Roundtrip Los Angeles to Chicago I-70 I-80 eastbound and I-40 westbound

[300mileclub]

Travel took place Sep 12-15 eastbound and Sep 15-18 westbound. Seven day road trip in 2004 Honda Civic GX averaged 40mpg. TOTAL of $200 fuel 4250 miles 27 fuel stops for entire drive. Many fuel stops not needed except to try out station. (D) indicates debit card accepted. Station addresses may be found on cngprices.com or afdc.energy.gov

Interstate 15/70/76/80

000 0.0 CA Barstow City(D) LCNG
154 4.4 NV Las Vegas Clean Energy(D) Industrial
123 2.8 UT St George Questar(D)
183 5.1 UT Scipio Questar(D)
239 3.0 CO Grand Junction City(D) (not full fill 2600psi)
_49 3.1 CO Parachute Rocky Mountain C Stores(D)
_42 1.6 CO Glenwood Springs Trillium(D)
229 5.2 CO Eaton Sparq(D)
_39 1.6 CO Kersey Ward(D)
229 5.1 NE North Platte Stirk(D)
227 5.7 NE Lincoln SAPP(D)
_39 1.6 NE Omaha Trillium(D) on Cornhusker
152 3.5 IA Des Moines GAIN
161 4.3 IA Davenport KwikStar(D)
159 3.0 IL Mokena (Chicago) Ozinga(D)
EASTBOUND TOTAL 2024 miles 50.0 gge 40 mpg


Interstate 55/44/State Hwy 412/Interstate 25/40

000 0.0 IL Mokena (Chicago) Ozinga(D)
260 5.7 IL Pontoon Beach (St Louis MO) Flying J(D) LCNG
287 5.8 MO Springfield no fleet card | debit tested/failed
173 4.9 OK Tulsa BlueEnergy S Main no Debit
145 4.1 OK Enid OnCue(D)
_90 2.4 OK Woodard Hutch - Says it takes (D) but was declined. Cashier inside can activate dispenser with (D)
123 3.9 OK Guymon High Plains BioEnergy(D)
216 5.5 CO Trinidad Sparq(D)
195 4.9 NM SantaFe City(D)
108 2.8 NM Albuquerque Loves(D)
252 5.3 AZ Winslow Flying J(D) LCNG
_93 2.2 AZ Williams Loves(D)
153 4.0 AZ Lake Havasu City Pilot(D) LCNG
169 3.2 CA Barstow City(D) LCNG
WESTBOUND TOTAL 2216 miles 54.7 gge 40 mpg

Notes: Grand Junction station serves school buses and refuse trucks. Any malfunction is corrected same day. A full fill is necessary for a direct westbound return to Scipio, but distance can be shortened with a detour to Moab UT. The highest elevation along I-40 is near Flagstaff at just over 7,320 feet, which compares with 11,000 ft for the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70.

In summary, most every CNG trip across the country to reach the West is going to pass through Barstow CA and use Interstate 40, although an optional southern route through Phoenix and Blythe may also be used. CNG is not available to the north on routes through Pendleton OR (I-84) or Reno NV (I-80). The difficult long distance between Albuquerque and Amarillo on I-40 may be avoided by using Trinidad CO to reach Guymon OK. This Southwest region has always been the most popular with truck traffic.


CNGXcountry.png Truck_highway_tons.png

[300mileclub]

And, the missing trucking corridor map turns up. Interstate 40 is ranked heaviest truck volume in the nation. I-80 is fifth.

Truck_interstate_volume.png

[300mileclub]

Photos of WARD in Kersey CO, CLEAN ENERGY in North Platte NE, and Stirk SAPP in Lincoln NE - the Interstate 70 northern cross-country route opened in 2016. The three crucial stations on this route each have multiple hoses with nozzles that fit passenger vehicle NGV1 fuel fittings.

The Interstate 40 shortcut route using Guymon (to reduce maximum travel between stations) uses the single station found in Trinidad which has a single dispenser having a NGV1 and a NGV2 hose. No redundancy in the event of a breakaway fitting separation on the hose. However, an adapter is available which allows cars to couple to either hose:

http://www.weh.us/refueling-systems-...-3600-psi.html

The Interstate 40 route straight through Winslow Albuquerque Amarillo has multiple NGV1 hoses in each town. Came in handy on the August 2016 trip because one of the NGV1 hoses at Winslow had been yanked off (the LCNG stations typically have two NGV1 and two LNG hoses - but no high flow NGV2 CNG hose.)



CNG_Kersey_7.jpg IMG_2103.jpg IMG_2107.jpg CNG_WEH_NGV2adaptor.png

[300mileclub]

Cross-country travel is no longer possible using I-70 in a Honda Civic GX. The CNG station in Parachute was not kept in operation when the gasoline station it occupied was recently sold. The public CNG stations in Rifle and Vail were taken out of service a decade or so ago.

The remaining public CNG stations in Grand Junction and Denver are both at 5000ft elevation. The 248 mile distance between them traverses the 11,000ft Eisenhower Tunnel over the Rockies. The combination of distance and elevation gain are more than a Honda Civic can do.

This leaves I-40 through AZ, NM, TX as the only route for an East/West trip across the nation.