Uhm, well, there aren’t really any sponsors per se.

Here’s how this all came about.

First - I donated the advertising space on my personal car to the City of Abbotsford for one year - to help promote the One-Tonne Community Challenge. The City used a small amount of the funding they had received for ‘advertising’, about $2000, to cover the costs of putting the vinyl wrap onto the vehicle. BTW, National Graphic Solutions Inc. did a nice job, don’t you think?

As the car was being wrapped, I had an idea suddenly come to mind. I was to take the car across the country.

The original idea was run by John Vissers for discussion, who thought it had merit. So we worked together on the idea, and pitched it to various parties. In the end, a scaled down version became reality - with no corporate sponsors and no immediate national support.

In essence, I was going out on faith that the accommodations wouldn’t break the bank. Five weeks away from work had been long since arranged (three unpaid, BTW), and fuel and ferries had been budgeted for. Speaking of budgets, here are the rough costs:

Fuel: $625
Ferries: $800
Accommodations: $800
Vehicle depreciation: $1920 (16000 kms X $0.12 each)
Vehicle servicing/consumables: $400 (tires, oil changes, routine checks)
Laptop rental: $100
Photography/promotion: $350
Website: $200
Food: Well you have to eat anyway… not even keeping track.

That’s over $5000 in out of pocket expenses - not including the three weeks off work.

What has been covered is about $200 worth of fuel, and $100 towards accommodations. Thanks to Jim and Spinner!

In addition, many people have provided accommodations and meals - and this has been truly appreciated. I hope I have mentioned everyone in the various posts along the way.

Help with some website layout was provided by Dan Mitchell, a smart car owner in Montreal - thank you Dan! The 100mpg.ca l0go was provided by Bob Bunting, who also loaded the website and configured various features.

Others have assisted with planning travel, lodging, events, and media releases. Special mention needs to be given to John Vissers and Marie Harwood, for without their help, I’d be sitting on the rock somewhere!

Thanks to Cliff for the Microsoft Sreets and Trips with GPS, Mark for the cd’s and case to put them in, and of course, Deana, for packing, taking care of Chloe, and praying.

Mike T has provided technical advice and kept many of the fuel economy records up to date. Rich Helms provided the space and oil for the change in Uxbridge.

The City of Abbotsford has been right behind this since they first heard of it. They’ve helped with communications, media releases, and promotional materials. Thank you to Mayor Mary Reeves, Economic Development Manager Jay Teichroeb, and Economic Development Coordinator Rhonda Livingstone for their support and encouragement.

The 100 MPG Challenge was not sponsored or endorsed by Mercedes-Benz or Environment Canada.

As reported previously, I was able to achieve my goal of 81 mpg (3.5 L/100km) on leg 1 from Victoria BC to St Johns NL.

Leg 2 from St Johns, NL back to BC has proved to be a challenge. As close as I can tell you for now - I was only able to pull off 75 mpg (3.75 L/100km). This despite achieving 101 mpg today between Penticton and Hope, and 111 mpg three days ago between Brandon and Moosomin.

Although I drove very carefully from Ottawa to BC, particularly hurtful to the fuel economy on the return leg were tanks between St Johns and Gander (56 mpg) and several tanks in Quebec, including a dismal 52 mpg between Montreal and Ottawa - my worst tank ever.

Thus, my overall economy lies at just 78 mpg (3.62 L/100km) - which is 3.7% under target. (Enough to be annoying to me.)

As for making it on $500.00 - that was based on $0.899 per litre. The average price of the 583 litres I have consumed thus far is $1.053 - a glaring 17% increase.

I was paying in excess of $1.20 per litre out in Newfoundland and Labrador. The cheapest prices were had in Alberta - $0.859 eastbound and $0.949 westbound. No surprise there I guess. (That may also explain why every other person drives a V8 Dodge Ram or similar in that province. :-0 )

So as you can tell, I’m about 20% over budget on the fuel ‘cost’. Final tally should be roughly $620.00.

Save for the increase in fuel prices as of recent, I would have completed the entire 16,300 kms on $530 worth of fuel.

One other interesting point:

My ‘Western Canadian’ mileage was 83 mpg overall (3.4 L/100km), which includes everything eastbound up to Mississauga, and everything westbound beyond Ottawa.

A full report with a spreadsheet back-up will be available after October 1st.

I arrived in Abbotsford tonight at 9 pm.

The car did remarkably well on the trip, which is officially 16,000+ kms as of today - not one hint of any mechanical issues at all - not even a flat tire. The car now has over 42,000 kms on it - and appears to be running as good as new.

Just a really quick note… I’m in Kelowna for a 2 pm event at City Hall. Then I’ll be heading back to Abbotsford for tonight, going via Penticton, Keremeos, Princeton and Hope.

