Day 13: Ames to Home

After a gourmet breakfast at the Diesslin's, Bill gave me a tour of the EHS building and other sites around campus.  Bill played an integral role in designing the EHS building there, equipped with a "state of the art" waste handling area.

Charging in Independence, IA

My original intention this day was to travel to Dubuque, and camp there overnight while charging.  I headed off, and got my supplemental charge in Independence, IA. As typical, I took that time to review the local sites and get some walking in. 

Unfortunately, the mill was not open to the public yet.  You can also see that the water here is high as well.  The antique "boulder picker-upper" (my name) pictured here would have been pretty handy on the farm I grew up on, as it seemed we were always picking rocks!

After writing in my blog at the local library, I headed back to the car and left town.


My plan was changed on the fly, when I found out the campground in Dubuque was underwater.  The next campground was about 35 miles away, near Platteville, so I headed that way after calling to confirm I could use a charger and camp overnight.  The phone connection wasn't clear, and she never did answer my question on cost.  When I arrived at about 6:30pm, the campground operator told me the charge would be $45 for camping and plugging in.  At that point, I determined I would only need about 3 hours of charge on a 50 amp circuit to get enough miles to make it all the way home, so that's what I did.  We settled on $15 for the electrons, and I parked for the next 3 hours.  I spent that time walking about, making my dehydrated meal for supper, and then settling down to watch a Netflix movie I downloaded before I left.

After charging, I had 167 miles on the car, with only 130 left to go to make it home.  I made it home easily, and arrived at 12:10am... glad to head right to bed.

I am so glad I took this opportunity to cross this adventure off my bucket list, and am looking forward to taking a similar (albeit shorter) trip in June with my great-nephew, Arlyn.  Till next time...