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Travelogue from a 3,744.5-mile tour across 9 states with an Energica electric motorcycle

Many years ago my grandmother said to me, "when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade." I kept turning back to those words though out 2020, as I think most of us did, to try and make sense of the insanity around me. To find that silver lining, the sweet beverage made from the worst of time. Little did I realize the opportunity that COVID could afford me. With the ability to work anywhere with a WiFi connection, I could do something I've wanted to do for a really long time: A multi-thousand mile road trip on my Energica fully electric motorcycle. Why on earth would anyone want to ride a motorcycle thousands of miles, I hear you ask. Well, it's therapeutic for me -- it gives my hyper vigilance and anxiety-inducing "what if" machine a productive outlet (keeping me alive). But I also wanted my trip to prove that the CCS Charging network was dependable, that my Energica motorcycle was capable, and that I'm a real motorcyclist with the endurance to see a long trip like this to completion. I believe I achieved all of these goals, and I learned a whole lot more while riding my electric motorcycle 3,744.5 miles across 9 states in 16 days. These are my memoirs of life on the road.

Day One (3/26/21): Hope Springs Eternal

My journey began on Friday, March 26, 2021 at the Eldreth Law Firm in downtown Raleigh. While planning this trip, my husband and I had to acknowledge the reality that I could wind up incapacitated in a hospital bed. My husband and I needed to be prepared for that scenario, as much as we wanted to believe it would never happen. Going over your Last Will and Testament is an emotional affair, kissing your spouse goodbye - knowing that it could be the last time - even more so. But I pushed aside my fears and emotions, putting on a game face and telling myself I was going to accomplish this journey without injury or regret. At 11:51am I made my departure post and headed west.

Traditionally, I use PlugShare and manually plot my routes. The original plan for Day one was to make it from Raleigh to Dickson, TN - a mandatory Level 2 charge stop that happens to have a hotel with a charger. However, that plan had me leaving at 5am and I was leaving closer to noon. So, I changed the game plan to get to Knoxville for the night. I used A Better Route Planner to suggest a route - and it suggest that I go US64 to the Asheboro ChargePoint DC Fast charger, then up this really twisty looking route to the ChargePoint DC Fast charger in Lenoir. I would normally take 40 West to Greensboro and then take the backroads up to Lenoir, but I wanted to try something new. The ride to Asheboro was damp and cloudy, but by the time I got to the charger at the McDonald's, the sun was bright and the sky was blue... also, a Nissan Leaf had just plugged in right as I pulled up. Is this an omen for the trip, that the first charge stop is already in use? Well, yeah, it was, but I didn't believe that the time.

I talked with the Leaf owner, who turns out to be a member of an EV Facebook group that I admin, over her 20 minute charge. After she left I plugged in and grabbed some water from the McDonalds and a burger. I ate, made my obligatory social media post while the bike charged, and then I set out on a winding path towards Lenoir in the mountains. Now, I mentioned it had rained, right? Turns out there was a massive storm front moving into the area -- and in fact was so large it covered a quarter of the state of Tennessee at its peak -- and the wind associated with the incoming weather front meant that my consumption went through the roof.

Around Statesville -- which isn't even half-way between Asheboro and Lenoir -- I realized that I wasn't going to make it. I pulled over and checked PlugShare for a nearby Level 2 charger. Statesville is home to an Electrify America, but it was hung up in permit hell and not yet open. Fortunately for me, the Ingles Supermarket had charging stations. Score, I can get dinner and top off... win-win! That's exactly what I did, after posting about the emergency pit stop. This detour delayed me by an hour. And delays were something I was going to need to get used to, as this was the first of many to come.

I set out to Lenoir from Statesville with a full tummy and "enough" range. I really should have waited one more percent, but I was impatient, I was behind schedule, and I had to make it to Knoxville! Well, I made it to Lenoir with 1%, and the bike went into limp mode going up the hilly parking lot of the Electric Cooperative's office complex to reach the charging station. I made my social media post and plugged in, nothing that this was going to take a while.

I decide that since it's likely I will be running the battery really low, perhaps I should try and let the battery balance at this stop. This was, frankly, one of the dumbest ideas I would make on the trip. You see, balancing the battery can take an hour by itself (going from 99% to 100%). An hour and 20 minutes later I had reached 92%, but I waited another 25 minutes before I said "screw it," and stopped the charge at 98%. Night was starting to fall, there was a chill in the air, and I made the difficult decision to get a hotel in Asheville for the night.

Riding from Morganton (not far from Lenoir) on I-40 to Asheville, in the pitch black night, is nerve-wracking to say the least. Perhaps others riders have more confidence in low light situations, but I tend to avoid them after having had my LASIK surgery in 2005. While the night time halos aren't bad anymore (unless I'm very tired or stressed - and in this case I was both), the fast flying traffic was getting to me. This was the most white-knuckled death-gripped leg of the entire trip, and I admit, it was all in my head. I might have 30,000+ all-electric motorcycle miles under my belt, but I'd never experienced a stretch of road quite like this before. However, I persevered and made it to the EconoLodge unscathed. I was hoping I'd get a ground floor unit and could roll the bike in and plug it up to charge overnight, but I got stuck with a second story room. That's OK, I had 18% and it was only 15 miles to the Electrify America, and I'm good for 1% per mile...when it isn't 47F anyway.

Day Two (3/27/21): I should reconsider my poor life choices

But at 5am, when I woke up, it was 47F. I wasn't prepared for this kind of cold, truth be told, but I was determined to roll with the punches. My fingers froze in my gloves on the ride, but I managed to get to the charger with 5% to spare. Again, I decided to try and let the battery balance. This was in part because I felt it needed it and also because it was going to get above 50F at 8am. So at 5:38am I plugged the bike in and pulled out my Switch and started playing Roombo: First Blood (which is The Brave Little Toaster meets Home Alone as a video game, it's stupid but it's great fun). I also ate some of my rations: oranges, apples, nuts, and strawberry fruit snacks. Within 40 minutes the bike hit 80% (the manufacturer claimed time to 80%), and within an hour it had hit 95%. An hour later it was sitting at 99%. An hour. After 2 hours and 19 minutes I said, ok this is futile, and unplugged the bike at 7:57am.

Realizing that there was rain coming, I decided it was best to find a mid-way point between Asheville and Dandridge (my next charge stop). I was purposefully avoiding 40 on this leg because of the tunnels. I have claustrophobia in tunnels in cars, being on a motorcycle makes it a magnitude worse. Just ask the poor folks stuck behind me on the Blue Ridge Parkway as I'm creeping along and 8mph through the very short tunnels last summer. So I decided it best to just avoid them, and wind my way around the small towns. I settled on a little restaurant in Hot Spring, NC. Little did I know this place is aptly named for the natural Hot Springs, which if I'd known about I probably would have visited to defrost. While it did hit 51F, it still felt like it was in the 30s. It didn't dawn on me to put on my rain gear (which is plastic, and holds in heat) until after I got the diner and talked with some other riding buddies online about how things were going.

Now, I don't want you to think this trip was all heartache and pain -- the ride to the restaurant was along the French Broad River and to see that at daybreak is breath taking. Being on the electric bike, which makes minimal noise, I could hear the birds chirping and the babbling of the river I was riding alongside. This gave me hope that the rest of the day would be better. It wouldn't be, but this gave me hope. I had a fantastic breakfast at the Smokey Mountain Diner (not to be confused with the Smoky Mountain Diner or the Smokie Mountain Diner - they're all within 20 minutes of each other). I also decided, after eavesdropping on some GenZ hikers waiting for a table, that I should dawn my rain gear because there's rain coming. I put on my gear, promptly ripping the seam of the pants getting on the bike, and headed west. The rain gear made a huge improvement to my comfort, the temps didn't increase by more than 5 degrees, but I felt much warmer with the jacket and pants on.

When I arrived at Dandridge, it was an Exxon right off I-40. This location used to be an EVgo, but it has since converted into a Blink. The unit is old, and one of the workhouse BTCPower machines that looks like an old refrigerator. I plugged in, tapped my Blink card, and heard what sounded like the most unhealthy buzzing I've ever heard. "Crap," I think, as I'm not sure the machine will come to life. But, it does, and I charge without fail. Now, this machine was $6.99 to use, so I decided instead of getting "just enough" to get to Knoxville, where I'd be paying by the minute connected to the machine and not by the energy the machine distributed like I was in North Carolina, I elected to get to at least 90% before I took off. I got to 88% before I saw lightning strike and said it's time to go.

Heading towards Knoxville, the next charge stop, the rain came hard and fast. Luckily the temps shot up into the 60s so it felt like a warm bath. But the sudden temp change also meant that my helmet fogged up and I couldn't see. After following a semi with its hazards blinking for a few miles, I decided I should seek shelter. I pulled off at a Flying J or Pilot Travel center (they look the same), and parked my bike between two gas pumps and headed inside. There was a subway, I was going to be there a while, and I feel bad mooching, so I ordered a 6 inch sub and ate it while contemplating my poor life choices. Maybe I should turn back. Nothing has gone according to plan so far, perhaps this was a stupid idea. I began to float the idea of turning around to friends who were following the journey and I was told, unequivocally, that I should keep going. Well, ok... I can't let my fans down.