Was relieved to finally find a Chevron station when I reached Golden yesterday. Could be just my mind playing tricks on me, but my mileage improved right away. I’ve pulled my overall number within the sub 3.6 range, so we’ll see if some careful driving and lucky winds help out today.

There is much to update, which will happen tonight and Friday. Officially, the 100 MPG Challenge will end on Saturday in Vancouver.

It’s 4:30 pm, and I’m in Calgary. The wireless connection at my lodging isn’t the greatest, so we’ll see how productive I can be tonight. There is much to write.

Today was uneventful.

Update as of 8 pm:

Internet still fading in and out, so I think it’ll be another day or two before any additional updates.

After getting my contacts in, I filled up in Moosomin - and that worked out to 111 miles per IMPERIAL gallon. Seems that my best hope for getting 100 miles per US gallon on the way back would have been from Kenora to the SK-MB border. I had thoughts of removing the contents of the car for such an attempt, and sending them with Greyhound to the next city, but I would now pass on that idea.

The morning was uneventful. As I neared Regina, the signs indicated the main attractions. A casino was on top of the list. How disappointing that a casino is a ‘main attraction’ for a place like Regina. Casinos hurt communities and families - don’t be fooled. Anyway…

After Regina, Marie Harwood called me back with the actual town name where Corner Gas is filmed. I wasn’t too far away, and turned back and took a grid road to get there.

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Monday morning, I awoke early, and departed the rest area after putting a few drops in my eyes. The SK border was just moments away. Chilly night, likely down to about 2 or 3 celsius. I had the heater on.

After crossing into SK, my eyes felt a bit funny. I blinked. Once. And that’s when it all went blurry.

Not just one, but BOTH of my contacts were out. O my word - what am I going to do now? I could make out the rough outline of he road in front of me, and knew there was a shoulder. I reached over and put the hazard lights on, and then slowly and carefully pulled onto it as best I could. A semi passed by a moment later. I put the e-brake on and sat back in the seat. I stretched out my left palm and placed the contact that was on my cheek there, and went felt around for the other, which had falen towards the seat.

I now had two contacts in my hand, and no vision to speak of.

Rat tat tat… someone is at my window. Huh? Hey, are you okay? I thought maybe you ran out of electricity.

Uhm, sure, I’m okay. My eyes fell out. (Do you happen to have a spare socket?)

Humoured now, I struggled to get one contact lined up enough to insert into my right eye. I was able to get them both in and then got out of the car and laughed for at least three minutes.

(I was born with cataracts, and as a result, my contacts are +18 in strength - so you can imagine how well I see without them.)

With nothing lined up to do in Winnipeg, I pressed on past sunset for Brandon. The mileage on this tank was doing very well from what I could tell, my fourth blob had lasted to almost 500 kms. I was going to try for 800 kms on this tank.

I called Eddie in Edmonton, and went over a few numbers. We estimated my mileage to be around 110 mpg on the later part of the tank, but couldn’t be 100% sure. I was pushing zeroes soon after the turn off to Portage, and knew the 40 km countdown was in progress. Not only that, but my car also reached a milestone - halfway through the warranty:

The Town of Macgregor was no use - the Coop was closed til the morning. I pulled out the laptop and ran the mileage to the next town - Austin - and decided I could safely make it there.

Austin’s station in town was closed too. And I could go only 15 more kms safely. I called John Vissers to have him look up some phone numbers for stations nearby. We didn’t find anything. While walking over to a store to get a drink from the vending machine, I decided to walk down the road and see if I could tell what the bright sign was on the highway several kms away. I couldn’t, but decided I would drive there anyway.

A Coop! Closed. Oh wait. There’s guys inside. It just closed. 11 pm. I’d been in Austin for nearly an hour, and all I had to do was come here? Good thing I use diesel. They pulled out a cardlock account card, and I gave them $20 for the 20.31 litres. Odometer read 746.7 kms, possibly a new record for how far someone is willing to go on 0.0 reserve.

After showing the guys the car, I departed for Brandon, and finished filling the tank. I calculated 88 mpg overall for the 818 km run - which was great. I knew the last 250 kms were the best part of the tank, so I was looking forward to the next fill. I continued driving for another hour and a half, and slept in the car for about 4 hours near the SK border.

Last moment with Marie Harwood near the QC-ON border:

smart forfour cdi at the ATVP Facility in Ottawa:

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I left from Atikokan as planned and made my way through Fort Frances and onwards to Emo. I was passed at some point by of all things, another Honda Insight. The second I’d seen that day. (Rumour has it they only sold NINE cars for the 2004 model year in Canada. Good luck trying to find one to look at - dealers do not carry them.)

In Emo, I found something interesting, and had to do a u-turn to have a look and bring you this picture:

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