EDITOR: Weekend Adventures with Lee Zion
Lee has a run-in with the law
Lee Zion, Editor
Harrison County Times-Reporter
I had a run-in with the police over the weekend.
The problem is I own an all-electric car. To recharge the car, I have only three options.
The first is to plug my Chevy Bolt into a wall socket, as if it were a TV set. I’ll get a full charge 15 or 20 hours later, and that gets me 250 miles or so before I need to recharge.
The second is a Level 2 charger, and there are many nationwide. This time, it takes about eight hours to get my 250-mile charge. I moved from my previous job in Harrisonburg, Va., to my new home here in Missouri Valley this way. It took five days, and now I am here.
The third is a Level 3 Fast charger, and these more or less live up to their name. A fast charger can get me an 80% charge in about an hour or so. This also helped me get here. I had two such encounters, and was able to get back out on the road after a nice, easy lunch break.
Driving halfway across the country was educational. I learned that some chargers will not accept credit cards. I didn’t have to deal with that in Virginia, because I could just plug my car in.
For these special chargers, I must first sign in to an app. Well, my current phone is an older model and does not have app capability. That will change, as I get a new phone number for Iowa. I will also get a new phone for this century.
Driving was also enjoyable. While sitting at a charger in Highland, Ill., waiting the eight hours, I could look across the street and see the price of gasoline was $4.799 a gallon. A reminder of why I got an electric-powered car in the first place.
So imagine my jubilation when I discovered a charger here in Missouri Valley. On Saturday night, I drove there and examined the charger, because by now I knew how any number of things could go wrong. I plugged into the fast charger — I had a choice — then flashed my credit card at it. Nothing happened; nothing lit up.
That didn’t bother me. I went to disconnect the charger, but it wouldn’t let go. The charger was stuck, which meant I was stuck.
I tried everything. There was no telephone number on the charger, so I couldn’t call for help, as I did countless times on my road trip. There was no number on the business, and I knew it wouldn’t reopen until Monday morning.
I did the only thing I could. I called the police.
They came, and they were very helpful. Or at least, they tried to be. They called the after-hours emergency number for the business, but it was an old number. They restarted the machine — which I hadn’t thought to do — and they tried to pull the charger off my car. They couldn’t do it, either.
All the while, I was thinking kind thoughts about the police, and one unkind thought. Go ahead! If you destroy the machine, it’s on you, not me.
We decided that the only thing to do was leave the car. I could come back for it Monday.
On the drive back to my apartment — in the front seat of the police car, thank you — I introduced myself and made a promise to them. The same promise I make to you. I will uphold, maintain and improve the quality of the Harrison County Times-Reporter.
I am without a car as I type these words. That can wait until tomorrow.
Do I still believe in electric cars? Yes. The technology has greatly improved since the days when GM made the EV-1. That car, introduced three decades ago, had a range of only 70 miles.
As I see it, electric vehicles are the future, and in time, we will no longer worry about the cost of drilling for oil, refining it into gasoline, transporting the gas and burning it. Or starting wars over it. We will look back on this time as the experiment that brought us into a beautiful, new, clean future.
Before I forget, there is another EV station, in Logan. It appears on a map, but I won’t tell you where it is.
I’ll just say, don’t go there! It’s a private business. That charger is not open to the public.
But someday, it may happen.