Stalking MyRadar on my phone, I saw a break coming and dashed from the gas station to the Electrify America in Knoxville. This was the first stop where I'd meet a Mustang Mach-E owner, and also this stop was going to creature future problems for me. The Mach-E owner was from Nashville and was "just figuring out my charging options doing some day trips" as she got familiar with the car. She had positive things to say about it, noting that she pulled right up and plugged in and it started charging without issue.

I didn't have such luck, the machine I pulled up to started to charge, but then gave a session start error. Funny thing is, its cooling pumps kept running and my bike showed that it was "charging" but at 0kW. The connector was locked, and but the station seemed to think it had terminated the session and wanted me to hang up the connector. I stopped the charge on my bike, and returned the plug. The machine never moved off the "please hang up" screen, and the machine next to it said it was unavailable, so I moved to the CHAdeMO/CCS combo units on the other side of the Mach-E. This worked fine, so I went inside to sit at the Subway (ironic, I know) and wait for the bike to charge.

I spoke with some Walmart employees who were on break about the storm, and learned that parts of 40 west of here were flooding. They advised me to get a hotel soon, and write the day off as a wash (no pun intended). I didn't want to do that, I wanted to get to Dickson - on the other side of Nashville - because I had to Level 2 there and didn't want to do that while waiting, I wanted to be asleep in a hotel while the bike charged. I thanked them for the information, and headed towards Cookeville. It rained the whole time. A jerk looked right at me then cut over into my lane.

I got to the charger, the wind blowing my umbrella into a U shape, my phone getting wet and not responding to taps, finally I get the Electrify America app open and it shows I'm still charging on Station 4 in Knoxville. What? That's the machine that gave me the charging error and stopped. Well, now the app thinks I'm charging there. I tried to start a session in Cookeville and it told me I couldn't because another session was active. Fantastic, this is just what I need right now. I called Electrify America's customer service and told the person who answered the location I was at, that my app thinks I am still charging in Knoxville and won't let me charge here, there is a Tornado warning, it's raining heavy, and I just need enough to get to the LaQuinta hotel up the street where I'm staying the night. They obliged with no fuss, got me charging, and after I'd had enough of a comfort buffer I headed off to the LaQuinta (booking it from inside the Sams Club while the bike charged).

The LaQuinta had Level 2 charging, and it wasn't blocked (unlike the Tesla units), and when I got inside I discovered that every stitch of clothing in my backpack was wet. I laid everything out around the room and cranked the heat, then I discovered that DoorDash doesn't operate in this town. A town called Cookeville that literally has over 100 restaurants and a college in it. What the... ok, does GrubHub work? Yes, great, give me Outback steak house. After today's events I deserve steak, even if it's overdone. I called Electrify America back and we discussed the app issue, they said they'd send this over to engineering as it was the first they'd seen of it (shocking, I've heard this before, early adopter woes). My food arrived, and it was exactly what I wanted and cooked as expected.

While considering my poor life choices, I realized that loading the charging equipment into the bottom of my backpack was a bad idea. This was adding unnecessary weight to the pack, which was doing a number on my back. I threw on some clothes and wandered out to the bike and grabbed my tail case - which was empty. I loaded all the charging equipment into it, and then I charged all my devices, and went to bed at like 7 or 8pm.

