Author: hairymonster

It is currently August 13, 2020, 11:24 PM local time in Revelstoke, BC. I am soooper tired. I have been driving 15+ hours for the past 3 days, so my apologies if I haven’t made an update yet!

A quick update on where I drove.

On day 1, I drove from Toronto, Ontario to Thunder Bay, Ontario. I started at 6:00AM, and didn’t make it to the Hotel at almost midnight!

On day 2, I drove from Thunder Bay to Regina, Saskatchewan. I started at about 6:00 AM, and didn’t make it to the Hotel at almost 10 PM local time. On the way, I also gained 2 hours from the timezone difference.

On day 3, I drove from Regina to Revelstoke, BC. I started around 7:00 AM, and didn’t make it to the Hotel at around 8:00 PM local time. This time, I gained about 1 hour from the timezone difference.

Unfortunately, this time we never had a chance to “explore” or “vacation” along the way. Our main objective was to make it to East Vancouver ASAP. Luckily, my Mom was able to help me drive a bit as I took short breaks to maximize the road time.

Tomorrow should be the final leg of this road trip destination. According to Google Maps, it should take approximately 6 hours to reach there from Revelstoke. I will post some more updates once I get a chance to unwind, unpack, and torment my new Nephew! I will also try to post some numbers of the MPG metrics of my Honda Accord, and compare it to how well it performs relative to my BRZ.

Until then, it is really late. I am really tired. Good night!

I will post an update once I leave the first leg of the trip.

On a different note, my nephew called today! I can’t wait to see him in real life!!!

I’m preparing to do this again. Except this time, it is with a ’07 Honda Accord 2.4 slushbox with 220 000KM! I wish I was driving my BRZ instead.

I spent a lot of time prepping the car. Trans fluid, knock sensor, coolant, brake fluid, motor oil/filter, serpentine belt, new rubber, spark plugs, new LED headlights, etc etc. Driving a 13 year old car across the country is very different than driving a newer vintage car, even though I do try to work very hard to keep her in tiptop shape. I also subscribed to CAA for the first time, just in case.

Due to the pandemic, I won’t be able to stop and sight see as much this time. My goal is to just drive as much as I can to reach my destination, and self isolate for 14 days before I can finally see my nephew! I hope he doesn’t cry when I finally meet him for the first time in real life…

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Hello and welcome back. I never had intentions to restart this blog so early, or in such circumstances. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks, I am sure you are all aware of the recent development of the Covid-19 Virus. I don’t think anybody is immune to the consequences of the effects of this virus around us. I personally have been stuck at home for the past several weeks. As you probably have guessed, I had an amazing time last year with my road trip. I promised myself I would make this trip again as soon as weather permits, with the intention to finally meet my Nephew. Due to obvious reasons, things unfortunately might not be going as planned.

I placed my car under hibernation since November 07, of 2019. I had every intention to bring her back to life as soon as spring approaches, and begin my adventures all over again. The original date I planned was to wake up my car on April 17, 2020. Obviously this timeline is no longer feasible.

I have been in regular contact with my Nephew almost daily over video chat. Watching him grow and evolve has provided me great joy and happiness. Despite such advances in modern technology, there is no substitute for meeting someone you care about in real life. Observing the news every day tempers a significant portion of that delight. Just this morning, I have heard from a news conference that they are estimating this lock down can last beyond August!

I hope this situation tapers off soon. Placing life on hold because of this situation has taken a significant toll on our mental health and well being. I will continue to follow the best practices as asked of me by the medical experts, such as social distancing, and minimizing unnecessary travel. But I would be lying if I don’t admit that this whole scenario has been without a struggle on me mentally. I love to travel. Driving is a passion of mine, and being able to complete a cross country road trip last year was everything I dreamed of. I had every intention to perform the same task again this year.

I truly hope 2020 won’t turn out to be a write-off. It feels so unfair to have so much taken away, through no fault of anyone. Where do I go from here?

2020-04-17 00:00:00 EST.

Zzzzzz…

To those of you who know me, know that I am normally a very private guy. I am not one to usually make public posts, or share my personal thoughts in such a public setting. However, I felt making a blog like this would be the best medium to share pictures, and update my friends and families on how my road trip has progressed. Now that the trip has concluded, I see no need to continue to write in this blog post. I will keep it alive to share with my friends, however, it will be “tomb stoned” for the foreseeable future.

At this time, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the following friends and families members in no particular order.

My Mother – for putting up with sitting next to me for 50+ hours driving to Vancouver. I am grateful for having the privilege to share such an amazing experience with my Mom. I would’ve loved to drive more family members, however, there wasn’t enough room in my car! LOL

My Brother and Sister in Law – for hosting me and putting up with me for my duration, even at such a stressful time in your family.

My Nephew – for being my excuse to come visit you again! You have amazing timing! I can’t wait to meet you in real life.

