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The Road Trip Believer: This Ford Employee Is Electrifying the Customer Experience
Two months. Nearly 6,000 miles. One epic journey.
For Mark and June Eakin, the numbers don’t lie. The Maryland natives put a new spin on the term “snow birds” when they spent two months traveling the country in their 2022 F-150® Lightning® pickup truck. Their excursion took them from their home in Maryland to Texas, with countless sightseeing stops along the way.
Often waking up ready to go with a full charge, the Eakins “filled up” their electric truck through a combination of home charging, public charging, and at campsites with permission, logged in a spreadsheet that the couple has maintained throughout their ownership.
The excursion was made possible, in large part, due to the expanded BlueOval™ Charge Network, an ever-growing network that now includes Ford drivers with access to 20,000 Tesla Superchargers with a Fast Charging NACS Adapter.
“Now that the BlueOval Charge Network includes Superchargers, we never had to leave a station without a successful charge,” said Mark Eakin, a retired coral scientist. “In fact, I don’t recall ever having to switch from one charger to another because it didn’t work."
En route to the Lone Star State, the Eakins made stops in Raleigh, North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Memphis, Tennessee; and other cities on their to-visit list. They also experienced destinations such as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and Big Bend National Park in Texas.
And throughout it all, the Eakins never had trouble finding a charging station for “Sherman.” Not only were stations abundant, but they were easy to pull up to, even with the 23-foot “Fillmore” on the hitch. By the end, they charged 56 times during their trip, sometimes using their Ford Mobile Power Cord to charge up at a campground with permission.
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When on the road, however, the expanded network gave them peace of mind that chargers would be available, accessible, and fast. As a result, they were able to take a less direct route than on previous trips, allowing them to spend more time doing what they love: biking, enjoying the outdoors, and meeting up with new and old friends.
It was a notable improvement from some of their previous long-distance trips. Early 2023, the Eakins drove cross-country in their electric truck, earning a status among many in the electric vehicle-enthusiast community by traveling coast to coast in a battery-powered vehicle while pulling a trailer.
“This year, it was easier to charge on the go,” Mark Eakin said. “In fact, half of our charging was at Tesla Superchargers, which allowed us to plan routes that would not have been practical last year.”
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What a difference a year makes, and the Eakins’ travels are evidence of how far we’ve come so far.
Jake Bley writes for Ford Motor Company about electric vehicles, community, and customer experience while his orange cat snores next to him.
1Distance to DC fast chargers within the BlueOval Charge Network based on 2024 U.S. Department of Transportation Statistics and TomTom software data from Off-Peak Q1 2024 dataset, Class 1 and 2 roads in the contiguous United States.
2Based on active charging stations in OCPI data from Ford’s CMS partners, generated on 2/11/2025. Numbers subject to change.