Day Three (3/28/21): I get knocked down, but I get up again

I woke up at 4am, starving, and luckily there is a Waffle House basically in the parking lot of the hotel I walked over and had a good breakfast, then went back to my room and slept for two more hours. Before 7am I packed up everything and set out, I was going to make it Arkansas. I had to make it to Arkansas. It was raining, but it let up and by the time I reached Nashville it was sunny skies. I pulled off into the shopping plaza with the chargers and noticed something wasn't right: there was tons of debris all over the place. Like broken pallets and bottles and bags of trash. It was like, the dumpster had been tipped over and the wind scattered everything. Well, turns out it was the flooding from the night before and not the wind, but I didn't know that at the time. I plugged up (my ghost session in Knoxville having gone away so I could start a session) made a post to Instagram, and began to snack on my rations. Then, a homeless man appeared. For better or worse, I was making this trip unarmed. No conceal carry, no knife, just my God given stature and permeant resting bitch face. This guy was smaller than me, and had real pretty blue eyes, so I didn't think of him as a threat though the thought crossed my mind: “guy traveling with a backpack on a motorcycle, probably has clothes and money, could be an easy target.” He wanders past me over to a clothing donation bin, and I start to watch him. I've read stories about people getting trapped and dying inside these things, and I wouldn’t let that happen. He pulled out some clothes, and didn't get stuck. So I go back to eating my apple and playing with my phone. A moment later I hear "Hey man, I love the color of your bike, may I take a closer look at it?" I put my phone away and said "of course." He looked it over and asked some question, he was very friendly. Then, he asked me if I got rained on and I said yes I had to stay in Cookeville last night because of it. He tells me he was treading water at his camp to save his and his friends stuff from floating away. He said that it never floods in the underpass they camp out in, but last night was different. I then realized he was shivering, and soaked to the bone. He told me he was hoping he'd find a dry shirt in the bin, but all the stuff was wet. Now, I might be traveling light, but I have a shirt I can spare. I tell him to give me a minute, I can help him out. I was looking for my solid black shirt, the one I'd worn the day before, but I packed it at the bottom and couldn't find it. I didn't want to dump my bag out, so I give him my one and only ecodweeb.com t-shirt. It had never been worn and was one of the few things that wasn't completely drenched by the storm. He was so ecstatic, he asked twice if I was for real that he could have it. He immediately put it on, and I asked him if he'd like an apple and some fruit snacks. He said he would if I didn't mind sharing them, which I didn't. Finally, I reconfigured my pack and gave him two totes bags that I didn’t need, so that he could carry all his stuff. He thanked me and wished me safe travels, and wandered off. This encounter was beyond humbling. Here I am, a guy who is employed and working from whatever city I land in, riding a $21,000 motorcycle, on a once in a lifetime trip... and I'm bent out of shape about paying $80 for a hotel and not making my time schedule. Talking with this guy softened me up, it was the reality check that I needed to continue on the journey. A friend told me you may not change the world, but you can change one person's world with your actions. I hope I hanged his for a day. Feeling very much privilege checked, I set out for the slow charge stop in Dickson, TN. The backroads roads from Nashville to Dickson was largely along the Civil War Trail, which has sub-40mph speeds and is exceptionally scenic. I recommend anyone who has the chance to take one of these trails on a road trip, it'll blow your mind. The backroad was actually shorter distance than taking I-40, so I felt this was a win. If I do slow enough, I'll only need to charge for an hour, maybe an hour and a half, and from there it's all short enough distances between chargers that I can rock and roll on the highway. Alas, I got 18 miles to the charger and encountered a severely flooded road. I turn around, I get 15 miles from it and meet another flooded road. Make a left turn, keep going, still 15 miles away...another flooded road. At this point I said "fuck it," and headed to I-40. There was a due east headwind of about 15mph and I'm headed due west. I'm running 55 in a 70, what should return a 150Wh/mi consumption but it's drawing more like 230Wh/mi consumption. I arrived at Dickson with 50% state of charge and I'm miffed but not going to complain about the 3 and a half hour to full charge time. Suck it up, buttercup! You signed up for this! I plugged in at the Nissan dealer, being a Sunday there was no one there, and walked over to the Waffle House that was right next door. My second meal being at a Waffle House, ok, not the worst thing in the world. The first thing I noticed was the lack of PPE - hardly a mask in sight, and not worn correctly if they had one on. The second thing was the line out of the door at 11:30am. Oh, right, I'm in the Bible Belt... this is the early morning Church crowd's fellowship time. Crap. Ok, there's a Wendy's across the street. That won't be as busy, right? I frogger my way across the 4-lane undivided highway only to find the Wendy's, inside a Flying J, is under construction. There was no sign of this from the outside whatsoever. Keep your cool, get back across the street...there's a Cracker Barrel. Make it back across, and there is a Cracker Barrel with an even longer line of folks waiting to get inside. The McDonald's has a line of cars out to the side street waiting for the drive-thru. But there's a Hardee's with only two cars in the drive-thru... ok, let's go there. The moment I walked in the door I knew something was wrong. Everyone's running around like their hair is on fire -- all 5 employees -- I hear the lady on the headset say "No, Ma'am, we're out of that too, our truck didn't come, I'm sorry" and then I hear the sneers of the patrons eating inside of the situation. Well, this is par the course, I think, so let's see what food I can order. I wait in line behind an elderly Church lardy in a beautiful red cardigan. If I wasn't a big burly Mohawk'd biker in a biker's jacket, I might have told her I liked her cardigan. But I genuinely feared I'd frighten her if I said anything, so I stood there with my hands clasped behind my back, 6 foot away of course. When she gets to the front of the line she waves and says hello to a lady working in the back, who comes over and gives her a hug and they have a very quick chat about family before the employee gives the red cardigan lady her food and she exits the establishment. I walk up to the counter and the lady taking my order stiffens a little, when you're a guy my size you get used to and notice things like this. To diffuse the situation - because she's expecting me to get angry and that's the last thing that's gonna happen - I compliment her on the music note she has tattooed on her hand between the thumb and index finger. She's caught off guard and says thank you, and I ask if she played and she said yes and we chatted about our musical abilities for a moment. She smiled during this, and I smiled in turn. She then asked what I wanted and I said "well, what have you got? I heard the truck didn't come." She told me what they had available, and I opted for the roast beef sandwich (it was on par with Arby's, for the record). She gave me a medium drink, because they were out of large cups, and I set over to my corner booth by the front door of the restaurant to pull video from memory cards. As I'm working, I'm listening to the vitriol of the locals about the Hardee's, agencies that send satellite images of peoples homes to them with offers to buy their property, the local school teacher, and of course the president and his liberal agenda. I don't wanna wax political but the MAGA was strong here, lots of trucks with flags. Not the kind of place a queer kid like myself wants to hang out at, even if I don't fit their stereotype for a gay guy. As I'm sitting here waiting on my food, the front door opens 3/4 of the way...stands there for a minute... then closes. That's... weird. The wind is blowing from the direction of the hinge, so it should be keeping the door shut not opening it. Whatever, some kind of fluke. But it does it again. And again. It does this four or five times during the hour and a half I sat in the store. No one was near it. It wasn't an automatic assist door for wheel chair users. It was your run of the mill aluminum and dual paned glass industrial restaurant door with a mind of its own. I now believe I've taken up roost in a haunted Hardees, again, par for the course. What a memoir this will make. After I ate and more or less had a 5 minute video update ready to post to Instagram, I packed up and walked back over to the Nissan dealer and camped out under an awning on the side of the building. The number of people who drive through dealerships closed on Sundays to look at cars is shockingly high in rural America. I guess folks really don't like salespeople. I finished up the video and went to upload it to Instagram only to find that Instagram only allows me to upload 1 minute clips. Fantastic. So I edit the video down into four parts (link to part one, two, three, four) and posted them. By the time the last video uploaded, the bike had powered off because it had been 20 minutes since the charge ended. I can get back on the road. No more slow charges from here to Dallas, let's roll! I jumped on the I-40, there was still the headwind, and I set the cruise at 58mph and prayed that I'd make it to Jackson. Aside from being passed by everything, including a 1980 Diesel Volkswagen Rabbit, this went rather smooth until I got into Jackson. Apparently the entire city of Jackson was under construction, and the exit to the plaza with the charging station was closed. I'm at 2% power, and it's 1.5 miles to the next exit. At this point I begin to panic, this is where it ends folks, this is where I call a tow truck. I slow my speed to 50, and I turn my regen entirely off. I coasted down the cloverleaf and may have run a light that was turning yellow to red to make it through an intersection and avoid another take off (take offs consume the most energy). I managed to make it to the charger right as the bike went into limp mode. This is the second time I've cut it close. Will this be the last? I really hope it will be the last. (Thankfully, it was the last). While charging, I made an Instagram video update and texted my friend Ann in Memphis to let her know I'd be staying the night. She said she looked forward to seeing me, and I asked if I could use her laundry equipment (because my stuff needed to be washed and dried). She said I could, but unfortunately, the washer has been broken for two weeks. Just my luck, I think. As I am forming a response, she texts me "also the dryer won't work because I've been without power since 1am" and I just start laughing. Of course she's without power, and I'd planned to charge overnight there. Foolish me, I should have seen this coming. Ok, I'll have to fully charge in Memphis at the Electrify America, no biggie... It took exactly an hour to reach 95%. I start thinking, I'm only 65 miles to Memphis, I have a free charging credit to cash in, I can book it at 75 and make it there in under an hour. And that's exactly what I did. Now, it's important to understand that this bike -- like all current electric motorcycles -- has an air-cooled battery. Most modern cars use liquid cooling to keep the battery in the 60F range for optimum performance. I don't have such luxury, so my battery temperature indicator went yellow after this charge (meaning, I'm warm), and running at 75mph averaged a 250Wh/mi draw (roughly 17kW power draw over an hour), the battery was really warm when we got to the charger. So warm it said it would take over an hour to charge to 80%. But that's OK! I have a free charge credit to use, which only took about 20 minutes for the Electrify America rep to verify and then get the charger to accept a remote start (she said her system was super slow that day). After what seemed like twice as long as it should have taken, my charge has started at a whopping 11kW in Memphis. I text Ann to let her know that I'm charging, and she tells me she's still without power. I gather all my accoutrements and pop over to the IHOP that is conveniently across the street, feeling like I've conquered the day. I take a seat across from a family of three, two little girls and their mom. Everyone's playing non their phone, and after about ten minutes, I asked the mom if she'd been given a wait time. She said the lady came up and said she'd find out what the wait time was and would come back, but she hadn't yet. The mom then said "and I think we're done waiting" and took her girls and left right as another couple came in. As the family exited and the couple entered, the waitress came to the front and told us they were short staffed and were working as fast as they could to seat us. They took down our names and phone numbers and said we'd be texted when our table was ready. Moments after she spun around and scurried back to the kitchen, a family of 5 enters and we tell them they're in for a wait. We all chat for the next ten minutes or so, and I decide I'll take my chances at the Sushi place in the corner of the shopping center. I bid adieu to the people waiting at the IHOP and schlep all my stuff across the complex to the Sushi/Hibachi buffet. Once inside things didn't seem alarming, at first. There was a short line to pay and an equally long line of people waiting to be served food. The Buffet was sealed off so that only workers behind the buffet could plate food and then hand it to you over the top of the buffet. Right as the couple in front of me walks up to the register, the man running it puts up his hand in a stop sign and says "you wait, I'll be back" and proceeds to fill drink orders for the last 4 to 5 patrons he'd taken payment from. He also picks up utensils and helps the other three employees fill plates to feed waiting customers. The couple in front of me was rather irked by being told to wait, meanwhile I'm laughing on the inside at the absurdity of my dinner situation given how lunch went. Finally he comes back and lets the people in front of me pay, then I walk up and pay. He starts to hand me a plate, and I just held up my hands -- holding my helmet in one and my tail bag in the other -- and say I'll get in line after I drop these off. He starts to utter "but you have to get food first" and I cut him a "Do not mess with me today buddy" look and he stops mid-sentence and points to a booth and says "You can sit there." Thank you, I replied, and proceeded to drop my 20 pound backpack, 10 pound tail bag, and my helmet. I got in line and quickly realized no one behind the counter spoke English, and, that I didn't know the names of half the things I liked to eat...nor did they have labels to tell you what each item on the buffet was. The game went something like this: I'd point to an item, they'd take the tons and go into the wrong bin, I'd say no no that one and tap the glass, they'd picked the tray to the opposite side of the one I want, I suppress the urge to smash the plexiglass that separates me from my food, and say "no the one next to it," and finally get a small portion of the noodles I like. I quickly said "sweet and sour chicken," which he filled the rest of the plate with and I proceeded back to my table. I didn't have the patience for this, but I only needed to eat something. All I wanted was to go to bed and get on the road early Monday morning. I woof down the plate, don't even bother asking for a refill of my water, and walk back across the gigantic parking lot to my bike. I drop my stuff to the ground, and a pick up truck rolls up and parks on the other side of the charger from me. The driver rolls the window down and looks at me and the bike and says "Sorry, this look is the look of an old fart not understanding what he's seeing, that's electric?" His son, in his late teens early twenties, jumps out and asks if he can take a picture. I say of course, and proceed to EVangelize about the bike, charging, and electric life. They were both highly intrigued by the machine and my journey. I gave them one of my business cards with my blog address on it and told them to follow along on my adventure to Texas, and they said they would. After and hour and a half of charging, I think I called it quits. I was over 80%, and I knew I could get to Ann's and then the charger in Arkansas on what charge I had. I texted Ann to let her know my ETA, she texted back roger, still no power. If you'd told me when I graduated high school that one day I'd rip down Sam Cooper Blvd on a crotch rocket, I'd have asked what you were smoking. It was a weird kind of nostalgia to traverse my old stomping groups with my electric steel horse. I also didn't realize how badly maintained the city was, nearly coming off the bike at several points along Summer Avenue. I made it to Ann's house and her porch light was on. When I got off the bike I saw I had a text reading "the power's back on!," and I said hooray... this is a good sign. I parked the bike in front of her car, right by the side door. There was an electrical outlet right there, so I plugged in my travel cable and plugged the bike up to complete its charge and balance the battery. I also engaged my steering lock, because, it's Memphis and nothing is safe here. I have stories for days about bikes, tackle boxes, dogs, and toys being stolen right off my front porch growing up here. Ann pours me a glass of wine, gives me a big hug, and says sit down I wanna make you dinner. I about cried. She made me a wonderful chicken dinner, and we had such a fun time catching up on things. We ended the night starting, but not finishing, the history of swear words on Netflix. Just before midnight Ann said "I think it's bedtime," and off to bed she went. I made myself at home on the sofa, and drifted off to sleep.

Day Four (3/29/21): Range Anxiety is real

The next morning we woke up and there was a burning plastic smell proliferating the house, and I immediately checked to ensure the bike hadn't ignited overnight -- it was fine, as was the charging cable. Weird. After much investigation, we discover that we left one of the stove's eyes in the on position. It's a wonder we didn't asphyxiate that night, and I counted this as a blessing that today was going to be better than the last few.

Sometime overnight my buddy Michael texted me saying he'd like to have breakfast before I head out, if possible. He wanted me to meet his wife, whom I hadn't had the pleasure of meeting yet. We met up at an eclectic little place over near McLean Blvd in midtown, and it was the greatest time catching up on our travels and learning secrets to authentic Vietnamese pho from Mike's wife. They took a photo of me and the bike, and a photo of Me, Mike, and the bike, and then I set off west.

