Driving and Crying

Driving and crying is the title of a song and if I’m not mistaken, a band. I’m happy to be on a roadtrip so you hardly catch me crying.

I like turning off the outside and just listening to music as I roll along.

These photographs are intended to give you my feelings when I take a road trip. Scenery blurring by, trucks of all sorts driving too close, in front and in back and the great truck stops I usually stop at when I need to eat and get gas.

Luckily, no more gas for us. We own two e-cars. We bought two Hyundais, an iOniq 5 and very recently an iOniq 6. The 6 is much more sporty.

It’s likely I’ll never get to drive it just like the 5 before it. If we are running errands there is a race to our cars. She always gets there first. She wins because of speed or stealth. I just laugh.

We really weren’t ready to buy the 6, but if we didn’t do it by April 28th we would lose the $7,500 tax credit.

We mostly funded it by selling other cars. We sold my beloved “play car,” but we kept the old broken down farm truck that Virginia law says can’t stray more than a mile from the farm . We also kept the dog carrying SUV.

In case you are wondering, we love the iOniq 5. It’s quiet. It’s fast. It’s four wheel drive which is important out here. Because there is no traditional transmission hump it’s amazingly spacious. If you are going on a long trip the drivers seat lays flat with a raised foot rest.

There was one additional expense at home. Because we live where we live we bought and had installed a Type 2 charging station. Type 1s are fairly slow. Type 2s are fast and you can charge two cars at once. There is also a type 3 which is only used at roadside charging stations.

So get this,

We are completely off of the county power grid. We have low impact solar panels and batteries that can store ten days worth of electricity. The charging station plugs directly into the batteries so that there is no extra cost and no environmental harm.

We aren’t survivalists but we are pretty far off the general grid. We have well water, a septic tank, propane gas and a fireplace.

Of course, we still have external wireless, mail and one hard wired old fashion phone just in case. Oh, and county garbage pick up.

Again, we aren’t survivalists and we aren’t hiding from anything. It just sort of worked out this way.