably stop & charge overnight in Lubbock as well.

Glad it could serve as a reference for researching your trip.

1) I preferred to take the “diagonal” route with less traffic and avoid i25. The slower speeds mean higher efficiency as well. Also, it was the fact that there are two decent charging options in Lamar. If the EA in Trinidad was problematic or offline for any reason then it becomes a point of no return, ie you might get stuck there in the worst case. This was my reasoning anyway. Others have done the i25 route just fine I think. I just like the redundancy and more relaxing pace of the Lamar route. I can verify that as @COdogman warned, the police are ever present around that area so stay the speed limit or just a little above.

2) we ended up at the Best Western Plus Tech Medical Center Inn. It only has one charger but that was fine when we were there. I also looked into the Overton hotel. I think it had more charging spots though they may be Tesla destination chargers so you need your adapter (check me on that). Ended up not going with that as it was a bit pricy that night due to a football game. The Tesla SUC in Lubbock should be open to us in a few months but probably not in time for your trip sadly.

The 30-50kW charger at the Lubbock Harley dealership was broken btw. Not sure if they got it up and running but it may be an emergency backup if all else fails.

Happy trails and wishing you crystal clear sky’s for the eclipse!

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