I took the old bridge across into Arkansas and then got off on Route 70 which parallels the highway. I rode this into Forrest City, where I got my first charge of the day going. Things were looking good, I was making good time and the bike was charging quickly. I feel like today's the day, today I reach my goal of being in Dallas. Jason's flight back home didn't land until 6pm, and I was now in a "race" to beat him to Texas -- knowing full well this was not in any way shape or form possible. But it was motivation, and I could use all the motivation I could get.

I set back out on Route 70 from Forrest City to Little Rock. Little Rock has two DC charging stations -- Electrify America and the Harley dealer. I was originally going to go to Electrify America, but upon closer inspection, the Harley dealer was inside a big shopping complex with lots of food choices. Naturally you go for the food choices and free, airconditioned, customer lounge option when traveling. Off I went! This was a 103-mile stretch of travel, with heavy winds, so I played it safe and set the cruise control to 55. I arrived at the dealer with 11%, plugged into their charger and headed inside to see if I could score a sticker. Sadly, the only sticker they had was too big for my wind screen. I mentioned to the sales gal that it would be nice if they had smaller logos for laptops, or you know, motorcycle windscreens. She said she'd let the folks who order stuff know.

I love Harley dealers. They welcome everyone. They let me throw my gear down by the front desk so they could keep an eye on it while I wandered over to a greek place for lunch. Seeing as it was after 3pm and I'd last eaten before 9am, I was pretty famished. I ate every bit of my food, and then had the onset of a food coma. It's in the 80s, I don't wanna go back out. The next leg is the single longest of the trip at 113 miles, it's going to take over three hours, and I don't wanna! But... I gotta. So once the charger messaged me that my bike was drawing very little power, I loaded up and headed back out for the longest ride of the whole trip.

It took me just under three hours to traverse the route. I was going 45mph, getting passed left and right by folks, and in constant pain from the weight of my backpack -- even without the charging gear -- pulling on my back. I was getting a shooting pain in my right shoulder in particular. I also had to travel directly into the path of the sun for the majority of the trip, which was not enjoyable in the least. By the time I arrived at the Electrify America in Hope, I was done. I needed a second wind something bad.

As the bike charged, I threw my backpack on the ground and laid my head on it. Resting on the pavement, my back popped. I was near tears, I didn't want to get another hotel but I was losing day light -- and lost the race to beat Jason to his house. I was tired, I was sore, but I wanted to lay my head down in Dallas. I closed my eyes for a bit, until I heard someone yelling "Hey! Hey man! Are you ok? Hey! Do you need help?" I opened my eyes to find a guy in a Honda pulled up near the bike with the driver's window rolled down. I tell him I'm fine, just resting between legs. He said "Ok, well you take care then" and off he went. I was reminded of the kindness of strangers by his actions.

An hour and two minutes after I arrived, the bike was at 95% state of charge. There was no way I could cope with my backpack on my back anymore, so I set it on the tank and bashed down the top of it so I could rest my head on it and still see the instruments. I could get back on 35 from this point forward, and since it was night fall my eyes didn't hurt as bad as they had staring into the sun. I set the cruise at 65 and headed towards Mt. Pleasant, Texas. I arrived a quarter past 10pm, only to find that nothing was open nearby. As hungry as I was, this wouldn't be a food stop. Not even the vending machines were operable. This made me so angry, as my instagram post made clear: someone even commented "without sound I can tell you're pissed." Indeed, I was. But I had another lie down, ate some of my cashews, drank the last of my water, and told myself "the Whataburger is 24 hours and it's spitting distance from the next and last charger you'll use tonight." The end was in sight. I was going to make it or bust.

At half past 11, I threw my leg back over the seat and headed towards Royse City. I had to lower my speed as the temperature started to cool off rather quickly, and I was seeing higher consumption as a result. This was going to be another "get there by the skin of my teeth" legs: I entered limp mode right as I entered the parking lot. I arrived just past 1am and plugged in with 1% remaining. I walked over to the Whataburger, expecting to be told they won't serve walk-ups at the drive-thru. However, they totally did. The guy who took me order asked about the bike, and told me to be safe getting home. I guess he could tell how exhausted I was just by looking at me. But, I'll tell you what, that burger was the best damned thing I'd eaten all day. I was that hungry.

I didn't need a full charge to make it the final 38 miles to Jason's house. I charged for 36 minutes to 56% and booked it to Dallas. I dealt with a level of construction that made me nervous, and also had to re-route due to a few road closures. The criss-cross of the Texas highways always gets me, so I missed a merge and had to go around. Finally, at 2:35am on Tuesday March 30th, I arrived in Dallas. I made my way into the house, found my futon, a sleeping bag, some throw pillows and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

Day 5 (3/30/21): Self Care

I slept around 6 hours then awoke starving and feeling hit by a Mack truck. Jason suggested Norma's for breakfast, so we piled into his Fiat 500e and headed over for a true southern style breakfast (to-go). We got back to the house and got the current state of things: the city had hooked the water up to the wrong side of the duplex, the tenant stole the refrigerator when he moved out, and the key to the gate was lost so they had to drill out the lock. Jason set off to re-route the water to our side of the property while I pulled out my laptop and got back to work.

Around 11am I was feeling all the wear and tear on my back from the trip. Prior to leaving my regular chiropractor suggested looking for a chain branch of the chiropractic clinic "the joint." I looked them up and found a bunch of locations all over Dallas, better was they all sported a first time $29 special. He was not kidding about it being very bare bones basic treatment, but they managed to get my back to pop so that my left arm stopped hurting and the shooting pain in my right shoulder subsided. After my quick back cracking, I found a burrito place (after not finding two higher rated ones) for lunch and headed back to Jason's place to keep working. Later in the evening, after I'd caught up on work projects and Jason managed to rig up the water, I grabbed a hot shower before having cheesesteak for dinner from Jason's favorite little hole in the wall.

Day 6 (3/31/21): Meeting new people

I slept like a rock, and woke up feeling excited because I was in Dallas. I made it! I took the fiat to Norma's for another day's breakfast, and in trying to open the 12-ft tall chain-link gate, I pushed it the wrong way and it fell on me. I caught it before it hurt me, but I had to finagle it to lay against the fence. I went in the house and apologized to Jason, who looked at me with dagger eyes. We went outside and I showed him how the collar slipped off the top swivel, and he said "go get food and I'll fix this." So I did, and when I came back, the gate was fixed and I got back to work on my laptop.

During my trip, I posted progress updates to the Facebook Energica Owners group, and got responses from several Texan Energica owners about meeting up. I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to meet other Energica owners -- I mean, we're a small crowd of maybe 300 (right now). So the next several days would involve meeting new motorcyclists. The first was Blake, from Dallas.

We met up for lunch in the Bishop Arts District at Lockhartt smokehouse (the brisket and jalapeno brauts were out of this world and enough to feed a lumberjack). Blake is a cool guy, he's been riding since he was 14, and got into the electric because it was so fast. He told me that he's inspired by my trip and wants to do something like it with his bike one day. The conversation of electric touring proceeded to fill the rest of our lunch conversation for the most part. I had afternoon meetings, so I couldn't hang out all afternoon. But we agreed to meet back up after work, and we'd go check out some Dallas staples. So after work, Blake showed up at Jason's and we rode over to Strokers Dallas: the most psychedelic biker bar in the world.

This place is huge, murals everywhere, an impressive collection of custom built bikes by the owner, and it even has the Grateful Dead's tour bus as a permanent attraction among several outdoor stages. This complex is designed to entertain, and so it was weird to be one of perhaps 10 people there that day. It was like a ghost town. Blake had to charge up while we were here, because he has the smaller battery bike. We found out they have 14-50 RV outlets, so we could have used my portable Level 2 charger had we known. But even on 120v, he added enough range over the hour or so we spent there to be able to make it to our planned dinner stop and then a rapid charger at Harley-Davison.

Blake always has dinner with buddies of his from Strokers. They meet up at this sports bar chain not too far from Strokers. They invited me along, so I obliged. We sat outside, the 5 of us, and I got peppered with questions about my trip. One of the guys said that he loved the crazy ones like me who are pushing the envelope on what can be done. I smiled and said thank you, uncomfortable with such praise. I see myself as the typical mid-life crisis story, the only difference being that my bike is electric. After dinner, Blake wanted me to try a Mezcal bar. This is where I learned that Blake has a PhD in Mexican Spirits, and that means he's a wine-o but for agave. It was a delight to listen to him explain how this 25-year old spirit was made, detailing the flavor profile and noting how it doesn't burn going down. Indeed the first mezcal was very smoky, like a whiskey. The chaser was infused with hibiscus, which gave it very light and refreshing after taste. And neither of them burned. These were sipping drinks -- given we got 1/4 a shot glass, if that -- and it was kind of like drinking whiskey. After we took our time with the two Mezcals, he ordered two shots of a tequila that had no burn whatsoever. The salsa had more bite than this did, you just felt a warmth in your stomach. This, too, was a sipping drink. We shared some tapas -- some kind of delicious fried pork belly -- and then Blake asked if I thought his bike could make it to Austin. I said let me look into it, and we parted ways for the night.

