Got thinking tonight about Percy Schmeiser, the Saskatchewan farmer that took on Monsanto. Different subject altogether. But Canola was the crop. And wouldn’t you know it, I’m right in the heart of Canola country.

Milligan Bio-Tech has a biodiesel plant at Foam Lake, a mere 50 kms away from where I am staying. I might try and get a tour.

The Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission has some great online biodiesel resources and studies if you are interested. You might also want to check out the biodiesel page at the Canola Council of Canada website - there seems to be some good info there.

I’m in Wadena right now, and despite some very careful driving, mileage has not been stellar. Winds have been uncooperative - seems I am at 90 mpg imperial on the B80 I’ve been running, though I am dwindling that down to B40 through various top-ups. I did not go through to Yorkton, as I could tell I was falling short when the first blob disappeared at 200 km. Instead I went back to Birch Hills near Prince Albert, and then back to Wadena, this time with my cargo. I was running 43 PSI cold, BTW.

I’ve got a fun filled day tomorrow, and we’ll see where the roads go. More to follow when I get a chance.

Will anyone get the irony of these two?

Here’s your hint!

Don’t ask!

And they were closed it appears…

I am built for comfort, not built for speed…

Aliens II

It’s Monday evening, and I am at a Bed & Breakfast in Prince Albert. The internet connection is sketchy – so I can’t upload all my pictures, or report on everything I would like.

I am going to make my first attempt at 100 mpg US in the morning – driving approx 250 miles to Yorkton. I should arrive there by 3 pm, so that’s the soonest I’ll be able to post any results…

The morning was spent at Fort Battleford, taking in a guided tour. Afterwards I made my way through small town Saskatchewan, trying to avoid getting swallowed up by potholes on Hwy 12 and elsewhere. Seriously - there were sections that would have taken the front end of the car apart.

Driving slower today yielded close to a 3.6 L/100km tank - after bombing miserably on the Calgary to Kindersley run - which was 4.9 - though I was going 110+ whenever possible. The Revelstoke to Calgary tank turned out to be 4.2 - including local driving and the short trip to Cochrane.

It’s Sunday morning now, and I’m revising my Saskatchewan plans based on the weather forecast. I’ll need the sunshine…

Saturday was fairly relaxed. I took 2/3 of the Campbell’s geocaching in the morning. For the afternoon, seven or eight smarts and their owners hung out for a few hours and went to Cochrane.

I attended a really great service at Foothills Alliance in the evening, and then enjoyed homemade pizza and played a pretty cool game called Exploration. BTW - the Hebrew word Yada means ‘acknowledge’ - ie: ‘I know’… We also listened to Iona’s The Book of Kells cd that I had brought along - which is interesting for the fact that one of the Campbell’s daughters created a Celtic design for their car.

I’ll be heading to The Battlefords today and will likely camp. Monday I’ll be a tourist for awhile, and then it’s off to Prince Albert. Tuesday will be my first attempt to get 100 miles per US gallon, as l head for Yorkton. After that, I’ll improvise as need be. I’ll be passing through Moose Jaw/Caronport on the return trip, and will likely hit Calgary and/or Lethbridge by Saturday. At this point, I’m planning to take the Crowsnest back to BC, rather than hwy 1.

I left Abbotsford at 9 am BC time, after having a quick breakfast with John Vissers and filling up. I made good time to Kamloops on the Coquihalla - average speed 97 kmh - and stopped briefly at the Mercedes-Benz dealer right off of the highway. I filled up in Revelstoke, and then the road conditions became trying at times, with construction and poor asphalt in many different stretches. I was driving some sections in first gear behind transports… not exactly economical. Still - averaging under 4.0 through the Rocky Mountains is pretty good.

I made it to Calgary right on time - 9 pm. I was lucky - the Hwy was closed in Golden - so I pulled off for a bit to review distances on the laptop for the longer detour route. Then, just as I was going to take the detour, a fellow biodiesel user pulled along side and we chatted - and I learned the highway had just reopened. So I didn’t lose the two hours afterall.

The drive from Banff to Calgary went really quick, with average speed close to 110 kmh. I drafted a semi part of the way. I’m certainly not setting any economy records on this part of the trip (nor am I trying to). I was flashing the 5.0 litre warning at 401 kms when I arrived in Calgary.

I’ll be spending a couple days now with friends. We have a rendezvous in Cochrane on Saturday with fellow smart car owners.

