A Family Gathering at the KATY Trail

 We have family members spread out all over the Midwest. It is nice to find a central location for all to meet and visit. 

The KATY Trail is a former railroad right of way that traversed the State of Missouri and is now a Missouri State Park dedicated to a bicycle trail across the state. This is a nice central location to drive to and offers something for all age groups of the family to do.

We met at the former railroad engine house which is now a campground in New Franklin, Missouri. My cousin Phillip and his wife Wendy came as well as my daughters Mandy and Betsy and their families.

We all rode from New Franklin to Rocheport on Day 1 of the trip. It was quite cold the night before so we were glad for warming temps the next day for our ride. Not far from Rocheport we found the trail was closed due to a major washout of one of the bridges over the river during flood conditions in the spring. The detour involved riding along the shoulder of the highway for several miles and this was not an acceptable solution for the youngest riders of the group. Instead we decided to ride down the trail to see what the washed out bridge looked like before we headed back.

Turns out the bridge had washed away near a low water bridge and if we were willing to move our bikes down the side of the dike embankment we could stay on the trail. We did so and had quite the adventure getting all back on the trail, but succeeded.

The next day Phillip and I and two grandsons rode the other direction for a total of a fifteen mile ride.

We all posed for a photo at the Caboose in New Franklin

There are benches along the trail to allow the weary to rest

Mandy and Mom on the Trail

Julie made the trip on a bicycle with a step thru frame and electric pedal assist. This technology allows an electric motor to provide a slight boost to your pedaling effort. Julie ended up riding 25 miles and the battery still never indicated anything but a full charge.

This old grain elevator is found along the trail and is made of the most beautiful glazed bricks

Very nice architectural treatment for a commercial building of days gone bye.

This as the area of the washed out bridge. Much work will be required to repair this.

Phillip enjoyed his electric assist bicycle. He converted a traditional bike to electric and did a fabulous job! It is a sweet ride!

The tunnel at Rocheport

The Grandsons at Rocheport

Phillip and I rode past Rocheport to see the Missouri River. Phillip is holding his classic Instamatic camera. He has a side business selling replacement battery packs for these antique cameras as the traditional battery is no longer produced.

Made it to the river

Heading back to New Franklin

This is the levee that led to the low water bridge around the trail wash out

Bennett on the Trail

Emery on the trail

Mandy posing to show how tired she was...

Julie and her ebike

Phillip and his ebike

Just four of us rode the next day

We checked out the lift bridge over the river. One segment is open for pedestrian traffic but the bridge cannot be crossed.

This was the largest center lift bridge in the country when first build

The center span lifts to clear river traffic. It has been in the "UP" position for a very long time.

The KATY Depot in Boonville Missouri is in the Spanish style

The caboose on display at the Boonville depot has quite a history.

There is a bicycle shop in the Depot

There are occasional large culverts under the highways

We rode as far as where the trail crosses Interstate 70 outside of Booneville. The sounds along the trail are usually so quiet that the sound levels of the Interstate are quite jarring to the senses. 

Time for a snack

My ride is an electric assist bicycle. It folds for easy transport.

Winnie watched over her masters Wendy and Phillip

Blake, Betsy and boys ready to head home

Wendy and Phillip

We hope to ride again next year!

  

Our first all electric car

 I put out a previous post about our local electric company offering their members an electric car to try out for a week and see how they work. The idea is to increase demand for their electric services. They tell us that the added efficiency of LED lights, more efficient appliances, better insulated houses and other reductions in electrical demand continue to reduce the demand for electricity on a per house basis. The only thing on the horizon to increase demand is electric cars. Here is a link to that post:

Trying out a Bolt

We took advantage of their electric car try out and drove a Chevrolet Bolt all thru the mountains of Colorado. We were so impressed we decided to shop for one and see what kind of bargains we might find.

It turns out General Motors offers an $8500 discount, Costco offers a $3000 incentive, some dealers are taking off another $6500 and the state of Colorado chips in another $4000. It is a good time to buy an all electric car. We decided what we wanted in the way of options and started emailing various dealers to see what kind of pricing they offered.

A check of new car prices on Cars.com gives an overview of which dealers in the country are offering the best pricing. A further check of the comments on the Chevy Bolt owners forums gave an idea of available pricing and which dealers are good to deal with and which employ the common dealership tactics that can be so off-putting.

We had shopped one of the local Wichita, KS Chevrolet dealers that had a Bolt we liked, but due to a mistake in their ordering the car came with two Level 1 chargers. One is standard and comes with the car, but a second was mistakenly ordered as an option and added $530 to the cost of the car. Once the option is on the Monroney sticker is is very difficult to remove and make the car competitive in price. We were not able to work around that restriction and meet our price point.

Later in the week we were bike riding on the KATY Trail and were near St. Louis. We stopped in O'Fallon Missouri at the Jim Trenary Chevrolet dealership as their website shows they had quite a few Bolts in stock and offered attractive pricing. It turns out they are one of the top selling Chevy Bolt dealers in their district. We had been dealing with their internet purchasing folks via email.  

We met with Dennis Biggs who is part of their Internet staff and he had a Chevrolet Bolt positioned out in front of the dealership as part of our appointment. This Bolt was in our desired color and had the option packages we desired. We test drove the Bolt and enjoyed the drive. Dennis then got our various identity details and Costco discount information and within a few minutes came back with a price that met our goals and we signed to buy the car.

This was a most pleasant car buying experience. The best part is they offer a service in which the dealership registers the car, pays the various state fees and taxes and sends the license plates to you thereby avoiding the unenviable job of going to the DMV to register and title the car.

The Bolt has a 250 mile driving range. We used an app called "A better route planner" to determine how to take an all electric car on a road trip to Kansas. This app uses the range of your specific electric car to determine which high speed chargers you need to stop at on your trip. Here is a link:

A Better Route Planner

This screen capture shows the route and chargers for our specific road trip

We stopped every few hours to top off the charge on the way to Kansas. Each stop took 30 minutes to an hour to charge the car for the next leg of the trip. At each stop there were places to get food, shop for groceries and so on.

We did find there is a considerable difference in price at the various high speed chargers with one seller being three times the rate of the Chargepoint chargers. The rates are all less than purchasing gasoline, but in some cases far less.

We drove our tow vehicle in to go car shopping

Happy wife, happy life!

The salesman Dennis (Great guy!) did a good job of showing us the features and getting us signed up with the Onstar service

Heading out with our new purchase

It spent the first night plugged in behind the Airstream at the campground

We started the road trip to Kansas and made good use of DCC Fast chargers along the way

Typical battery charger configuration

Some are located in the same general area as gas pump service islands along the turnpike

The chargers give details of the charging rate, costs, time remaining and battery state of charge.

The screens inside the car offer a graphical representation of battery state of charge

The chargers have nice night time lighting

These are the high speed chargers found in the Walmart lot in Boonville MO.

This vehicle is a game changer for electric car drivers. The range and charging speed is sufficient for road trips when needed, but the 250 mile range is more than adequate for most folks who will charge it in their garage overnight  and start fresh the next day.

Maintenance consists of tire rotations every 7500 miles, cabin air filters($15) every 22,500 miles and a few other items. I'm anxious to enjoy all electric driving.