The ride from this bar back to the house was memorable. First, I went through several tent cities - and had a very different view of them after my Nashville encounter. Second, I accidentally flew past a cop who didn't seem to bat an eye (phew). But I made it back unscathed and unticketed. Then I locked the gate with the drilled out lock, locking us in until Jason could find another battery for the drill to drill it out again.

Day 7 (4/1/21): The last supper

Thursday was my last day in Dallas. I had plans to meet Blake at a motorcycle museum after 3pm, which was the highlight of my trip. The Haas Moto Museum is a really cool place, and they even have an 2017 Victory Empulse TT - probably one of a dozen in existence. After the moto museum he took me to the Dallas gayborhood of Oak Lawn. It did not disappoint, and it even had an EVgo station. The DC charger was in use by an etron, but we plugged Blake into the Level 2 and headed over to a chicken place for a drink, a snack, and some amazing icecream sandwich macaroons. I told him the plan of how we could both get to Austin, letting him know we'd need to leave at 4am, as in less than 12 hours from now. He said he's game, and that he'd message me after he had dinner with his uncle. We parted ways around 5pm, and I headed home to pack.

Arriving back at Jason's, I was greeting with a warm bowl of minestrone soup that his husband had made for me. We all sat on the broken sofa -- another causality of the hasty move from one side of the duplex to the other -- and ate our soup while discussing my plans for tomorrow. I will never forget this meal, it was one of the most heartfelt I'd had in a long time. After dinner, I went upstairs and packed my bag and then laid down to sleep. I fell fast asleep, even though I was so excited and yet terrified about what tomorrow would bring.

Day Eight (4/2/21): Austin Aspirations

I woke up around 2:30 to use the bathroom and checked my phone. Blake texted me late saying that he had a family situation he needed to attend to and wouldn't be making the trip with me. I was sad, I'd hoped to have someone else start out on this leg of the trip with me. I laid back down, thinking I'd stick to the 4am departure since it was going to be in the low 40s until almost 10am anywhere I looked. I tossed and turned and at 3:30 said let's get this show on the road. Oh, how unprepared I was for this.

I didn't bring any warm gloves with me, because it's Texas and its always warm there... right? Yeah, 45F with a windchill makes it feel like 37f. I decided to keep the "small battery" route, because the first charge was only 35 miles away avoiding the highway. I took the backroads - winding my way through what I assume were fields. It was pitch black and I was going through the kind of place you’d have an encounter of the extraterrestrial kind. This leg used up 39% of the battery resulting in a 27 minute charge in Ennis TX. I figured this would let me warm up the battery (since there was no hope of warming myself up) before the jaunt to Bellmeade, 70ish miles away from Ennis. On a warm day, this wouldn't be a concern. When it's in the 40s... this becomes questionable. But, I'm avoiding highways so speeds should be in my favor, right? Wrong.

The only sub-55mph road in Texas is found in the city. Most of the roads I took to avoid the highway were 60 to 70mph in speed. I was getting run over running 55, but I managed to get to Bellmeade with 17% remaining. I charged for an hour, and picked up a multipack of cloth gloves from Walmart that I layered up under my summer groves for added warmth. This was a memorable charge stop because of the homeless lady I met. She was off the chain, pushing her cart and talking all kinds of crazy. I asked her if she needed some gloves and she responded with "sure, and I could use a new asshole!" I have her two pairs of gloves, and she wandered off as suddenly as she appeared.

I decided at this point I was going to go to the Cracker Barrel and sit there for an hour so the sun could come up and get the air temp to 50f. I got inside and spent nearly 5 minutes taking off clothes and bags. I plopped into the chair and asked for a hot cup of water and some tea. I warmed my hands with the hot water and sipped my tea thinking about how today will be a great day. After the app myRadar told me that the air temp was 50, I bundled back up and set off to pay my bill. An older gentleman sparked up a chat with me about where I was headed, and was really excited to hear that an electric was doing a long trip. He wished me safe travels, and we parted ways. This set a smile on my face that lasted until I got to AF1 Racing in Austin.

My next charge stop was Round Rock. Feeling nervous about the impact of the wind, I stopped in Temple and slow charged at a Chevy dealer. They had the charger blocked, but I snuck in between the line of cars waiting in the service lane. A I plugged in, a guy walks up to me and asks "is that Electric?" Why, yes! Yes it is! We talked about the bike for some 20 minutes, and then I headed south to Round Rock. My gut feeling was right, I added 3% in Temple and arrived at Round Rock with exactly 3%.

When I got to Round Rock, there was an electrician there working on the stations. I plugged up and he walked over and said "That's not the Livewire, what is it?" Again I found the majority of my charging time spent talking about the bike, and the trip, with strangers. I loved it, I'd missed little interactions like this. After 29 minutes, I headed down to AF1 Racing.

Another Energica owner, Gabriel, lives in this area and said to reach out when I got to the Round Rock charger. I did, and heard back from him while I was at AF1. I said I'd wait for him to get down there, and we would take a ride to a place to get lunch and a charge. While I waited for him, the guys at AF1 checked the bike over and found I had shrapnel in my rear tire. That wasn't the only bad news, they don't carry Michelins in that size but would call another shop. Good news, we can make you a good deal on a new Pirelli. I ask them to try and match tire, if not, do the Pirelli. I went back and sat in the lobby. I ate some rations and responded to people on social. Once they finished replacing the tire, we rolled the bike to the front of the parking lot where a JuiceBox Level 2 charger lives. I plugged in my bike and went back to waite for Gabriel.

Gabriel arrived and brought with him an excited attitude and twinkling blue eyes. He told me this was his first ride in about 4 months, and he was so happy to have an excuse to ride and get a break from COVID life. I asked him where we should go to eat, and he told me that he and his family moved to this area just before COVID. So they haven't explored, and don't have many friends. To add to it, he also has children with special needs. My heart went out to this guy, how horrible to uproot yourself and be told to wait a year before you could make friends? I looked at PlugShare and said that I'd planned to charge at an H-E-B, and we decided we could get a deli sandwich while we charged.

We rode down 35 till we got to the H-E-B. They had 4 ChargePoint DC fast chargers in the parking lot. We plugged in and took a few pics, then made our way inside to find some food and chat. Gabriel said "this one is fancier than the one by my house!" as soon as we walked in the door. We moved to the right of the entrance and there is a little food hall with three or four little "stores." We settled on the grilled cheese place, where I ordered mine with brisket (and it was delicious). They had the UV light that would clean the PIN pad of the credit card machines, ok that's impressive. Then we walk through the sliding doors into the seating area and there is a bar. Gabriel ordered himself a beer, and I stuck with water (because it's getting warm out). We talked for an hour about life, the trip, adventures, "stabby hotels," and of course our love of the Energica motorcycle.

As much as we both didn't want lunch to end, I had to get back on the road and he had to get back home and take care of his family. We went out separate ways from the H-E-B, and I was headed to Navosta to charge -- for free -- at an electric Co-op ChargePoint. The wind was strong today, I understand why Texas has so much wind energy now. About half way to the DC charger I realized I wouldn't make it. I need a level 2 stop. I asked Google and it routed me to an EV connect at a solar installer's office. This place was so cool! He had multiple solar arrays, a large battery bank that fed the chargers, and he was working on a DC fast charger too! In fact, he was having trouble with it so I introduced him to someone I know in the industry who might be able to get it running for him.

I think I was there two hours, but I charged up enough to get to Valdosta. I don't remember how low my state of charge was when I got there, but I only charged for 44 minutes. I decided I'd have to get a hotel in Texas -- as much a I'd hoped to get to Louisiana today -- so I booked a Hilton Garden Inn (100% recommend) that had a Level 2 charger for $99. Keep this in mind, as I'll pay much more to stay in much worse conditions before this is all said and done.

I throw up the kickstand, put the bike in Run mode, and I start to back up not using park assist. Apparently, it's a requirement or common practice that you put sand into holes dug for the crash barriers, because several charger locations had odd amounts of excess sand just... hanging around. My right foot slipped. I felt the bike start to go to the left and I said "no baby" and managed to make it fall to the right. It landed resting against the crash bars, and trapping my foot. I wiggled my foot out and proceeded to panic.

This bike weighs 600 pounds, I gave it a tug, but it wasn't going to budge. This was a two person job. I am in the middle of no where, next to a highway with moderate traffic. I'd seen maybe 5 cars exit in 45 minutes of being there. As I debate whether or call my husband or AAA, I see headlights coming off the exit ramp. I bolt across the giant field that was just as large as the parking lot I was in, waving my hands frantically. The Chevy truck had its left blinker on, but turned right when they saw me. This was a typical Texas truck, those super bright blue headlights that let you see Jesus and absolutely no exhaust whatsoever. The guy roll down his window and cuts the engine so he can head me. I tell him I've dropped my bike, would you please help me pick it up? He says of course man, and goes to start the truck...but... the truck won't start. I begin to feel like a real bad luck charm as the guy jumps out and starts banging under the hood and yelling to his wife "try it now." Finally, the truck comes back to life and he throws it into reverse and backs into the parking lot. He jumps out -- leaving it running -- and grabbed the handlebars while I grabbed the frame. One-Two-Three and the bike is back up on the kickstand. He gives me a fist bump and says "be safe bro," and jumped in his truck and drove off. The kindness of strangers humbles me once again.

