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Tesla Owners rally in Des Moines Fri-Sat Oct 24, 25

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Friends and fans,

Tesla owners from neighboring states are exercising their right of free speech and talking with Iowans about the Tesla Model S with a club rally. Fueled only by their passion, these owners are opening up their doors and letting you hop inside their own Tesla Model S vehicles. Keenly aware of state laws prohibiting sales by Tesla Motors in Iowa, there will be no Tesla Motors employees or affiliates present.

With support of Hy Vee store management, we will meet at the solar-powered charging station on the West end of the lot of the:
Hy Vee Urbandale
8710 Douglas, Ave Urbandale, IA 50322



From 5:00pm-8:00pm Friday October 24 and 9:00am-5:00pm October 25th
If you are a Tesla owner and can make it to Urbandale, IA (it's near Des Moines, IA), please join us.
We would also welcome other EV owners from the Des Moines area to stop by.
Please spread the word.
 
Thanks to all of the organizers for putting this together.

As a Model X reservation holder, I was disappointed that my test drive in September was cancelled by the Iowa DOT. I will be there on Saturday and will help spread the word.

Any idea how many forum members are going or how many cars will be available?
 
Thanks to all of the organizers for putting this together.

As a Model X reservation holder, I was disappointed that my test drive in September was cancelled by the Iowa DOT. I will be there on Saturday and will help spread the word.

Any idea how many forum members are going or how many cars will be available?

We currently have three owners bringing their cars down for Test Rides and sharing their experiences, answering questions, etc.
I have heard from one other Model S owner local to te area that will be there for a time on Saturday.
The time is a bit fluid, as it is a long drive back. I would say you can count on 11-3 on Satyrday. Vexar will be there Friday night, I am not sure if the others will be. I am guessing after 3 on Saturday it will depend upon how many people are stopping buy.

If you want to buy any munchies, soda, etc, please buy at HyVee. It is the least we can to to support their making car chargers available.
 
Thanks to all of the organizers for putting this together.

As a Model X reservation holder, I was disappointed that my test drive in September was cancelled by the Iowa DOT. I will be there on Saturday and will help spread the word.

Any idea how many forum members are going or how many cars will be available?

Your story is exactly why we were motivated to do this. Some owners are only coming for one of the two days. I'm glad you'll be there, I would very much like to hear the story with Iowa DOT.
 
We currently have three owners bringing their cars down for Test Rides and sharing their experiences, answering questions, etc.
I have heard from one other Model S owner local to te area that will be there for a time on Saturday.
The time is a bit fluid, as it is a long drive back. I would say you can count on 11-3 on Satyrday. Vexar will be there Friday night, I am not sure if the others will be. I am guessing after 3 on Saturday it will depend upon how many people are stopping buy.

If you want to buy any munchies, soda, etc, please buy at HyVee. It is the least we can to to support their making car chargers available.

Zythryn,
Make that four owners coming down for test rides! My son & I will drive down Saturday morning in our brand new MS. We'll try to get on the road by 7am which should put us in Urbandale around 11am.
 
Tesla Inflatable Pillar

Hey guys, I usually follow & post on the teslamotors.com site, but this michigan insanity moved me to want to post here too. So in case you don't follow that site, forgive my cross-posting:


You *SERIOUSLY* ought to order/sew yourself a huge inflatable Tesla pillar to place, or shall we say 'erect' on site to give the proverbial middle finger to the political cartel.

I would happily offer to do this myself and could mail it to you, but I live in S. FL so I'm really far out of the way and I figured it makes more sense for a person more local to do it.

I think it might be quite possible to create it with this simple approach (though this is a more temporary solution than a canvas inflatable)


Inflatables | Destructables


If making an inflatable using the above as a general idea guideline, I'd probably use 4 mil plastic, obviously white, and I'd use a permanent marker to draw the Tesla T.

tesla-supercharger.jpg
 
You *SERIOUSLY* ought to order/sew yourself a huge inflatable Tesla pillar to place, or shall we say 'erect' on site to give the proverbial middle finger to the political cartel.

I would happily offer to do this myself and could mail it to you, but I live in S. FL so I'm really far out of the way and I figured it makes more sense for a person more local to do it.

