Riding to the County Seat to Recycle

RIP Asus Transformer Book; I surely enjoyed using you, your bright red color and small form factor, perfect for traveling to Mexico and using as my only computer there.

I loved this petite machine!

I cannot tell a lie: I killed my little tablet/laptop in a valiant attempt to change the failing battery (NOTE:  Do not try this at home.)  

I followed instructions I found on a web page (not by Asus, just a user who did successfuly change out his battery) but still managed to crack the touchscreen in one place opening up the tablet. Ouch!  That was probably reason enough to stop while I was ahead (er...behind), but I was determined to look under the hood anyway to see if I could salvage it for a little longer; after all, I'd already bought a replacement battery.  

Once I finally pried the screen off the brains of the system, I discovered that my battery was not the easy drop and replace model as in the online instructions but glued to a metal backing plate. Asus must have changed this at some point. To replace the battery would have involved unscrewing lots of tiny, delicate computer components and putting them all back onto the battery assembly I'd purchased on ebay.  Uh...no.

So I wanted to recycle both batteries.  I also had an older full-size HP laptop with a large 12-cell battery that was dead, so I could take that one to recycle at the same time.

Checking online for a recycling spot, I found that a rural electricity co-op in the county seat of Jackson, MN would take laptop batteries.  Jackson was about 15 miles from our campground in the county, so we decided to ride over to recycle!

It was a pretty ride on lightly traveled rural roads but very windy.  No wonder there are wind farms in the area!  These windmills were putting out some serious energy on this day.

Jackson is a small, pretty city with nice paved bike paths. The Des Moines River runs right through town. We took a wrong turn on a bike path (my fault) and ended up at the end of the path due to a construction zone.  A friendly construction worker came over and told us how to get across the river on the road via a detour and pick up the trail on the other side.

We followed his instructions and continued heading north until we got to Highway 71, where the electric co-op was about 1/2 mile north, according to Google maps.

Since there was construction there also, we briefly stopped in a parking lot before heading out on 71 to plan our best exit point onto the road.  Right then another friendly man came up to us.  Turns out he was also a cyclist and thought we looked lost.  He told us that the co-op was actually south of town on 71, not north! D'oh!

Before heading south, we briefly pedaled around the small, cute downtown and took a couple photos, then enjoyed a ride on the bike path near the Des Moines River.

Google Maps mixing up north and south

Jackson County Courthouse

Des Moines River in Jackson, MN

We did find the co-op exactly where the friendly cyclist told it is was, and I was able to drop off my three batteries for recycling. We were thankful for the kindness of a stranger providing local knowledge.

Heading back, we ran into even more wind, but at times we had a tail wind, making pedaling effortless.  I stopped here for a snack and rest break.  Home of the Corn Cob Open!

All in all, it was a very successful recycling ride.  So far we're doing just fine without the extra expense and inconvenience of having to tow a car behind Pearl.  I guess that's because we're willing to ride our bikes just about anywhere!