I was so mad at myself. My ego was super hurt. I never dropped the last bike, but my friends all told me eventually it happens. I made my way to the hotel in Spring, stopped by a Wendy's for dinner along the way. When I got there, it took a minute to find the chargers. They were not blocked, thankfully. I snapped a progress pic to post, plugged in and headed to bed after eating my dinner. The next morning I went and checked on the bike, took photos of the damage. Aside from breaking the tip off the brake, there is minor body damage. The bike never hit the ground because of the crash bars. No broken foot brake, foot peg, or turn signal. It was the best kind of fall you could have. I counted it as a blessing, and another humbling moment of the trip.

Day Nine (4/3/21): Later Louisiana

Today's goal is to get to Lazy Magnolia and then Biloxi. I entertained the idea of staying at the Golden Nugget - a hotel/casino that I stayed at back in January when I took the Audi across the state of Mississippi using every DC fast charger in the state. I stopped at a charger on the outskirts of Houston for 27 minutes before making my way east to Vidor.

Vidor was the last charge stop before Cajun Country. I could not wait to get out of Texas and I hoped the dark cloud of hard knocks hovering over me would stay there. After less than 40 minutes, I was headed towards Sulphur Louisiana. I arrived in Sulphur with 15% and charged for over an hour because it was over 80 miles to the next stop. I grabbed lunch for the nearby Burger King, who also took a walk up customer at the drive-thru, and camped out next to my bike. I ate, I played Roombo, I caught up on Social, and I had a conversation with one person about the bike during my time here. Once I got to 97%, I figured I should be good to go. Next stop is Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.

I jinxed myself by bragging about Electrify America's reliability, and had trouble getting the charge here to start and had to move stations. There was a red Mustang Mach-E charging when I got there, and I spoke with the owners for most of my charge. They live in Arizona, but have a vacation home in Florida. They were charging up on their way home from the vacation home. The wife, passenger, praised the comfort of the car. The driver, husband, raved about the navigation and auto-driving features. The driver said every charge worked the first time he plugged it in, and the wife said this was the most comfortable pace they've ever taken the trip. Happy customers for sure.

I charged for right at an hour and headed toward Hammond - the last charge stop in Louisiana. About the time I got to Batton Rouge, I was both hungry and concerned about my remaining range. I detoured to a Whole Foods for some decent sushi and a 39 minute charge. That gave me the buffer I needed to make it to Hammond, where I arrived with 22%. This stop was for 42 minutes and was at a Target. It was hidden in a corner of the parking lot, far away from the door to the Target. There were a lot of kids hanging out at this Target, and I schlepped all my gear inside so I could use the bathroom. I was ready to get to Lazy Magnolia, and I checked Google Maps for directions... only to find they closed at 6pm, and it's after 9pm. Mission... failed.

I headed towards Kiln anyway because that is the 4th and newest DC Fast charger added in the state, and I must keep up my status of having using every DC fast charger in the state of Mississippi! The temp started to drop quickly, and I lowered my speed as a result. I got to the charger at 10:50pm and charged for 40 minutes. I also couldn’t help but tag the charger with my logo while I was there. While I charged I looked at booking the Golden Nugget, but it was over $500 a night!! There are only so many hotels in this area and most of them were booked solid for the night! WHAT? The only place that had an availability was what could be described as a "stabby hotel." Not a mask in sight, pretty sure I saw a drug deal go on outside the manager's office, and they require a $10 cash deposit. I told her I don't have any cash (and they don't have an ATM), and she said she'd waive it because "you don't look like you'd lose it like the others," and I got a key.

As luck would have it, there was a parking spot open right outside my room, visible from the window. I locked the steering on the bike and got into my room. I plugged up all the gear and observed at least four major dents in the walls and bathroom door. I sat on the first bed and it nearly collapsed on me. I took my chances on the second one, and it seemed ok. I was not about to get under the covers, so I folded the top blanket over me and fell asleep. I slept soundly, despite the yelling from a few doors down.

Day Ten (4/4/21): Adios Alabama

I was out the door a little after 7. I headed back up the coast towards Louisiana, to charge in Gulf Port. Biggest regret of the trip was not changing out the SD card in the helmet. The ride next to the gulf coast at sunrise is one of the most amazing moments of my life. Thanks to the quiet of the bike, I could hear the waves crashing and the gulls squawking. It was very serene, and it set my mood for the day. Today was also my 5-year anniversary of going electric! What better way to celebrate than to be in the middle of an epic electric road trip?

I charged at Gulf Port for 45 minutes and then set off for Mobile, Alabama. I made it to the charger, which is north of Mobile in Saraland, with 5% remaining. This charge was a little over an hour, and I was sure I could not make the 115 miles down I-65 and make it. So I started looking at backup Level 2 options, there were none that use the SAE standard connector, but there were a few Tesla destination chargers and a casino with NEMA 14-50 RV outlets available for electric cars.

I decided to try taking back roads to get to the first Tesla charger and see if my little adapter worked. I got to the bail bonds office, the strangest place on earth to have a public use Tesla destination charger, and it's set to high power - which turns off the SAE handshake, only Tesla cars can turn this charger on. This switch is shipped off, so that any car that can signal using SAE J1772 protocol - the plug and protocol that every other manufacturer uses for cars sold in America. With this location being a bust, I made my way to the casino - skipping another Tesla destination location.

I was running slow, and got passed at every passing zone. But I wanted to take my time now so I didn't have to sit at the casino for hours on end. I had my second close call here. A black Chevy or GMC truck was keeping behind me, and never passed in the passing zones - despite my signaling him to do so many times. We went through at least eight passing zones before a passing lane opened up. A passing lane is a new right hand lane that opens up for slower traffic to move over and allow the faster traffic to pass. As soon as I see it, I put on my signal and go to move over. This jackass guns it, and I could have easily touched his door with my elbow. Had I moved into the lane any faster, we would have collided. He went half off road and kept on going, passing me on the right. Jackass.

I was shaken over this. This scared me worse than Tennessee. I had to have a moment and then focus on getting to Chattanooga. I arrived at the casino and it took me a minute to find the charging outlets. They're right behind the manager's office, and the shuttle was parked and blocking their view. I plugged in my 14-50 adapter and then pluged that into my AeroVirnment (now Webasto) TurboCord Dual charging cable. It delivers 3kW charging power, the max my bike can take. It said it would take 3 hours to get to full. I made a check-in post, stashed by backpack and helmet behind the HVAC unit next to the charger outlets, and wandered over to the massive building that boasted the best rated steakhouse in Alabama.

I had only been to a Golden Nugget prior to Wind Creek casino, and oh my word, these private Indian casinos are so much nicer than the big name ones. The steakhouse was right off the main room, and it appeared closed. In hindsight, they probably had the limo tinted doors to create am ambience of quietness but the observation of the activity outside. I should have tried opening the door, but I decided to go to the bar and grill instead. I got seated quickly, and my waitress told me I needed to go to the front desk and tell them I'm a first timer and I'd get $10 off the meal. I love a discount, so I gave her my order and headed over to the desk for my players card and meal voucher. The meal wasn't bad, worth what it cost, and the service was ok. I'd eat there again, for sure.

This place was huge. I didn't play any games, but they had folk walking around spraying down machines immediately after people used them. The cleanliness level was off the charts, I was highly impressed here. I decided to go take a lie down on the shady side of the managers office while the bike finished its charge. I played on my phone, and had a great conversation with a shuttle driver about my bike. I got there around noon and left before 3. I got to Greenville at 4:11, and charged for 50 minutes. I was getting into the "dense" infrastructure corridor, so I was able to rock and roll at 60+ mph now. Next stop: Montgomery!

Montgomery was a memorable for two reasons: the first was that I came across the second dispenser on the trip that I had to move from because it wouldn't start on either plug, and, I met my third Mach-E owner of the trip. The Mach-E owner was pretty cool, he's a coach who owns a 2014 and 2019 5.0 and "a classic in storage," he is a self-described Mustang guy. He said he loves the cars but they suck for hauling around sports gear, so he was looking at SUVs. When Ford announced the Mach-E, it ticked every box he had. He said that it felt like a Mustang that had been to training school. This was his second long trip since he got it -- he was from Atlanta -- and he said things have been smooth charging-wise. He said he signed up for the Electrify America app but didn't know how to use it or what benefit it had, so I explained to him the benefits of the membership discount and how to use the app. He was very thankful for the pointers, and we chatted until he unplugged and took off.

I have one more charge stop before I get out of Alabama, in Auburn. The ride there was warm, and right as things were getting dark. When I arrived, there was a Krystal. I have to stop at Krystal when I'm on a road trip, I grew up with them and miss them. I waited a good 15 minutes in line before I said I'm losing time, screw this. I rolled over to the Walmart, which is behind a Wendy's and a Sonic, and plugged up. The lines at both restaurants was insanely long... does no one in this town cook? Why is everyone and their grandma out to eat tonight?

