Dead Presidents and Dead Batteries

We arrived in Keystone, SD the night before - the Lotus running great as we screamed through South Dakota - to the President's View hotel just down the hill from Mt. Rushmore.  After some slices of pizza and beer in town, we retired to the hotel for a well-earned nights rest.



The following morning we awoke early to see some dead presidents.  Arriving at Rushmore before the crowds, we felt like we had the place to ourselves and the weather could not have been more perfect.  Not ones to linger, we took the requisite photos, enjoyed the "Monumental" breakfast for $6.50 and hit the road again.  The goal was to fuel up, swing by the new Crazy Horse monument then head out toward Wyoming.  Unfortunately, the alternator in the Lotus derailed our plans again.



After stopping for fuel in Custer, SD, the Lotus wouldn't start again.  We had the foresight to keep the old battery (and get it fully-charged at O'Reilly's) so we popped it in and she fired right up.  Luckily Custer had a little Napa Auto Parts store.  We were able to test the alternator and sure enough it was dead again.  We were warned that this repair was only a bandaid and it could melt itself again.  Now what?

Even further from civilization, our only option was to limp along, essentially leap-frogging with the two batteries we had.  No AC, no lights, no music... we ran as lean as we could to get us to the next big town.

Our first battery lasted about and hour and a half and after all the gauges died and the engine started to stutter we limped off the highway (barely) and out of traffic to swap batteries.  The second battery got us to Gillette, Wyoming where we could stop at O'Reilly's again and have them both charged.  After calling around to parts stores far and wide, we eventually found the proper alternator in Billings, MT, just over 3 hours away.  This was definitely a doable drive with our dual battery leap-frogging but we ran into the same issue - no one to install the alternator until Monday.  After some conversation and mapping distances, we struck upon another idea.  We purchased another battery.  This time a deep cycle marine battery with a 210 min reserve rating.  The advantage of the mid-engine Lotus is the battery is in the trunk, not fitted tightly into a cramped engine bay.  Access to it is actually quite easy and we can line up the back-up batteries in the trunk and simply swap them as we go.  Between the three batteries we calculated we could get to each additional stop on our trip, recharge at night while we sleep, and make it back to Bend where Outland could perform the proper repair.

Sheridan Lake in the Black Hills, SD

We are happy to announce, so far so good!  The new large capacity battery ran over 4 hours yesterday without a hitch, getting us all the way to Jackson, WY.  When we plugged it into the charger at the hotel it still had 10% remaining.  We can do this!

Snow at the top of the Big Horn mountain range in Wyoming

Heading into Teton National Park

This is where the magic happens!