This good old-fashioned story of a road trip through stunning landscapes reminded me not only of Mark Twain, but also of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods and Neither Here Nor There. This was a most enjoyable book; one I’ll remember a very long time.”
—Bret Lott, author of Jewel (an Oprah Book Club selection)
“Randy Denmon isn’t your average Tesla Model S owner. While many Model S owners spend their time zipping around town, or cruising from supercharger to supercharger, Denmon had grander plans for his Tesla. Wanting to prove that electricity is a viable alternative to gas-powered transit, Denmon and his buddy Dean Lewis pointed their Model S south and kept going until they had almost hit the Panama Canal.”
—MotorTrend
“Off the Grid is the needed road trip story of the future! It’s a great read and an on-the-edge of-your-seat ride to remember! Entertaining, funny, and a definite page turner!”
—Tom Berenger, Academy Award-nominated actor and Emmy and Golden Globe winner
“Produce an electric car with enough range, and the journeys it can realistically achieve become almost limitless. The most impressive trip undertaken might be that of Randy Denmon and Dean Lewis, who have driven a Model S from Texas to the Panama Canal.”
—Christian Science Monitor
“This tale of two guys in a futuristic car traveling across a low-tech landscape will appeal to fans of humorous travel ¬writers, such as Bill Bryson and Tim Cahill.”
—Library Journal
“Here is a roadtrip adventure of the best kind, full of crazy escapades with improbable outcomes. It’s a story told with wit and warmth, honesty and heart. Denmon bet big and he won.”
—Dina Bennett, author of Peking to Paris: Life and Love on a Short Drive Around Half the World
“Off the Grid grips the road and reader with fears of dusk-time searches for elusive electricity in inhospitable, socket-less towns. Author Randy Denmon is refreshingly unassuming and abundantly informed, and his writing has more energy than a rechargeable battery.”
—Rick Antonson, author of Route 66 Still Kicks: Driving America’s Main Street
“[Denmon] strikes a nice balance here between adventure and misadventure (the road to Panama was not always a smooth one), with some moments of comedy and danger thrown into the mix. It’s an entertaining tour of Latin America.”
—Booklist
“Randy Denmon and his friend, Dean Lewis, take us on a raucous road trip from Texas to Panama in an all-electric Tesla sedan. Their adventures include hand-sweating drives through drug cartel territory, slow going on bad roads infamous as sites of kidnapping, white-knuckle navigation on perilous mountain roads, frustrating face-offs with sullen bureaucrats and the never-ending, nail-biting search for 240-volt outlets to charge the car. This is a lively read complete with clear exposition of the technical details, well-informed commentary on each country’s political history, and moving descriptions of the almost supernatural beauty of the volcanic terrain.”
—Dennis James, author of Songs of the Baka and Other Discoveries: Travels after Sixty-Five
“In the spirit of the great adventurers of the past, this is a travel quest for the modern age, where the constant search for a reliable 240-volt power supply takes over from exploring undiscovered corners of the planet! This book shows that the human spirit will always seek harder, more difficult ways of doing things simply for the challenge and for the satisfaction of being ‘the first’!”
—Steve Davey, author of Around the World in 500 Festivals
“What possesses a couple of single guys to decide to set out, on their own, without any support, especially from Tesla, to drive in an electric car over some of the worst roads in the Western Hemisphere?”
—EVWorld
“[Randy Denmon and Dean Lewis] packed up in McAllen, Texas, and headed south towards Panama City, Panama, with nothing but each other and a handful of charging adapters.... Hazards included jungles, waterways and volcanoes, as well as finding places to charge in the Mexican back country.”
—Autoweek
“Any normal adventure seeker would have chosen a high-riding, four-wheel-drive vehicle, and this all-electric safari was about as sketchy as long solo journeys of early 20th century drivers who’d set out in primitive gas cars without certainty or support.”
–HybridCars
“This book is wonderful book and the author describes in detail the history of the regions he is traveling through with the beauty of the people that helped him with the issues of charging an electric car. Also, descriptive with the problems. I just wanted to keep on reading and not put the book down until fully read.” —Deborah Hughes, NetGalley Reviewer “An entertaining book about the travels of two friends in their new Tesla car and how they drove it from Texas to Panama. There was interesting history about south America and humor.” —Cathie Salvo, NetGalley Reviewer
“This good old-fashioned story of a road trip through stunning landscapes reminded me not only of Mark Twain, but also of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods and Neither Here Nor There. This was a most enjoyable book; one I’ll remember a very long time.”
—Bret Lott, author of Jewel (an Oprah Book Club selection)
“Randy Denmon isn’t your average Tesla Model S owner. While many Model S owners spend their time zipping around town, or cruising from supercharger to supercharger, Denmon had grander plans for his Tesla. Wanting to prove that electricity is a viable alternative to gas-powered transit, Denmon and his buddy Dean Lewis pointed their Model S south and kept going until they had almost hit the Panama Canal.”
—MotorTrend
“Off the Grid is the needed road trip story of the future! It’s a great read and an on-the-edge of-your-seat ride to remember! Entertaining, funny, and a definite page turner!”
—Tom Berenger, Academy Award-nominated actor and Emmy and Golden Globe winner
“Produce an electric car with enough range, and the journeys it can realistically achieve become almost limitless. The most impressive trip undertaken might be that of Randy Denmon and Dean Lewis, who have driven a Model S from Texas to the Panama Canal.”
—Christian Science Monitor
“This tale of two guys in a futuristic car traveling across a low-tech landscape will appeal to fans of humorous travel ¬writers, such as Bill Bryson and Tim Cahill.”