As I'm charging, a police officer rolls by and parks to do some paperwork a few spots down from the chargers. I decide that I should go into Walmart for food, but there's some sketchy folks out there in the parking lot and I don't have it in me to schlep all my stuff into the store. So I walked over to the office and asked if he'd watch my stuff, and he was really excited and said "yeah no problem! you're the bike that's charging right?" I said yes and thanked him profusely. I wandered into the store and right at the entrance was some take and heat meals. I picked up a ravioli and a chicken penne dish, some water, and M&M's. I got back to the bike and plopped down on the pavement and started attacking the food. After I ate, the officer rolled over and started asking a millions questions. He was all in on electric, and he was really excited to hear about someone touring with an electric bike. It was a conversation that gave me a second wind, my vitality meter was in the red and after our chat I was back in the green.

It got cold on the ride to LaGrange, Georgia. I thought the charger I'd picked -- recommended by A Better Route Planner (because I hadn't learned not to trust it yet) and I naively thought it was a Georgia Power site. Georgia Power has a Level 2 backup in case the DC charger doesn't work. This was a Diverse Power charger, and it wasn't working. It was a Tritum, which is the only brand of charging station I've ever been towed from. I finally got it to work and was talking with Tyler in Chattanooga and we agreed that I should get a hotel for the night. The temp was going to get into the 30s once I got up into the mountains, so best to wait till it was warmer -- I didn't want to stop being just two charges away from the destination.

After a half hour I moved from the Chick-Fil-A charger to the Motel 6. The night clerk said to park my bike in the Reerved spot so she could keep an eye on it. "My shift ends at 7, but I'll keep an eye on it till then" she said. I was hoping for a ground floor unit outside the court yard, but I wasn't going to pass up her offer. I can always go back to the Chick-Fil-A charger and top off in the morning to get to the next charger. This was the hotel that high school juniors and seniors hung out with 21-year old college students to get drunk and have sex. I've learned that I have the ability to sleep through just about anything from this trip.

Day Eleven (4/5/21): Hello, Chattanooga!

When I awoke, I tried to take a shower only to find it didn't work and the tub wasn't draining. I took a hospital bath and said let's get out of here. I headed back to the Chick-Fil-A to top off a little bit more, since it was in the low 40s and I didn't think I could make it to the next charger without 5% more. I tried over 7 times and got billed $5 but I never got the machine to work. Frustrated, I called ChargePoint and apparently their phone system was malfunctioning because I never got anyone on the line after the phone tree. Today sure is Monday. I texted my contact at ChargePoint and she suggested I route to Carrollton, there is a pair of power-shared machines that just went live two days ago. That location was closer than the one I had picked, so I went there instead.

I picked up some breakfast before I got to the Electric Co-op office where the chargers were located. I ate breakfast, made my social update, and charged for 47 minutes before heading off to Rome, the last charge stop before Chattanooga. This location also had a pair of power-shared CPE250 ChargePoints, and they worked flawlessly. The machines are in the downtown, across the one-way street from the city's Visitor Center...which was closed on Mondays. As were many of the restaurants. I found a sandwich place that was open and grabbed lunch, then headed back to the bike. A guy came up and talked to me about the bike, and when his wife wandered over he pointed at me and said "This guy's crossing the country on electricity!"

After I hit 95%, I headed off to Tyler's house. I made it there about 1:30pm, an hour later than I had expected. Tyler's house is literally on the side of a mountain, with a steep drop off from the edge of the driveway into a ravine. His driveway is also insanely steep. And the only thing keeping you from the ravine at the end of the driveway is a small framed decorative fence. Totally not scary!

Tyler and his boyfriend, Drake, were sitting on the porch with their dog. I popped off my helmet and said "hi boys, I'm sorry, but I gotta get to work" and headed into the house and up to the guest bedroom to pull out my laptop and start handling the fires that sprung up overnight. Several hours later, I got to a stopping point and the boys took me to their favorite pizza place. We then went to a shop called Local Only, which had tons of stickers. I was finally able to buy stickers to commemorate the places I'd been on this trip. Finally!

After the shopping trip, we headed back to the house. Tyler and Drake both work nights, so it was just me and their dog... who didn't like me and constantly howled at me all night. We became friends before the trip was over, kind of. But tonight he wasn't having this stranger in his house. Now, I have to describe Tyler's house. He has a lot of home automation, cameras, connected appliances, and Amazon Echos everywhere. Sometimes the security system would trigger a spoken alert on the Echos, and the voice would be a half-second out of sync with each other. It sounded like what I imagine a hallucinating person would hear... and it did this several times throughout the night. You're just sitting there and then you hear schizophrenic Alexa says "there is motion by the side door" but you only clearly hear the "there" before the out-of-sync clones start saying it. The digital cacophony was bemusing, but also annoying. I eventually went around and asked each speaker to lower itself to volume one so I could get some sleep. But before I did, I posted some napkin math on the trip’s fuel costs so far: $166.54!

Day Twelve (4/6/21): Ridin' Electric with Internet Friends

I woke up before Tyler and Drake got home from work. Tyler and I went and had breakfast at a local diner, one in which a lady came over and asked me to keep it down because I swear too much. Oh, the south, you're so quaint. Tyler then tells me that today is Drake's off day, so he'd be home all evening. This is exciting, as this is my first time meeting the new boyfriend, and I looked forward to getting to know him. I decided I wanted to make a lasagna for them, because I'd missed cooking and wanted to try my hand at a truly vegetarian lasagna (since Tyler is vegetarian). After breakfast, I got to work. About mid-day I get a ping from Chuck, a Zero owner who lives not too far from Chattanooga in Alabama. He said he had a free afternoon and was going to ride up my way. I said I could meet him after 4p, and we agreed to meet up at a Hospital parking lot that was home to a dual-plug ChargePoint Level 2.

After work, I headed off to meet up with Chuck and go do some riding. I took my backpack so I could grocery shop for the lasagna ingredients. It took me a minute to find the charger in the parking lot, I actually had to stop and ask security where it was. Once I found Chuck, he was having a moral dilemma. There was a Chevy Bolt plugged into the charging station already, and it was fully charged. Chuck has DigiNow chargers on his Zero, so he can plug into two Level 2 chargers at the same time and double up on his charging speed. He'd planned his downtime on both plugs being free, and with that one being used, we were gonna maybe miss out on daylight. So after googling to ensure it was done charging, he unplugged it -- but left the flap open.

He plugged in and we chatted for not quite a half hour. Right as he decides he's good to go for our 40-mile randomly picked loop drawn up by the Calimoto app, the owner of the Bolt shows up. She's a nurse, she looked tired and frustrated, and the scowl on her face was fierce when she saw her car had been unplugged. "Did you unplug my car?" she asked in a stern but polite voice, and Chuck said "well, yes I did, because you were done charging." A small disagreement about charging etiquette followed, along with a disagreement about whether or not unplugging the charge cable is touching someone's car. Finally said said "you know what, fine, it's ok" and got into her car and left. Well, that was something.... let's go ride, shall we?

The route Calimoto picked was great, we saw several other motorcycles out on the same roads. After about 40 miles we detoured to the mall where both charging stations were in use! We headed back to the hospital and Chuck plugged up so he could make his way back home. I hung out till he was charged, but before we took off he insisted on a selfie.

After riding with Chuck, I had Google navigate me to a Food Lion grocery store where I picked up $90 worth of food to make a lasagna, and breakfasts for the rest of the week. I managed to pack all of it, except the aluminum lasagna pan, into my backpack. I placed the backpack inside the lasagna pan and rested both on the tank. I managed to get back to the house just fine, once again managing to avoid running the fragile fence and plummeting into the ravine.

As I was pulling in, Drake was getting ready to pull out. He said he was going to the store (irony), and that he'd be back in a bit. I drug everything into the house and started making one of the best lasagnas I have ever made. I used two types of peppers, carrots, zucchini and squash, and one-quarter had a meat sauce (for Drake and myself). I got to work preparing the ingredients and layering together the lasagna. Right as I was adding the final topping of cheese, Drake came home. He helped me get the lasagna in the oven, and then offered me a glass of wine.

Drake and I bonded that night, it was a lovely evening of drinking and chatting. When the lasagna was finally done, we sampled it. Drake and I agreed it was pretty damn good. After eating, and watching some TV, I headed off to bed.

Day Thirteen (4/7/21): Ridin' Electric with Internet Friends Part 2

I woke up and made myself breakfast: bacon, egg, and cheese burritos! They were quick, easy, and handheld: the perfect breakfast. I then set out to work, this was Wednesday which is my big project meeting day. Chuck pings me, says he's free after 3 to go ride. I tell him I wanna go to the Space Center in Huntsville, and he tells me to meet him at a TVA Processing facility and we'll go there. When my last meeting ended it was just after 3. Chuck was making his way to the facility and I set out to meet him there. I had to stop in Trenton, Georgia to top off in order to make it to Chuck and then Huntsville. I charged up to 95% and headed to Hollywood, Alabama.

Upon arrival, I thought the GPS was mistaken so I u-turned a mile earlier than expected when I saw the TVA facility. Turns out the entrance is where I U-Turned. The driveway I thought belong to TVA actually belonged to the Exxon on the corner. I pull in, baffled, and look to my right to see Chuck standing by the row of chargers waving his hands in the air. He shouts "the entrance is over there." I said "Nope, not going back out there" and proceeded to ride down the grassy hill from the Exxon parking lot into the TVA building parking lot. I did this without falling over or dropping the bike.

