California, here we come! (Road trip 2018

So there we have it: 18-days-long road trip has officially come to an end. We traveled almost 5,000 miles in an electric vehicle, completely worry-free. Zero emissions and zero range anxiety. While every road trip we took was special on its own and provided its share of unforgettable memories, this one was truly epic. I repeat that word quite often when describing our recent journey, because there’s no better way to describe it. Not because it was the longest one so far (both time- and distance-wise), that is an achievement on its own. I think the expectations were high from the get-go, as we would be traveling to some of the most popular destinations that United States has to offer. Yet, every single landmark or attraction on our list proven to be worth it. As always, there were hidden jewels and unexpected surprises (Death Valley and Sedona quickly come to mind, but there were plenty more) which made the trip even better than expected.

When our daughter was little we had the freedom to plan our travels in the off-peak season, allowing us to beat the crowds. Now that we are bound by school year schedule as everyone else, I was worried that it might throw a kink into our carefully planned itinerary. Luckily, none of these fears were justified and we had an absolute blast.

Weather is always a factor and yet again, we were blessed with absolutely gorgeous forecast. We normally don’t worry much about the weather on our trips (watching for extremes, of course), but I’d never say no to sunny or partly cloudy skies with moderate temperatures :).

Last but not least, here’s a reference to all individual blog entries documenting each day of the trip:

If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a note or a comment and I will be glad to respond. Thanks for checking in!

4 thoughts on “California, here we come! (Road trip 2018 – epilogue)”

This trip shows that going electric is not technical issue. It’s state of mind rather then. 😉 It is sad that oil giants with car production giants will stay with petrol as long as possible. Even if so called “big players” put some electric car in production, it is another opportunity for them to empty Your wallet. For example in Poland VW e-golf starts from 165K PLN while the same car with petrol engine can be bought for 62K PLN. And keep in mind that IT IS the same car – not electric car from the begining as Tesla is – it is just petrol car with electric motor put in the place of petrol engine. Even if goverment “help” You to buy this car by giving You 10% or 20% (which it doesn’t do at the moment) It is sitll over 2 times more expensive. That said, keep in mind that e-golf goes as far as 300km on a single charge, and it does it in ECO+ mode, which I suppose is a perfect way for You to start asking Yourself “why the hell I bought this thing !?”

I see it as a perfect way of makig client a fool. Cilent want electric? Sure, we have one. But it is ELECTRIC so client must pay extra! Is it better then? In case of VW I don’t think so. At least not 2,5 Times better. You also must know, that VW Arteon (which is the best of the best in VW department and is not a SUV) starts from 127K PLN… Notice, that cheapest, smallest e-car from VW start from 117K PLN. This is insane! Yes, e-up is a sweet little car. But not worth that kind of money! No way!

You can see what I wrote here: https://www.volkswagen.pl/pl/modele.html It is in polish but prices say for themself.

If I had that kind of money (165K PLN – 44K $ ) to spend on a new car, and it have to be golf, it would be well (in not the best) equipped version with smallest possible petrol engine converted to LPG. It would cost well under 100k PLN, it would be quite economic to run and it would have a range of 500-600 on one LPG tank. Performance would be similar to e-golf in ECO+ mode I belive. And yes, it won’t be electric. But it would give me over 60k PLN to spend on something else (second VW golf for example;) )

And don’t get me wrong. I really love pure concept of an electric car. I would love to get one when my current car need to be replaced. But I’m affraid that it won’t happend. Not because electric cars are bad. It won’t happend because “giants” want electric cars to be bad.

To sum it up, Tesla – bravo! All other car makers – go to h… !

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Thanks for the input. It is mind-boggling that other automakers (aka Tesla killers) don’t get it or try to portray EVs as more expensive alternative. In the meantime, Tesla is selling like hot cakes. Maybe they will wake up in 2020 😛

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[…] big news that deserves to be spread around! 260 miles is plenty of range, even for road trips. Our recent trip to California was accomplished in a Model S that comes with about 240 miles on a full charge, so I speak from […]

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[…] The Epilogue… […]

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Day 1: Denton, TX – Tucumcari, NM

Day 2: Tucumcari, NM – Flagstaff, AZ

Day 3: Flagstaff, AZ – Twentynine Palms, CA

Day 4: Twentynine Palms, CA – Carlsbad, CA

Day 5: Carlsbad, CA (Legoland) – Los Angeles (Getty Museum), CA – Anaheim, CA

Day 6: Disneyland California Adventure Park, Anaheim, CA

Day 7: Disneyland Park, Anaheim, CA

Day 8: Anaheim, CA – Huntington Beach, CA – Pacific Coast Highway – Lompoc, CA

Day 9: Lompoc, CA – San Simeon, CA

Day 10: San Simeon, CA – Big Sur, CA – Seaside, CA

Day 11: Seaside, CA – Fremont, CA

Day 12: Fremont, CA – Muir Woods National Monument, CA – San Francisco, CA

Day 13: San Francisco, CA

Day 14: San Francisco, CA – Yosemite National Park – Manzanar – Lone Pine, CA

Day 15: Lone Pine, CA – Death Valley – Hoover Dam – Las Vegas, NV

Day 16: Las Vegas, NV – Seligman, AZ – Williams, AZ – Sedona, AZ

Day 17: Sedona, AZ – Winslow, AZ (Meteor Crater) – Santa Rosa, NM

Day 18: Santa Rosa, NM – Denton, TX

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4 thoughts on “California, here we come! (Road trip 2018 – epilogue)”

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