—Library Journal
“Here is a roadtrip adventure of the best kind, full of crazy escapades with improbable outcomes. It’s a story told with wit and warmth, honesty and heart. Denmon bet big and he won.”
—Dina Bennett, author of Peking to Paris: Life and Love on a Short Drive Around Half the World
“Off the Grid grips the road and reader with fears of dusk-time searches for elusive electricity in inhospitable, socket-less towns. Author Randy Denmon is refreshingly unassuming and abundantly informed, and his writing has more energy than a rechargeable battery.”
—Rick Antonson, author of Route 66 Still Kicks: Driving America’s Main Street
“[Denmon] strikes a nice balance here between adventure and misadventure (the road to Panama was not always a smooth one), with some moments of comedy and danger thrown into the mix. It’s an entertaining tour of Latin America.”
—Booklist
“Randy Denmon and his friend, Dean Lewis, take us on a raucous road trip from Texas to Panama in an all-electric Tesla sedan. Their adventures include hand-sweating drives through drug cartel territory, slow going on bad roads infamous as sites of kidnapping, white-knuckle navigation on perilous mountain roads, frustrating face-offs with sullen bureaucrats and the never-ending, nail-biting search for 240-volt outlets to charge the car. This is a lively read complete with clear exposition of the technical details, well-informed commentary on each country’s political history, and moving descriptions of the almost supernatural beauty of the volcanic terrain.”
—Dennis James, author of Songs of the Baka and Other Discoveries: Travels after Sixty-Five
“In the spirit of the great adventurers of the past, this is a travel quest for the modern age, where the constant search for a reliable 240-volt power supply takes over from exploring undiscovered corners of the planet! This book shows that the human spirit will always seek harder, more difficult ways of doing things simply for the challenge and for the satisfaction of being ‘the first’!”
—Steve Davey, author of Around the World in 500 Festivals
“What possesses a couple of single guys to decide to set out, on their own, without any support, especially from Tesla, to drive in an electric car over some of the worst roads in the Western Hemisphere?”
—EVWorld
“[Randy Denmon and Dean Lewis] packed up in McAllen, Texas, and headed south towards Panama City, Panama, with nothing but each other and a handful of charging adapters.... Hazards included jungles, waterways and volcanoes, as well as finding places to charge in the Mexican back country.”
—Autoweek
“Any normal adventure seeker would have chosen a high-riding, four-wheel-drive vehicle, and this all-electric safari was about as sketchy as long solo journeys of early 20th century drivers who’d set out in primitive gas cars without certainty or support.”
–HybridCars
“This book is wonderful book and the author describes in detail the history of the regions he is traveling through with the beauty of the people that helped him with the issues of charging an electric car. Also, descriptive with the problems. I just wanted to keep on reading and not put the book down until fully read.” —Deborah Hughes, NetGalley Reviewer “An entertaining book about the travels of two friends in their new Tesla car and how they drove it from Texas to Panama. There was interesting history about south America and humor.” —Cathie Salvo, NetGalley Reviewer
02/15/2017
In a 21st-century twist on a midlife crisis road trip, Denmon (Lords of an Empty Land) sets out on a journey that promises to be more foolhardy than adventurous. When he reads of the first coast-to-coast road trip in an electric car, he persuades his friend Dean to accompany him from Louisiana to Panama in a Tesla Model S. Under perfect conditions, the vehicle has a range of 265 miles. Battling rough roads, desert, and jungle terrain, the author asks: Will the car reach the next charging station before the travelers are attacked by bandits or kidnappers? Their holy grail is finding an outlet with enough amps to charge at the end of each day. The seven Central American countries, including one known as the "murder capital of the world," have unpredictable cell phone service and corrupt law enforcement. This isn't a road test—the author doesn't include technical details—but a journey of self-reflection and challenges, told with humor. VERDICT This tale of two guys in a futuristic car traveling across a low-tech landscape will appeal to fans of humorous travel writers, such as Bill Bryson and Tim Cahill.—Susan Belsky, Oshkosh P.L., WI
2017-01-24
An engineer and novelist's account of how he traveled from Louisiana to Panama in an electric car.Successful but bored with the "yuppie robot" he had become, Louisiana native Denmon (Lords of an Empty Land, 2015, etc.) decided he needed to "get off the grid, away from the cell phones and emails." So he and a peripatetic college friend named Dean packed Denmon's new Tesla Model S electric car with a GPS, two long, 240-volt extension cords, and "all the plugs and adapters I could lay my hands on" and headed south across the Rio Grande. Beyond possible encounters with crooked immigration agents, drug lords, carjackers, and roving bandits, they faced other dangers and challenges. Fully charged and traveling on flat, well-paved roads at an average of 65 miles per hour, the Tesla had a driving range of 265 miles. However, the terrain they encountered between Mexico and Panama was highly unpredictable, and the roads were often covered with large asphalt chunks that they had to dodge in order to avoid damaging a car that sat "six inches—at best—off the ground." Finding locations where they could charge the car also proved difficult. "It would likely take all of our creative juices and ad-libbing to keep the sleek, high-tech machine moving south every day," writes the author. Sometimes, they found hotels with the electrical outlets they needed; other times they had to beg and bribe and make due with whatever equipment they found. Denmon's experiment in high-tech travel through the developing world is intriguing, but his observations about the countries through which he traveled are as limited and simplistic as they are pedestrian. With the exceptions of Costa Rica, "the planet's biggest natural amusement park," and former American protectorate Panama, Denmon typically depicts Central America as consistently dangerous and primitive and the U.S. as a place that has the "comforts that most of the world craves." A facile narrative about haves traveling in a land of have-nots.
