[2022 EV Roadtrip – Post #1]

Friday, July 29, sometime in the early afternoon.

Now Playing: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia podcast

We meet again. This time we are in a new ride.

Why are we doing this?

Back in February 2022, we decided to go electric with both of our main vehicles. We traded in our GMC Acadia (my sweet, smooth-rider, orange-seated, Odella) for a 2022 Kia EV6. Right before the gas prices started skyrocketing. This rise of fuel costs also excluded us from several intense conversations about how traveling became unaffordable for many people. These days I wave when I drive past gas stations, never really missing the times when we used to make those short stops to fill up, grab some candy, etc. My problem was that I would wait until the last minute to fill up my gas tank, thus making me late for work at least once a year due to forgetting to fill up the night before – always on a day where I had a vital morning meeting to attend. No, sir or madam, I do not miss gas. 

I am fully aware that I use petroleum in other facets of life, and I acknowledge that my actions are still part of the problem of the Earth burning up at a rapid, gut-wrenching, anxiety-ridden pace, but I’d like to think that our carbon footprint has shrunk a little bit since we bought our electric stallions.

But we couldn’t escape all of the rising prices, and we have been ogling in despair at plane tickets. When the Cartwright family chose the Smokies for our family trip, we were taken aback by the price of flying a family of four (even discounted to a family of three since Colette, our 10-month old, is a free rider) to Nashville, Knoxville, or surrounding areas of our vacation spot. We scoured the interwebs for cheaper options, but even the soul-sucking airlines such as Frontier or Spirit were priced as such that you would have thought you were getting a gilded, plush, first-class seat, but what you are actually getting is a seat that is equivalent to putting your body in a large suitcase for a few painful hours, hoping your knees don’t implode, all while wrangling a baby and a toddler and attempting to read a few pages of your book. Sounds pleasant eh?

Not really.

So here we are, road-tripping to the Smokies in our lovely ride. Frank smothered a nine-year ceramic coat on this baby last weekend, so we are hoping for our car to be so clean but not so clean that it blinds the oncoming traffic. Safety first. 

Several people have questioned our sanity when we tell them we are taking this trip. We are not crazy, we like to ride. Watch and learn. We have taken this pretty lady out for a few rides in the mountains to stretch her legs out. She has done well. We are confident she can do even better on this excursion. 

How Far We’ll Go

(not the song from Moana, but that is a great song)

We start our journey at 1:00pm on Friday, July 29. Not bad for a family that was aiming to leave around noon. 

The trip is around 1,300 miles, which equates to about 24 hours of travel time, including stopping to charge and refuel our bodies. 



We do not plan on driving straight through (remember, safety first), although the first leg will vaguely resemble driving straight through since it will be about a 20 hour drive. We built in some cushion so if we wanted to, we could grab a hotel tonight for a quick snooze. We are choosing to stop in the blazing town of Nashville, Tennessee to visit friends who just welcomed a new babe in to the world, and because Nashville is a quick 3-hour drive from our final destination. The last day of a dinosaur exhibit will be at the Nashville Zoo, and we are hoping to cram that in right before taking off for the cabin where the 10 person family vacation awaits on Sunday afternoon.

In an effort to keep the weight in the car lighter, we chose not to bring the suitcase and we used packing cubes instead. Maybe saved us about 3 pounds. We brought all of the necessities and wants that we desired to bring, we did not have to skimp, and we have a good starter supply of snacks, including chile-lime pistachios (shelled might I add), beef jerky, mixed nuts, Triscuits, and a handful of dark chocolate-covered espresso beans for those wee hours where we might need a little *zap.*

Let’s Get Rockin’

So please join me in welcoming everyone to the 2nd Cartwright Family Cross-Country Electric Vehicle Roadtrip. The title is boring, but the adventure is real. Denver, Colorado to Sevierville, Tennessee. All aboard. Stats will be shared, laughs will be had, you might get bored, but stick with it. I will try my best to educate you on what it is like to drive an electric car. If you want to stop reading now, I can summarize it for you. It is an awesome and worthwhile experience that I keep wanting more of. It is comfortable, it is snazzy, the radio wails like a front-row seat to a banging concert, and it fits my Wolfpack. 

Current status: Frank is driving, I am typing, Carmella is snoring, and Colettie is singing. Life is good. Rigby is at the doggy hotel, enjoying life, and we gave her some treats and nightly CBD treat to keep her calm. We will miss her furry soul.

And I believe it took me so long to write this first post, that we have almost arrived to our first stop.

Update: Colette is now sqwuaking. 

See you at the next stop.