As Thanksgiving approaches many of us are not only planning holiday menus but also holiday driving routes. After all, it is one
of the busiest driving weeks of the year. Every year my husband and I drive somewhere to celebrate the holidays. With family in Wisconsin and friends in every surrounding state, we have put some serious miles on our delightful red Chevy HHR.
If you’re like us, when going places you frequently travel, it becomes habit to stop at the same wayside or fuel station you always do. The station with the best restroom. The one that sells the best cheese curds. The rest stop with the best grassy area for a pet break. Or the convenience store with the best coffee. In addition to these amenities, we plan our routes to stop at stations that have the fuel we like best for our Chevy HHR – E85.
After driving a flex fuel vehicle for more than 11 years, the excitement of finding a new E85 station on our route has died down. Stations with E85 are usually marked on highway exit signs and we use other tools like the Alternative Fuel Data Center “Map a Route” app or CleanAirChoice.org to easily find E85 in other states. Continuous updates of Google maps (or “Louise” as I so fondly call my navigator) make using that app a breeze: simply input the starting and final destinations and she takes care of the driver, even routing around delayed traffic for the quickest travel!
AFDC Map a Route tool
A recent detour suggested by “Louise” took us around a traffic backup, with the new route expected to be seven minutes faster to a new-to-us station with E85. We went by several gorgeous country homes with lovely porches and a few fantastic flower beds. We were thoroughly enjoying this scenery, when suddenly we ended up on a side street right by a Kwik Trip. And guess what…it is one of the E85 stations we stop at frequently! But taking the back way was a welcome change for the long drive to central Wisconsin I’ve been making 20+ years.
Other adventures include discovering a local winery stocked at Eau Claire Travel Stop – River Country Co-op. My all-time favorite is seeing decorations and holiday lights on the routes less traveled.
During this year’s busy travel season between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, consider taking a different exit off your regular route to the fuel station. There are hundreds of E85 and 88 octane stations in Minnesota alone, making it easy to find, and you can always find those blends in the surrounding states, too. Who knows what you’ll discover along the way, even if just a great cup of coffee after topping off your fuel tank.