The Road to Albuquerque: A Comedy of Electrons

Day 58 of 13,444 Miles: When Everything That Can Go Wrong, Does

Listen, I need to tell you about the day my EV roadtrip became a masterclass in optimism, problem-solving, and the fine art of not losing your mind at 150 kilowatts.

We rolled out of my friend's friend's driveway at 7:15 AM with the confidence of two women who've conquered mountains, led teams, and—in Diane McBride's case—run an entire Alaska Wilderness Lodge. Diane for 40 pioneering years and I share a bone-deep love for Earth's wildest places, which made us think: how hard could 418 miles be?

Spoiler alert: Very hard when you can't charge overnight.

Our portable charger sat uselessly in the trunk because our host's outlet situation wasn't compatible. So there we were, starting our epic day already behind the curve, like showing up to a marathon after sleeping through your alarm. But hey, we're emerging leaders! We pivot! We adapt! We roll with 80% battery and pure delusion!

Our first stop was a Tesla Supercharger pumping electrons at 150 KW—not Formula One fast, but more like "your determined aunt power-walking at the mall" fast. It gets the job done in roughly twice the time of the newer chargers. Already, I'm doing mental math about our long driving day, calculating range like I'm preparing for the SATs.

Then came Plot Twist #1: We're heading toward Holbrook when a wildfire story pops up. The navigation screen suddenly displays a red section—road closed. My heart does that thing where it forgets how to beat properly - the reason I carry nitroglycerin pills in my backpack. The fires turned out to be further north, no threat to us, but tell that to my GPS, which was having a full meltdown.

We drove seven miles in the wrong direction. Seven miles! That's like burning dollar bills while riding a unicycle—pointless and anxiety-inducing. Range anxiety started whispering sweet nothings in my ear: "You'll never make it... you'll be stranded next to a tumbleweed... they'll find your skeleton clutching a charging cable..."

Reroute number two brought us to Payson, where we discovered that the charging station was offline. OFFLINE. It just sat there, smug and useless, like a gym membership in January.

Cue scramble mode. We rerouted to Oak Creek, New Mexico, where I became that person—the one interrogating every Tesla owner in sight. "Have you driven to Albuquerque from Phoenix? Tell me everything. Draw me a map. Should I be worried? On a scale of one to ten, how dead are we?"

Here's where it gets truly ridiculous: ABC—Always Be Charging—is my religion. So when a helpful store clerk offered to plug in my phone while our car charged, I said yes. What I didn't notice was that she in her helpfulness bumped the cell's TESLA app that controls the charging setting. It. Stopped. Charging.

I discovered this exactly when we should have been fully charged and ready to roll. My 55-minute charging stop doubled to 110 minutes. Diane and I sat there, two women who've navigated literal wilderness, defeated by a nudged cell phone app.

The universe wasn't done with us. Next came Holbrook, then Gallup, New Mexico—both sporting those luxurious 150 KW chargers that charge at the speed of continental drift.

Our "6 hour, 23 minute" drive to Albuquerque transformed into a 16-hour odyssey. SIXTEEN HOURS. We could have walked faster. Well, not really, but you get my point.

But here's the thing, my fellow emerging leaders and gas-guzzler devotees: despite the chaos, this journey was Xtraordinary. We saw saguaros standing like ancient sentinels, prickly pears showing off their dangerous beauty, and cholla cacti glowing in the desert light. Ponderosa pines whispered secrets as we climbed in elevation. We passed a coal-fired power station—ironic, considering our mission—and one absolutely perfect billboard declaring, "Jesus would not be happy."

I don't know what Jesus wouldn't be happy about, but I'm guessing it wasn't our carbon footprint.

Range anxiety? Sure, it's real. But so is the satisfaction of solving problems on the fly, of watching landscapes transform, of knowing every mile is powered by increasingly clean energy. My next car will be an EV - about 150,000 miles from now, and honestly? Yours should too.

Because nothing says "emerging leader" quite like emerging from a 16-hour charging adventure with your sense of humor intact.

Plugged in. Charged up. Still laughing. And super grateful for the help of my friend Diane who arranged our places to stay on the quick trip from San Diego to Washington DC, Moving from Climate coaching to TEDxMidAtlantic. Climate risk beware, we are driving toward our finer future...as I prepare to deliver a Training Tuesday for World Pulse in 45 minutes on navigating inner peace in a mostly wilderness region of the country during a time of global climate risk.

Hope we can find signal on our way to Oklahoma City...wish us luck!