As it happens, our club has some information cards and what-not we have purchased ourselves which will be there; I remember Zythryn has a fact sheet he printed out on foam core, and I've got my oil-free miles sign from Drive Electric week. Several of us do a lot of auto expos and environmental events, so it has accumulated. No inflatable rocket ships as of yet. That sounds like an ambitious project and you should definitely do it. I'm behind on my projects, the confetti cannon comes to mind.

Glenhurst, we looking forward to seeing you. Consider joining https://www.facebook.com/groups/Minnesota.Tesla/ for up-to-date information on our activities.
 
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I plan on attending. Won't be able to make it until 4:30-5pm range however. Should be able to do Saturday as well. I also have a 40amp 220V available if anyone wants it near my home. Will be about 33% faster than the chargepoints at Hyvee.

Model S P85 Blue/Gray 21" with all options except child rear seats.
 
Zythryn,
Make that four owners coming down for test rides! My son & I will drive down Saturday morning in our brand new MS. We'll try to get on the road by 7am which should put us in Urbandale around 11am.

Awesome!
Say hi to the crew for me. Sounds like it will be quite the turnout. I am very bummed I can't make it. So please make sure pictures get posted and tales are told!

- - - Updated - - -

I plan on attending. Won't be able to make it until 4:30-5pm range however. Should be able to do Saturday as well. I also have a 40amp 220V available if anyone wants it near my home. Will be about 33% faster than the chargepoints at Hyvee.

Model S P85 Blue/Gray 21" with all options except child rear seats.

Excellent news!
 
Zythryn,
Make that four owners coming down for test rides! My son & I will drive down Saturday morning in our brand new MS. We'll try to get on the road by 7am which should put us in Urbandale around 11am.

I'm so glad you and your son made it. I was tired and ended up sitting on the grass with my lunch, around the time you showed up. It was amazing listening to your son talk. I wish my son was so enthusiastic...
 
I'm so glad you and your son made it. I was tired and ended up sitting on the grass with my lunch, around the time you showed up. It was amazing listening to your son talk. I wish my son was so enthusiastic...

Thanks, Vexar. We had a wonderful time. Thanks to you & Eric and everyone else who helped organize it. We even had a bit of adventure: The chargers there at the Hy Vee were rather slow, and at one point mine even dropped the current level further, such that it would have taken 9.5 hours to get to full charge! My recollection was that we'd travelled 153 miles from the Albert Lea SC going mostly at 75mph, so we wanted at least 160 miles of range charge, preferably more. Fortunately, PlugMeIn came to our rescue and let use use his 40a charger at his house. We imposed on his hospitality for a couple hours and got up to 170 miles of charge, and then headed north on 35W. We quickly noticed that our 17 miles of buffer charge was dropping rather rapidly. So, we backed down to 65mph: the buffer was still dropping. Dropped down to 55mph, and then it held steady. So, it was 55mph all the way to Albert Lea, but it was fun working out how fast we could go and still be able to make it to the SC. We actually arrived at the SC with 22 miles of charge left.

While talking with people at the Hy Vee, I got a few of those "What do you do if you're out in the middle of nowhere and the battery runs out" questions, as if that would somehow happen without you knowing it hours and many miles in advance. I always told folks you'll know long in advance if your destination is out of the battery's range, and then it's really easy to take steps to address the situation. And now my son & I have now actually gone through the exercise. What a great car!
 
Thanks, Vexar. We had a wonderful time. Thanks to you & Eric and everyone else who helped organize it. We even had a bit of adventure: The chargers there at the Hy Vee were rather slow, and at one point mine even dropped the current level further, such that it would have taken 9.5 hours to get to full charge!

Yeah, its voltage was unstable. I stopped/started the charging and that helped. I'm glad the locals were able to speed up that process. Des Moines needs more charging infrastructure. A hotel would be nice.
 
Get all those Hy-Vee stores on the Destination Charging program! That would be a nice message to the Iowa Legislature.
Cottonwood, I would not be the least bit surprised if the first Supercharger in Iowa is next to a Hy Vee. The Albert Lea, MN is next to one as is Worthington, MN. We put a pretty heavy load on those chargers overall. What we really need is the local hotels to get on board.