Chuck and I chatted for a moment before he took the lead to get us to the NASA Space Center in Huntsville. We had to keep our speed at 55mph so we had the range to make it, but once we got off the main highway and onto the back roads things really became enjoyable! When we arrived at the Space Center, a second generation Nissan Leaf was already plugged in. These charging stations are fully off grid, which was really cool. I mean, would you expect anything less from NASA? Chuck got plugged up to two cables, and I posed by bike for some shots in front of the giant rocket. After getting my shots I also plugged into the last remaining plug at the station. We were waiting for Chuck's bike, mostly, as I had range when we got here to make it to the Harley-Davison dealer to recharge my bike. We talked with the Nissan Leaf owner for a bit, and we swapped some "close call" stories about nearly running out of power. Finally, Chuck said he was good to go and so we headed over to the Harley dealer in Madison.

We got to Harley and I plugged up, and there was a 120v outlet so Chuck plugged up too. He hung out with me for a half hour before he unplugged and said he needed to get home before his wife starts to worry. I said it was good to see him and always good to ride with him, and that I looked forward to seeing him next at our annual Electric Motorcycles at the Dragon weekend in June. He took off, and I waited for my bike to get to 97%.

I made it back to Trenton with more range to spare than I expected, and plugged up for less than a half hour to make it back to Chattanooga on the highway. Mountain roads at night scare me, there's no two ways about it. You get comfortable over time, but I don't think I'll ever be in them long enough for that comfort to develop. The ride back was white knuckling, reminiscent of Morgan to Asheville earlier on in the trip. But I made it back to Tyler's, safe and sound.

Day Fourteen (4/8/21): Last day in town

Tyler had decided to call in to work on Thursday so he could hang out with me. I told him I had lunch plans with a friend of mine, and he said that he'd grab some shut eye until the afternoon when we could go ride. I worked, went to lunch with my friend, and then came back to work some more. Around 4pm Tyler was ready to get on the road. He took me to what he later called his "proving grounds," to see if I had what it takes to go on the "really fun roads." Some of these roads dated back to the 1800s, and had hair pin turns so sharp that only one vehicle at a time could pass through them in either direction. It was intense, for me. I was so glad when he pulled over and asked what I wanted to do and I said "head back."

We got off the mountain roads and stopped in a church parking lot to brainstorm our next course of action. We decided on Thai for dinner, at a place that my friend suggested I check out. Tyler said "that is a green pin," meaning it's a place he'd marked as wanting to try out. As he starts off, my bike gives me an undefined fault and makes me power cycle it. Weird. But it didn't do anything strange on the way to the restaurant.

The dinner was spectacular, except for the fried appetizers. They were a disappointment, but the curry was spot on fantastic. Just the right amount of spice to make me sweat a little (which is just how I like it). After dinner, we jumped on the bikes and Tyler's gave him an undefined error after going into run mode. I laughed and joked that they're communicating with each other. We shrugged it off and started towards his house. When we arrived, we plugged up the bikes and I realized I had to pack because tomorrow was another day of travel. But before I did that, Tyler and I watched my favorite episode of Black Mirror. Afterward, I packed my bag and laid out my clothes before falling fast asleep.

Day Fifteen (4/9/21): We've come to slay the Dragon

I told Tyler we should be on the road at 7, at 6:45 I knocked on his bedroom door and heard "OH SHIT" followed by "Give me 15 minutes." So I went out on the deck and made my obligatory social media post. Tyler threw himself into high gear and we were on the road about 7:30. Our first stop was an EVgo station in Lenoir City, TN -- about 85 miles away. We set our cruise control at 58 and settled in for the ride. We arrived in Lenoir City around 9am and started charging. We had to share the machine, so I charged to 90% and then Tyler charged to 90%. It was here that I noticed my brake fluid was solid black, and probably needed to be changed. The Dragon is only 50 miles from this charger, so we got there in about an hour. The route we took has us go down the Dragon to get to the Killboy tshirt shack. Just before we got to the start of the Dragon, I pulled over and told Tyler he needed to lead. He was acting all scared, and I'm like dude, this is nothing for you... trust me. Sheepishly, he took the lead and we began our slaying. Killboy, US129 Photos, and US129 Slayer were all out in force. We had several good photos taken of us (like this one and this one), and I managed to snag almost all of the ride on video before the SD card ran out of room! When we got to the tshirt shack, Tyler took the ClipperCreek Level 2 and I used my TeslaTap to plug into the Tesla destination charger. Both bikes said 3 hours to full, so we killed that time by shopping at the tshirt shack, downloading/editing/posting video of our ride, grabbing a bite to eat at the Deal's Gap motorcyle resort restaurant, and talking with other patrons of the tshirt shack about our bikes and my epic adventure. The time flew by, though I did lay down on the ground for the last 45 minutes of it to rest my back before I continued south and east. Tyler went and checked on the bikes and we were both above 96%, so I geared up and gave Tyler a fist bump before we parted ways. How lucky am I to have ridden with 4 electric motorcyclists over the past two weeks? I basked in the glow of this surreal reality, as I slowly made by way to the Electrify America in Asheville. I made my obligatory update on social upon arrival, and charged for about 43 minutes before heading south to Boiling Springs, South Carolina. If you're wondering why I went to Boiling Springs, it's because this is actually faster and safer than going to Lenoir and then down to Charlotte. Why was I going to Charlotte, you ask? My good friend Daniel had cashed in some points and gotten me a Wyndham hotel for the night in Charlotte, so I wasn't pushing myself to get home. One never looks a free hotel in the mouth! I got to Boiling Springs and the bike was charging slowly, around 12kW. This was going to take a while, so I started looking at food options on my phone. A friend of mine from Charlotte pinged me and asked if I had dinner plans. We hatched a plan for him to pick up sushi and bring it to my hotel room, since I wasn't going to get to the hotel before 9:30pm (and the sushi places, on the other side of town, closes at 10pm). He agreed, I venmo'd some money, and then made my social media update. After $15 and 46 minutes, I unplugged and was headed to the hotel! I hop on I-85 and make it perhaps 10 minutes before I hit construction, and the road closed down to one lane. It took forever to get through this, and it was night fall. At one point Google suggested a faster route and I, along with 4 other Google users, took an exit and followed the service road for several miles before merging back onto I-85. Now, traffic was moving in a single lane, but the lane was highly uneven. When the second lane opened back up, I was still stuck in the lane with uneven pavement because I'm running slower than everyone else. I never thought this construction zone was going to end, and twice I felt like this was it I'm going to crash because of how the bike felt going over some of the pavement. It always righted itself back up, it hit me that this is similar to riding over a grated bridge. The bike is gonna feel weird but it's going to stay upright, you just have to stay loose and trust the bike. That's much easier said than done, by the way. I survived the construction zone and finally entered back into the Great State of North Carolina! Home turf! I felt so good! It wasn't long before I'd pulled off the highway and into the hotel parking lot. There was a Tesla Model Y unplugging as I arrived at the hotel. The ClipperCreek wasn't in use, and while I thought about using the TeslaTap to use one of the Tesla plugs... I decided to be nice, and used the ClipperCreek (which uses the industry standard plug) instead. It wasn't but moments after I dropped my gear that Kyle knocked on my room door with dinner. I was so happy to see Kyle, and so happy to eat something, and oh so happy to be out of my gear. The sushi was delicious, truly some of the best I have had in recent times. We shared four (five?) specialty rolls and talked for hours. I got to bed sometime before midnight, only to discover that the LED street lamp that illuminated this side of the parking lot shone right into my window. I tried to pull the darkening/privacy curtains, but they were decorative. They didn't actually cover the window, they just framed it. I messaged Daniel and he said to ask the desk to move me to another room, but I decided I could cover my head with a pillow and make do.

Day Sixteen: Home Sweet Home

I tried to make do, but I only got about 4 hours of sleep. Apparently I'm really sensitive to blue light. But that was fine, because I was only one charge stop away from home! I hit the highway and set the cruise at 68, hanging out in the right lane all the way to Greensboro. The ride was smooth and unspectacular compared to the hell that was South Carolina. I got to Greensboro and made a social update, one of the last ones for the trip. I was feeling happy to be home but sad that this vagabond adventure was coming to an end. I ran into Walmart and got me some chicken tenders off the hot bar and two bottles of water. I ate my breakfast by the bike, and watched as one of Greensboro's two all-electric transit busses passed by. I pitched my trash into the not-so-near-by trash can and set the GPS to Team PowerSports in Raleigh. I had overrode the GPS and taken I-85 through Durham (instead of I-40 through Raleigh) to get to US-70 where Team PowerSports is located. Upon arrival I saw that they'd changed the Zero Demo Day to April 24th, and Sev (who works there and keeps selling me bikes) told me they changed the date due to the threat of rain. I just laughed and said "Bro, don't talk to me about rain!" I got my finishing pic and posted it online before dropping my keys with the service department for a brake flush and chain service. My husband picked me up and took me home, and after I'd fallen asleep, he went back and picked up my bike after the service was completed. I woke up to my bike charging, and a few friends hanging out on the deck ready to hug me and welcome me home. The perfect ending to a very epic adventure.

The Geeky Stuff

Total Charging Cost: $221.54 ($0.06/mile, ~$0.50/kWh) Accounted Energy consumed: 445.54 kWh Total Charging time: 2,653 minutes (44.2 hours / 1.8 Days) Total number of Charging Stops: 42

Number of charges by network Electrify America 25 ChargePoint 13 EVgo 2 Greenlots 1 Blink 1

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