Josh, John, and Olivia – thank you for such an amazing experience in assisting me in the purchase of my dream car. I can not imagine a more perfect vehicle for making this amazing dream road trip.

Bud, Bret, and Gabe – for introducing me to the amazing world of cars. You guys taught me that a car is more than just a tool to take you from point A to point B. You three are directly responsible for the fact that I will never drive an automatic vehicle ever again!

Ed Bolian – Chances are you will never see this. You taught me that memories created driving a vehicle is worth infinitely more than the resale value of the vehicle itself. Though I lack the deep pockets required to drive in such a reckless fashion as you did for the Canonball events, know that you are a big inspiration and directly responsible in encouraging me to enact in such a crazy goal!

You – for reading my tiny little blog. All both of you. I hope you enjoyed following my dream.

So with that said, I must bid everyone goodbye. This concludes our broadcast day. beeeeeeeep

Here are the technical stats I have compiled for the road trip. I tried to keep as much significant digits as possible to minimize rounding errors.

Total Dates	2019-08-23 to 2019-10-01 (39 days)
KM Traveled	11 202
KM/L	12.49946998
MPG (Converted) (combined)	29.40062832
MPG (Converted) (highway)	30.59802
MPG (Converted) (City)	22.20564
Fuel Consumed (L)	896.201
Fuel Total Cost (Canadian Pesos)	$1,269.45
$/KM	$0.1133235136

According to Subaru, the BRZ has 29MPG Highway, and 21MPG City. I have visited the pump a total of 29 times! If you are interested in seeing the full spreadsheet of how I created these numbers, please let me know and I will post a PDF.

I arrived back home last night around 7:00PM EST. I took a nice long hot shower, and literally crashed. I did not wake up until 5PM local time!

I just finished stripping the car of all the luggage, and loaded up the washing machine with the dirty laundry. This is going to be a long night!

Oh and the funny story that happened to my two nights ago! I arrived at Sault St Marie around 7PM localtime. I have a quick dinner, unwind, and pull out my phone like I always did to begin booking for a hotel room for the night. Oh, that’s odd, nothing is available except for this really sketchy motel inn 20 minutes away for way too much than rack rate! Same goes for the rest of the week! What’s going on? I drive straight to the hotel I stayed on my trip to Vancouver, and walk in to ask for vacancy. Apparently, this was prime tourist season for some conference that is happening in town!

The next closest major city Sudbury was about 3 hours away. It was raining hard, very foggy, and I was too fatigued to make that drive. Luckily, the weather was in the mid-teens, so I did the next best thing. I found a local 24 hour Tim Hortons, and slept in my car for the night. The firm Alcantara seats might have been very well suited for confident driving experience, but left a lot to be desired as a sleeping solution. Somehow my mother was able to sleep quite comfortably throughout the trip there!

I didn’t want to write about this experience until I was home for fear of jinxing things, but luckily the remainder of the trip was relatively uneventful.

I originally did not intend to leave so close to the winter season. Unfortunately, baby refused to come out, and I gambled a bit too close! I hope to make this trip again, however, next time I won’t leave things so close to the tip! With that said, the entire trip was amazing. I got to know my car very well, and the drive to Vancouver was phenomenal. Even with the several setbacks that occurred during my return trip, I still had a very enjoyable time overall. Despite the occasional setbacks, I have every intention to make road trips like this again!

I will be posting a final blog entry within the net few days talking about the technical and logistical details of this trip.

I’m almost home! This has been an amazing trip, and definitely an experience I shall cherish for the rest of my life!

Drove for another 8 hours or so today, with plenty of breaks in between. Arrived at Sault St Marie. I actually have a very funny story to write about my return trip through here. However, I can not write about it yet. I will update this post, or add a new one later. I promise it will be worth the wait. Update: It’s up. I posted about this on 2019-10-02.

I’m also getting quite home sick. Looking forward to taking a hot shower in my own tub, and having a good night sleep in my own bed. Oh, and my car can really use a good scrubbing inside and out too!

Oh, I forgot to write about this yesterday. While I drove through Western Ontario, I encountered a marker where the timezone changed from Central to Eastern time. The modern day timezone system that is used throughout the world is invented by a Scottish Canadian by the name of Sir Sanford Fleming. To acknowledge his contribution to society, the province of Ontario has created a tourist attraction by the highway to commemorate his work. Oddly enough, my cell phone didn’t update the time until almost 2 hour drive east of the marker.

The only reason why I know so much about Sir Sanford Fleming, was because I did a science paper on him during my primary school days.

On a side note, I had the following conversation with my brother over text while driving back home. Don’t worry, I used Android Auto voice dictation.

Me: “How’s baby doing?”

Brother: “Kid is the devil. We are all tired including mom.”

2019-09-30, 14:22EST