Road trip with a Tesla from America to Panama? Why not? Two courageous Americans, one of them Randy Denmon, proved for the first time that such an adventure is doable. All you need is a lot of courage, some good green money for the tips, 10 to 12 hours of driving the day, plus the motor-less Tesla car.

From Louisiana to the Panama Canal in an electric car, that needs to be charged, this is the journey documented in Off the Grid. Travel lovers looking for details and picturesque descriptions from the countries crossed - Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and finalla Panama - will be a bit (more) disappointed though.

Indeed, there are some observations about landscape and local customs, but most of the interactions are taking place at the borders, when some adventures - not all of them of the pleasant type - awaits, and at the hotels, when looking for some proper charging facilities. The travellers do hurry up to reach their goal or just trying to move fast to escape potential robbery or dangerous encounters with the local organised crime cartels. Some historical details, mostly in connection with the recent history American intrusions and the nefarious United Fruit Company economic presence.

And there are plenty of details about how Tesla works, for how long, what exactly needs to work - electricity, mostly. I am almost convinced that this is what I need for my incoming - lockdown-free journeys around the world.

Take it or leave it, Off the Grid is a story of an unique journey, testing the technical limits of a new, healthier for the environment type of car. The trip was not promoted by Tesla.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Only a week after the nation’s newspapers were filled with headlines of the first cross-country trip in an electric car, two Louisianans slip quietly across the Rio Grande in south Texas in an attempt to do the unthinkable—drive a factory electric car across seven Third World countries to the “end of the road,” Panama City, Panama.
Without support and armed only with a toolbox, a bag of electrical adapters, and their wits, author Randy Denmon and his friend Dean trudge on through jungles, deserts, volcanoes, rivers, and crater-sized potholes, all the while trying to avoid the drug cartels and corrupt border guards that could mean a quick end to their adventure . . . and their lives. Through it all, the same enormous problem loomed daily: how to charge the car in such a primitive and desolate setting?
Despite the numerous setbacks, Randy never lost his sense of humor. Off the Grid is as much a spiritual journey as a physical one about two guys who dropped everything for one grand twenty-first-century adventure—traveling back in time in a car that seemed to come from the future.

*2.5 stars*

I don't want to speak badly about this book, I really don't. So I will start with the one positive I got from this book: it was certainly an original idea, a trip from Texas to Panama City. The blurb says it was "unthinkable" - well, of course, who would do such a thing? And in an electric car? Absurd (in a somewhat good way!)

However, once they get going, it became such a toll on my brain to keep reading. It got so repetitive: how many times did we have to wonder about the next power-up location? How many times did we get to hear just how dangerous a certain place was - the drug lords or dodgy cops?
Add to that the miles and miles of "boring!", this just was not anything like I expected at all.


Paul
ARH

This travel book hangs on a rather gimmicky premise--the author drives his Tessa from Texas to Panama
The whole book is stretched over a short period of time (what was the hurry?) and the book focuses mostly on not very dramatic border crossings and the search for electrical charges for the car

I really enjoyed reading about his adventure and the way he described the places he went, including his historical facts. It was really interesting to hear about this trip. However I did not like the way he talked about women as if they were objects. If it wasn't for that, this book would have 5 stars.

A very enjoyable book to read. Sounded like one hell of a trip and I hope they got their car back in the end!

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.