March 17, 2015 – The Adventure Begins

 Our Story on NPR

If you want to hear the story NPR did on our trip click here to listen – Story on NPR

Our Spring Break Trip

“What do you want to do for our spring vacation?” I asked my wife the other night. I am a teacher and my wife is a school nurse, and we have the last two weeks off in March. We both had a few ideas, but most of them cost a lot of money, and since we are paying college tuition and trying to increase our retirement savings none of the ideas seemed feasible. Then I came up with a different idea, one that wouldn’t cost a lot and would get us out of town for just a little while. “Let’s take the LEAF and travel from the northern most point of Delaware to the southern most point, charging up along the way, meeting people, and increasing awareness of electric vehicle usage,” I suggested and she agreed. Join us as we blog about our trip, and check back for updates that we post along the way.

Leg one – Dover, DE

Our trip will begin from our home, which is in northern New Castle County, Delaware, two miles from the Pennsylvania border. We have a 240 volt charging station in our garage, so we will be all charged up and ready to go. We estimate that at this time of year we will be able to go about 55 miles before we will need a charge, so our first stop is planned for Dover, Delaware, which also happens to be the capital and a place where we have never explored. We have made arrangements through the University of Delaware to charge up in Dover at a high-capacity charging station, and we contacted our State Representative, Greg Lavelle, who made arrangements for us to take a tour of Legislative Hall. We also plan to visit some historical museums in the area.

Leg two – Rehoboth Beach, DE

We plan on spending the first night of our trip at the Bewitched and Bedazzled B&B. The owners advertised that they will let you charge your electric car overnight if you stay at the B&B. I called them and they were very helpful and flexible. I explained what we were doing and told them we might be delayed a day if we had trouble charging in Dover. They understood and just asked that I call them if we were going to be delayed. You gotta love people who support the cause. Without them it would be impossible.

Day Two – March 18th

We plan on traveling to the Maryland state line to the southern most point in Delaware. It’s about 20 miles down from The Bewitched and Bedazzled B&B. Then we will drive back up to the Cape May/Lewes Ferry. The ferry terminal has a charging station available to anyone that uses the ferry while traveling to Cape May. So while we charge up we will take the ferry and spend the day in Cape May. We will come back that evening and spend the night with a fully charged car in Lewes at The Blue Water House. If the Cape May Lewes Ferry charging station isn’t working, then we will be able to charge our car at The Blue Water House.

Day Three – March 19th

Our plan is to make it back to Wilmington in one day. We will have to charge up again in Dover, so that will give us the chance to visit the tourist sites that we missed on the way down. Hopefully we will be home just in time for dinner.