Summer Trip 2026 Day 1

7/22/2026

I was in no hurry to get out of town this morning as I didn’t have a long day ahead of me. Here was today’s route of just 300 miles (ignore Apple Maps’ 302 claim):

This is day 1 of a 24-day trip that will take me to Seattle and back, the first trip anywhere near this length in my 2026 Hyundai IONIQ 5. As mentioned in the previous post, I’ve over-planned everything and I was thrilled to see the car turning in better numbers than ABRP projected because that tells me I don’t have anything to worry about in the parts of the country where chargers are few and far between.

The weather was in the 70s dropping to the upper 60s and was mostly cloudy with occasional light rain and frequent headwinds.

My first charging stop of the day was one I’ve been to before, an Electrify America location in Herkimer NY just off the NY Thruway. The good news was that the chargers have been upgraded to the latest generation since the last time I was here. Unfortunately, the Denny’s just across the lot is closed (seemingly permanently) so the only bathroom is at the Red Roof Inn in the background; there’s no food or drink available. The car got 2.9 mi/kWh for the 166 miles getting here, and I charged from 32-80% in 14 minutes at a max rate of 246 kW, adding 42.996 kWh at a cost of $21.87.

If you look south from the chargers and to the west of the closed Denny’s, this is what you get. Honestly, I wouldn’t stay there …

I did a second charge in Farmington NY, not far from my brewpub and hotel, at this Tesla location. From the EA location to here was 127 miles and the car got 2.8 miles/kWh. There are 12 V4 chargers (with the usual V3 cabinets) and there was just one other vehicle when I arrived. I plugged into charger 2A but two attempts to get a session underway failed, so I switched to 1A and that worked. I charged from 25-80% in 24 minutes at a max rate of 127 kW (dropping to 111 kW from 74-80%), pulling 48.998 kWh for $21.55.

My hotel for the night is a nondescript Hampton Inn in Victor NY with a strange floor plan (make sure you go up the right elevator!) and no view from the window to speak of, so no photos here. For today’s 300 miles, I averaged 2.9 miles/kWh and I’m pleased with that. I’ll leave in the morning with a 78% charge and will end tomorrow in Perrysburg OH, south of Toledo.