Fuel Report

Abbotsford to Revelstoke: 490 kms
3.7 L/100km
76 mpg (imp)
64 mpg (US)

Average speeds from GPS:
97 kmh (Abbotsford to Kamloops)
87 kmh (Kamloops to Revelstoke)

Temperature ranged from 15 to 24 celsius throughout the day.

You can contact 100mpg.ca by e-mail.

Well, here it is, one year after I first had the idea to take the One-Tonne Challenge across Canada via the 100 MPG Challenge.

My personal goal of achieving better than 100 mpg (imperial) was met - in fact, I achieved better than 100 mpg on five tanks during the 16,344 km journey:

113 mpg
Prince Albert to Yorkton

111 mpg
Brandon to Moosomin

106 mpg
Massey to Mitchell

104 mpg
Sydney to St Johns

101 mpg
Penticton to Hope

And all of this was done while being fully loaded, with about 275 lbs of luggage in the car.

I’m heading out for a new challenge in two days. I’ll be leaving for Calgary on Friday morning, loaded up with 40 litres of biodiesel courtesy of Cascadia Biofuels.

From Calgary, after enjoying some time off with friends and fellow Club smart Car members, I’ll be heading into Saskatchewan, in search of an even greater economy record - 100 miles per US gallon. That’s a mere 2.35 L/100km or 120 mpg imperial.

With my previous best being 94 mpg US (113 mpg imperial), I’ll actually need to improve by 6.4% - and there are a few things I am doing that may help this.

First - I am dropping the cargo - it will be me and the car. (And no, not in silk underwear, John!) That’s 16% less weight to move, which might equate to 3-4% economy gain at highway speed.

I will also travel station to station with no stops - a luxury I couldn’t afford last year when I was passing by new places only once. That might gain me another 1%.

I will boost my tire PSI another 2-3, setting it just short of the maximum recommended pressure - this should gain me a solid 1% more.

And lastly, I have cruise control, which if used sparingly, might gain me another half a percent.

The really interesting part is that I will be running with about 80% biodiesel on up to two attempts - Cascadia Biofuels has already supplied me with a soy based biodiesel - I picked up two 20L pails yesterday. Hopefully their printer will also have some temporary graphics for the car before I leave.

The biodiesel will be added to my fuel tank first, and then I’ll top off with petroleum diesel to ensure the tank is filled to capacity. For these attempts, I will also be utilizing GPS to verify the precise distance travelled. And all this extra attention to detail is because I think it’ll be really really close.

By the way, yes, the car has been ‘unwrapped’. I peeled the One-Tonne Challenge graphics off on April 28th - literally. They came off no problem in the hot sun. I did leave the roof graphics on though - for the summer - to keep the car cooler withoutn using a/c. I’m still pondering opportunities to use the vehicle as an advertising medium for another year. Hopefully the right project will come along.

Here’s what the car looks like now, and note - fasteddy supplied me with some wider wheels recently, called corelines. They improve the handling and eliminate the understeer on the smart, although I am running with my skinnier sportlines on this upcoming trip.

I’ll be returning to BC around June 20th, and will certainly post pictures and results while on the road. Wish me well, and drive smart. Thanks to ‘envirogenny’ for taking care of Chloe.

I’ve been meaning to post a recap on the 100 MPG Challenge, with links to the posts from my cross country drive. So here it is…

It all began here. In May 2005, just as my car was getting wrapped in graphics, I had this crazy idea to drive across the country to promote the One-Tonne Challenge and get people excitied about fuel efficiency.

The idea was presented to the City of Abbotsford for their approval. John Vissers presented the idea at a council meeting.

I put this website together overnight, and had help with the logo.

I arranged to take five weeks off of work, and picked a start date, which coincided with another smart car event in Victoria on August 28th. And so it began at Mile 0.

Here are links to specific dates and places from the trip:

August 29th, Abbotsford, BC.
August 30th, Barriere, BC.
August 30th, Hinton, AB.
August 31st, Edmonton, AB.
August 31st, North Battleford, SK.
August 31st, Birch Hills, SK.
September 1, Wadena, SK.
September 1, Yorkton, SK. This is where I surpassed 100 MPG for the first time, achieving 113 mpg, or 2.49 L/100km.
September 2nd, at the 100th Meridian in MB.
September 2nd, Thunder Bay, ON.
September 3rd, near Nipigon, ON. 100mpg.ca readers will remember the ‘Thanks for the vacuum’ story. One of my favorites.
September 4th, Massey, ON.
September 4th, Bruce Peninsula, ON.
September 4th, Mitchell, ON.
September 5th, Stratford, ON.
September 5th, London, ON.
September 5th, Mississauga, ON.
September 5th, ‘How much stuff can fit in a smart?’
September 6th, Fuel Economy results: Victoria to Toronto’
September 6th, Bradford, ON.
September 7th, Toronto, ON.
September 7th, Uxbridge, ON.
September 8th, Kingston, ON.
September 9th, Montreal, QC.
September 9th, Oromocto, NB.
September 10th commentary by John Vissers.
September 10th, CTC Gagetown.
September 10th, PEI.
September 11th, Charlottetown, PE. More here.
September 11th, Antigonish, NS.
September 11th, North Sydney, NS.
September 13th, near St. Johns, NF.
September 13th, Mile 0, St. Johns, NF. Includes fuel economy recap for leg 1 of the journey.
September 13th, arriving in Gander NF. Some more thoughts here.
September 14th, Gander NF.
September 14th, Corner Brook, NF. More.
September 15th, Flowers Cove, NF. More.
September 16th, Labrador. I promise to post all of my pictures and stories from Labrador… and soon!
September 17th, aboard the Nordik Express. What a day. A very worthwhile excursion.
September 18th, Kegaska, QC.
September 18th, Natashquan, QC.
Some thoughts from around September 20th: here, here and here. I missed out on Quebec City, but guess what… I plan on going back.
September 21st, Dorval, QC.
September 22nd, Ottawa, ON. A few pictures from my visit to Transport Canada are here.
September 23rd, marathon, ON. You can also read about the 16 Showerhead Challenge.
September 24th, Lake Superior and area.
September 25th, Atikokan, ON.
September 25th, Kenora, ON.
September 25th, Brandon, MB.
September 26th, SK-MB border.
September 26th, Dog River, SK.
September 27th, Calgary, AB.
September 29th, Kelowna, BC.
September 29th, Abbotsford, BC.
September 30th, Abbotsford, BC. Some ‘thank you’ messages, and a recap on trip expenses.
October 1st, Vancouver, BC. Final fuel consumption figures are here.

I’ll try to jazz this up a bit, and give some additional thoughts on bits of the trip. I can say this now - it was very condensed. Putting together this recap brought back to life the ups and downs of traversing the country in 33 days.

Thanks for checking in.

Vancouver
6:00 PM
Saturday, Oct 1

I have arrived in Vancouver for the official conclusion of the 100 MPG Challenge.

I joined 4 other smart cars briefly in Yarrow this afternoon, but 1 left our convoy prior to this picture:

We drove from Yarrow along Majuba Hill Rd, and then through Arnold and back to Vye Rd.

Passing the Abbotsford Airport, we then went along 0 Avenue to 176th… and then up to 8th before finally parting ways at the 99.

I crossed the imaginary finish line into Vancouver solo, save for the mad traffic jammers trying to get to a football game. Plans to end at Beach and Howe were shelved, as traffic was too heavy. 2 PM in Yarrow had turned into 4 PM, as the smart car crew was enjoying pie at the Chilliwack airport while I waited near Cultus Lake. Unfortunately, JoAnn from Tartine will have to freeze my cake now. :-(

My final fill-up was at the Chevron on Marine Drive at Main, which is also where I have connected to the internet to send off this post.

(My display in the car, in case you were wondering.)

16,344 kms total
593 litres of fuel
$624.63 spent
3.63 L/100km average, which is 78 mpg (imperial)

Top 5 tanks were:

113 mpg
Prince Albert to Yorkton

111 mpg
Brandon to Moosomin

106 mpg
Massey to Mitchell

104 mpg
Sydney to St Johns

101 mpg
Penticton to Hope

(Painting by Marie Harwood)

The 100 MPG Challenge will officially end today in Vancouver at roughly 4:00 to 4:30 pm at Beach and Howe.

I will be joining a convoy of vehicles in Yarrow at roughly 2 pm near Majuba Hill Road. This convoy includes a few smart cars that are currently making their way out to Harrison Hot Springs for lunch. We will travel through Abbotsford, Aldergrove, Langley and White Rock. I’m not 100% sure where they are going after White Rock, but I will find my way into Vancouver, likely making a stop at the smart centre on Broadway before going to Tartine on Beach Avenue.

BTW - I have checked out the operation of the car’s steering and braking, and nothing seems too terribly wrong. I am scheduled for a full inspection of all of the suspension and steering components, and the alignment on Monday.