Introducing Charged Up & Rolling: The Real EV Road Trip Guide
Becoming an EV Owner
I didn’t plan to become an EV person.
I wasn’t early. I wasn’t an environmentalist or a car guru. I was someone who always believed in the economical car, as long as it could get you from point A to point B and didn’t drain your bank account. I certainly didn’t think EVs were for people who drove long distances as much as I do.
Then I rented an EV in England, just to test it out. Out of curiosity. I knew so little that the Hertz employee had to explain connector types to me while I was delirious from jetlag. I mapped out convenient chargers without knowing how fast or slow they were, or if they would even work. I quickly realized this isn’t a hobby you pick up in your spare time. This is a lifestyle change. And I needed a course before I could transition.
I have a family member with a Tesla to thank. They took me on a short road trip, showed me all the tricks the Tesla has, and explained the EV 101s I desperately needed to know. By the end of that month, I was driving my own EV.
Why the Kia EV9? The only way I was giving up my Subaru Forester, which I loved, was if the car was roomier and had better mileage. I had my eye on the Kia Telluride, but the gas mileage was worse than the Forester. And yet the Forester was too tight for a family of four, a 50lb dog, and all the stuff we’d bring to the beach. I really needed a three-row vehicle. That left me with two options, the Kia EV9 and the Hyundai Ioniq 9. Both had outrageously expensive 2025 MSRPs, and only one was available at the time I was looking. I could either wait for the Ioniq to arrive in the summer and take a huge gamble on a brand new make and model, or I could buy a used EV9 with limited mileage and have it right away, for $20,000 less. Want to guess which option I chose?
My First Road Trips
I tested my new car right away with a trip to New York, and was blown away by how comfortable it was, how smooth the ride was, and how well it fit the family. The more I drove it, the more I wanted to spend more time in it. Soon, we were planning longer trips together as a family. So when we discussed visiting Louisiana for an event, I pitched the idea…should we drive it? After all, driving it would be cheaper than four plane tickets and a dog sitter. Plus we could add stops along the way in places we wouldn’t otherwise plan to visit, and make it a really fun road trip.
The family was all in.
A year later, I’ve added 13,000 miles on the car, primarily from road trips across 12 states. We have visited the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York, Disney World, Sarasota, and St. Augustine in Florida, Myrtle Beach and Charleston in South Carolina, Savannah in Georgia, Knoxville and Chattanooga in Tennessee, and Gonzales in Louisiana.
And so far? No regrets.
With all that I’ve learned over the last year, I knew I had to write it all down. Create the book I wish I had when I first started. Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of resources out there for EV owners. But it can be overwhelming, and if you’re like me, you don’t trust the car manufacturers or the charging station owners. You trust the real EV drivers who tell you what it’s really like.
Why I Wrote This Book
Charged Up & Rolling: The Real EV Road Trip Guide is the book I wish I’d had a year ago.
Not a technical manual. A real, honest, first-person account of what EV road tripping actually looks like, from the planning, the costs, the networks, the EV- and kid- and dog-friendly hotels, the broken chargers, the surprisingly great stops, and the math on whether it’s actually worth it.
I wrote this to bridge the gap between enthusiasts and skeptics, because the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I also wrote this as a travel planner, an itinerary builder, as someone who accounts for real life conditions rather than ideal situations.
What You’ll Get From Reading It
Charging basics. The plug types, the charging stations, what to expect from charging speeds, and how much to charge and why.
A network report card. An in-depth look at the public charging networks, based on my specific experience. Pricing, reliability, and road trip suitability.
The hotel strategy. How to find hotels with actual working chargers, not just the “EV charging available” tag that sometimes means a standard wall outlet.
Road trips with kids/pets. The 3-stop framework that makes charging stops feel like part of the trip rather than interruptions to it. Are charging stops really as bad as skeptics think?
The actual receipts. A dollar-by-dollar breakdown of my Maryland-to-Florida trip — 14 charging stops, 2,200 miles, every network, every cost — compared honestly to what flying would have cost and what a gas vehicle would have cost.
What went wrong. The low battery late at night in the mountains. The broken hotel charger. The slower than expected charger. And how to avoid these situations.
Who This Is For
- You just purchased an EV and don’t think road tripping is feasible.
- You’re skeptical about EV ownership and whether it’s worth the hassle.
- Your cargo includes human and/or fur babies, and your trips take you along the East Coast.
- You want the receipts.