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Rolling up to Amboy, California, feels a lot like stepping into a time machine. The neon sign for Roy’s Motel & Cafe pops out of the Mojave Desert horizon long before you actually get there. After miles of stark, wide open spaces, stretching our legs and taking in the sights of the Amboy Crater in the distance was exactly the kind of weird, wonderful desert stop I wanted to start my journey on Route 66 with.
When I left home days earlier, my goal was to kick off the second century of Route 66’s existence by taking the ultimate all-electric RV trip. You can follow along on BlueSky and on my website. The first century of Route 66 was dominated by fossil fuels. But, as the world moves to cleaner transportation (and drags the US along), its second century will be defined by clean energy powering electric cars and trucks.
It’s this future that I’m hoping to share with people by showing that not only is EV travel possible, but so is EV towing. Not only am I pulling my travel trailer with a Silverado EV, but my trailer has its own microgrid, complete with 1800 watts of solar panels, 8.2 kWh of its own batteries, and all appliances converted to electric.
But, getting to this quiet moment where I started my electric Route 66 adventure wasn’t quite as easy as expected, even if the electric truck performed about perfectly. Let’s look at how it went for the first few days!
The Friction of Reality Almost Delayed My Journey
The 19th century Prussian military commander Helmuth von Moltke the Elder famously said that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. For RV trips, that “enemy” is usually just the friction of everyday family reality. We kicked things off by leaving incredibly late because last minute things kept popping up, and this made us only get about halfway to our first day’s destination.
No big deal, though. We’d just do a long second day to make up for the time and get back on schedule. This is something we’ve done before. So, it should be easy even if time consuming, right?
The universe definitely had other plans. A major car accident completely closed the road and left us stuck sitting on I-10 south of Phoenix for hours. Then we had to sort out some family needs and track down forgotten personal care items, which chewed up another hour. To top it all off, a charger we stopped at malfunctioned and only gave me two thirds of the power it was supposed to deliver. That only added about 20 minutes to the journey, but it was the icing on the cake.
I managed to avoid unhooking the trailer for charging during the first several days of the trip, but it required creativity. At this iONNA station in Willcox, Arizona, I managed to get a charge from an adjacent parking lot.
Saddle Mountain Detour (Sort Of)
We ended up setting up camp at Saddle Mountain, west of Phoenix. Ironically, that was the exact spot we planned to stay on the first night. This meant we were officially a full day behind schedule.
But the delay had a silver lining. Since we were there late at night, we took some time to hunt for fire agates using blacklights. Wandering around the desert looking for those bubbly, iridescent stones was a great way to bleed off the stress of the highway. It’s hard to stay mad at traffic when you’re digging cool rocks out of the dirt and looking at the way scorpions light up under a blacklight.
The nighttime view at Saddle Mountain
A scorpion lit up by the black lights
Saddle Mountain Dispersed Camping
After all of these delays and headaches, we had to make a tough decision. The original plan was to start in Santa Monica and get the full Route 66 experience, but being a full day behind and with numerous reservations ahead of us, we decided to change our start point to Amboy, California.
We wouldn’t get to see the full road on this trip, but we’ve been to Los Angeles before and we’d still be starting somewhere iconic. So, we decided to shorten our trip just a little.
Joshua Tree and The Pull-Thru Charging Stall That Wasn’t
From Saddle Mountain, we pushed on to Joshua Tree National Park. Again, family needs hammered us repeatedly. A forgotten item, an extra bathroom break, a gift shop in Quartzsite that we hadn’t originally planned to spend time at. By the time we were driving past the tall Yuccas, it was already well after dark. But it was still a great place to visit after dark! The night sky was brilliant, and the cactuses still looked great in the truck’s headlights.
After a night in an RV park north of the national park, we had about 60% battery and decided to do a quick daylight loop through the park to get the full day and night experience. This took us down to about 30%, and we needed to get a charge to get into Amboy.
We pulled into a Rivian charging station in the town of Joshua Tree. Sadly, we figured out that some of the big EV YouTubers and influencers left something important out: that the “trailer friendly” charging space wasn’t a pull-thru stall at all. We could easily get into the space without unhooking the trailer, but getting out required backing the trailer out into a busy highway.
It was a sketchy maneuver, but having a family member step out and watch for a break in traffic made it work out after a bit. If this were a solo trip, it would have been a real challenge.
Pulling a trailer into Rivian’s Joshua Tree charging station is easy. But, without room to pull out or turn around, people pulling larger trailers will have to back out into the highway to leave.
Reaching Route 66 & Getting On The Mother Road
After surviving the charging station geometry test, we pointed the truck toward the Mojave to take the lonely road up to Amboy. We crossed what seemed like endless rows of tiny homes and desert dwellings. Then, we went through a mountain pass where we could see miles and miles of empty Mojave desert. In the late afternoon cloudy light, it was a magical view, even for a desert dweller like me who’s seen it all.
Amboy itself is definitely worth a visit if you ever decide to get your kicks on Route 66, or even if you’re just passing through on I-40 between Barstow and Needles. It’s a short detour to get down to the section of lonely desert highway that the interstate highway forgot. Once there, you’ll find the classic Roy’s sign, and you can ask the gift shop attendant to turn on the neon if it’s not on already. You can also find some hotel rooms and a cafe that will one day be restored to their former glory.
What’s Next?
Now that we’ve finally made it to Route 66 in California, we’re headed along the length of it. We’re headed all the way to Chicago. Along the way, we’ll be visiting iconic and fun stops with our all-electric RV setup. If you’d like to join us on this journey, be sure to follow CleanTechnica wherever you follow us. You can also find my personal posts at Bluesky and on my website.
A sneak peek at what’s coming up in the next article. Be sure to follow Cleantechnica and/or me (links above) to come along for the ride!
All images (including featured image) by Jennifer Sensiba.
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