Fall Trip 2024 Day 2

23 September 2024

Today was just a driving day, the longest of this trip and the last on interstates.

I left my hotel in Allentown at sunrise, heading west on I-78 to I-81 to I-76/I-70. My plan was simple — drive for a little over an hour and stop at the rest area on I-81 north of Harrisburg PA. Simple … except that the rest area building was closed for some reason (there was no sign, just workers inside miming that they weren’t open). OK, so much for that idea … good thing I didn’t overdo the coffee intake this morning!

As I entered Harrisburg, I found fog and rain, light at first but gradually turning heavier. It didn’t let up once I was on I-76, the Pennsylvania Turnpike (which eventually joined I-70) and I was in and out of heavy traffic in this fog and rain for what seemed like hours. Fortunately, the rain let up by the time I stopped in Bedford PA for my first charge of the day at a Sheetz gas station that had 6 Electrify America chargers (still free to me).

This was a nice stop and not just because I was the only one there — the parking spots were wide and there were both trash cans and windshield washing stations as well as the very well-stocked Sheetz convenience store with big bathrooms. I went from 32-80% in `13 minutes and was on my way.

After doing some route planning the night before and deciding to avoid an obvious EA charging stop that had two of the four chargers down for maintenance, I opted to stop just 84 miles later at another Sheetz that was a few miles off the interstate. I was only at 47%, but charged to 90% at this stop. Starting from a higher state-of-charge meant a slower charging rate, so 47-80% took the same 13 minutes and the extra 10% to get to 90% took an additional 10 minutes. That was fine, though — it was all well under the 30-minute limit for a free session and then I was back on the road for the final leg into Columbus OH.

After Second Meal™️ at my favorite German restaurant, I arrived at my hotel with 16% remaining and plugged into a free charger to get back to 80% for my next two days that I’ll spend in and around Columbus. For the day, I was at 460 miles and 133 kWh used for a day’s total of 3.5 miles/kWh.

Here’s where I am for the trip as a whole at this point:

I don’t expect to drive a lot the next two days (which will be largely rest days) but at the very least, I’ll update here on Thursday evening when I’ve arrived in Champaign IL!