stats!

I've been back in Canada for a month now - life is busy as I try to get settled down and gainfully employed in BC. I've compiled some statistics from the trip....

Approximate amount of money spent: 3,000 CAD (not bad for 4.5 months)

Dates of trip: December 13, 2005 – April 20, 2006
Total Days: 128
Nights staying with friends: 9
Nights in a hotel: 3
Nights in a tent: 102
Nights sleeping in the car: 13
Driving overnight: 1
Days with a dog: 22
Longest amount of time spent in one destination: 4 weeks (Hueco Tanks, Texas)

Car
Name: Betsy
Make/Model: 1988 chevrolet cavalier
Color: blue
Maximum occupancy reached: four people, three crashpads and a back pack
Kilometers driven: approx 19,000

CAA rescues: two, one when the starter died, and one when some helpful strangers helped me swap the alternator out in front of an Auto Zone, only to find that the old alternator was fine. AAA came and put my car back together for me.

America
States visited: 19
States climbed in: 8
States driven through with no overnight stops: 6
Shortest amount of time spent in one state: new york, 1.5 hours
Annoying thing I've heard a lot: “you’re from Canada? I’ve been there.” (it's a big country, you know)

Best driving CD: Beck - Sea Change
Longest driving push with a passenger: 23 hours, Tennessee to El Paso
Longest driving push alone: 19 hours, Utah to Washington

Food
Approximate amount of peanut butter ingested: 5 jars
Cans of tuna ingested: feels close to infinity, probably between 50-100
Favourite recipe created, and then promptly overdosed on: tuna coleslaw pasta salad
Grocery item carried from Toronto, through the entire trip and on to BC: sesame seed oil
Lessons learned:
“how would this taste with tuna?” is a question better left unanswered
Macaroni and cheese by any other name is still just macaroni and cheese
Worst meal eaten: rice, cilantro, Portobello mushrooms, ruined with about a half cup of mayonnaise

Climbing
Number of climbing locations visited: 11
Crags visited total: 15
Crags trad: 3
Crags bouldering: 8
Crags sport: 4

Grades:
Hardest send (bouldering): V6
Hardest flash (bouldering): V4
Hardest send (sport): 11b/c

People:
Climbing "celebrities" met: 7
Climbing celebrities that remember my name: 0
Bizarre meeting: Met a guy in hueco who went to the same high school that I did.

Strangest slang terms:
“Ressy” pronounced “rezzy” – short for a reservation for the Hueco Tanks north mountain climbing area.
“Rig” so cal slang for just about anything. You can rig the rig in the rig while riggin’ it. Confused? Me too.

Dirtbagging
Score boiled eggs from a continental breakfast - save them for sandwiches later, take the coffee for now.
Get a few paper towels from the gas station everytime you put gas in the car so you don't have to buy any.
Dirtbag record: Went 6 days without spending money on anything but gas for the car
Attempted to cook potatoes via heat in the trunk on a sunny day (saves on fuel)
Times viewing family guy movie: 6 (it's the only movie on my laptop)

Pants
Pairs of pants brought: 10
Pairs of pants acquired:2 pants, 1 pr shorts
Total amount of pants: 13
Note to self: 13 pairs of pants? A bit excessive.

Blog
Did you know that as you’ve been watching my trip, I’ve been watching you? I’ve kept track of the hits on my site with a counter, and after leaving hueco, I would check in to see who was visiting. The final stretch of my trip, I would pull up to a hotel to obtain a wireless internet connection, and check to see who had visited recently. This gave me some company.

total entries: 60
entries that never made it out of draft mode: 6
Total visits: ~2,500 (during the trip)
Most interesting hits from a web search: “Toronto homeless”, “girl on road stripping”, and my personal favourite: “quebec swingers pictures”
Furthest away regular visitors: Italy, Singapore, Australia

just a note: I've enjoyed writing for a web audience. Sometimes it may have seemed quite personal. I talked about a lot of things, but there are topics I have intentionally excluded. There's no clandestine reason, this just isn't my diary or journal. This is a collection of stories, experiences on the road, and observations on life on a solo roadtrip. I hope you enjoyed it.