There is not much that can be said about driving down the interstate; it’s a fairly monotonous experience, and quite unlike the curvy undulating roads we had become accustomed to for the vast majority of our trip so far. But surprises still do exist, and one came along a few minutes into our journey when we saw a sign saying Meteor Crater Road. This turned out to be a road to the world’s first confirmed meteor crater, and so, curiosity getting the better of us, we turned off the highway to check it out.

The time was before 7am, and we knew that the tour guide facility would still be closed, but nonetheless, given the sheer scale of the site we were expecting that we would still be able to walk up to the crater edge and take a peek. We were wrong. Surrounding the base of the crater was a tall fence enforced with barbed wire; certainly a big enough barrier to stop even the most curious of RGE members from attempting to scale it. So we drove away slightly dejected, but more angry at how such an amazing piece of extraterrestrial nature could so be harnessed for profit, and blocked from those arriving at a non-standard time.

Anyway, back onto the interstate we went, and the 320 miles to the outskirts of Albuquerque went quickly enough. Here we stopped at a very well kept RV park to the west of the city where we charged up for a few hours to enable us to make the dash to Santa Rosa before it got too late. Charging commenced without hassle, with the standard 50 amp plug making our lives very easy. The team took this opportunity to do some laundry, take a swim, and do some interviews for the documentary. But a few hours into our stay, the weather started having other plans for us. The wind suddenly picked up, the clouds thickened, and flashes of lightening started being seen in the distance.

Now, you hear many people saying that a car is one of the safest places to be in a lightning storm, but in the SRZero, we would beg to differ! We only had two choices though; either we could stay in the RV and let the storm come to us, or we could make the 100 mile dash to Santa Rosa and hope the road skirts the storm. We decided to take the latter option, and it was a good choice as the storm stayed hovering just a few miles to north of the road as we headed further east within New Mexico. Lightening lashed down and the thunder followed with immense strength a few seconds later, but for the most part we remained dry and after around 2 hours of driving we arrived safe and sound at the Holiday Inn in Santa Rosa.

Another easy charging setup later and the car was ready to spend the night sucking up its juice. But the team was not entirely ready for bed yet, and so we decided to go out and see what the locals of Santa Rosa get up to on a Friday night. We were told about a local bar and so we drove down and checked it out.

You know in those movies when a bunch of guys walk into a shady bar and the music stops and everybody looks up at them; this was kind of how this felt. The music didn’t stop, but suddenly everyone looked up from their beers and eyed us as we made our way across the room. It wasn’t actually that dramatic, but it did feel semi-Desparado-ish. Anyway, we had a beer there, picked up some food on the way back to the hotel, and headed for bed. It was one of the longest day of driving so far, and the car had performed perfectly through the desert, a lightning storm and a kilometre in vertical elevation change…needless to say, from an engineering point of view, we were very chuffed!

Perhaps here is a good point to mention tow charging. A few people have let me know that they disagree with “our continued use of tow charging”. We completely agree, and I would like to point out that this was done on just 2 occasions when we were up in Canada as a complete last resort. We wouldn’t even be able to tow charge anymore as our support van does not have a tow hook from which to do so. As such, you will be pleased to know that this will not happen again!

Anyway, with the car on charge, we spent the day working and catching up with our preparation for our presentation at NI Week which was due to start on August 2^nd. But the fact was that we had to wait for the next morning to push on, and so there is not much I can report on the trip’s 31^st day!

When we had everything set up though, the media did not arrive. After waiting around and calling a lot of people to try and find out what was going on, we heard from Cindy, the Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association PR liaison, that the media had actually come much earlier than agreed, and had disappeared even before we had arrived. This constituted our first no-show, and despite the fact that we were a little disappointed, it still gave us a lot of time to explain the car many of the hotel’s guests. We did have a good 220+ mile drive ahead of us though, so we thought it best to take a quick lunch and push onwards towards Flagstaff, Arizona!

You may be wondering, at this point, why it always seems that we are pushed for time and are not taking the opportunity to explore the wonderful places we have been through. There is a very good explanation for this. Firstly, we have a massive priority deadline, and that is to get to Austin, Texas on or before the August 1st so that we can fulfil a long held promise to one of our main sponsors, National Instruments (NI).

Throughout the project, NI have strongly supported us, and we were determined to get to their week long exhibition, where we were due to deliver one of the keynote presentations, on time. Secondly, we only have finite resources, and lengthening the trip to visit more energy-related attractions would be costly. However, our date commitments will not be anywhere near as strenuous as we go south into Mexico, so we will be able to spend much more time investigating the local energy generation and infrastructure; something which is an essential part to a future containing electric vehicles en masse. Visiting these sites is very important for the documentary series which is being produced which will ultimately help inform all those who see it as to the benefits of electric vehicles.

That being said, as long as some of these attractions are on our route, we would be able to make best use of them. And what a place we were due to cross next…the Hoover Dam! The massive 2 gigawatt dam around 20 miles out of Las Vegas, still generating electricity and diverting water for irrigation over 70 years after construction, sat imposingly in the magnificence of the Colorado River’s Black Canyon. And to top it all off, just before getting to the dam, we found a helicopter service that was selling arial tours of the area. So the team split up with myself and Toby crossing the dam in the SRZero, and the rest of the team split between the support vehicle and helicopter. Before long we were driving across the dam, with the helicopter circling overhead taking magnificent pictures and videos! Feel free to check our videos section which shows the Hoover Dam in a very dramatic video.

By now we were in the real desert; scorching heat and barren earth surrounded us. But it was true untouched beauty that awaited us as we sped east. Huge desert plateaus surrounded by dark brown mountains in the distance made for interesting viewing, and also provided the perfect backdrop to another one of Claudio’s video which will shortly make its way onto the cybersphere.

By the time we reached Flagstaff in Arizona, it was already dark but we could sense a strong difference in the climate around us as the air was cooler, moister, and thinner. A quick look at Claudio’s altimeter confirmed our altitude at over 2,100m; the height of many alpine ski runs! But the normal routine kicked in and it was time to get the car on charge at the local Ramada, which is where we were due to stay. A quick rewiring of the 220 volt dryer socket, as it had yet another plug which we hadn’t come across, and we were up and running! Yet another successful day as RGE made it safely out of Vegas and through the desert!