Smart Cars It started with TwoRed We saw our first Smart cars in Europe. When we spied two Smarts in a single parking space on a street in Paris, we were hooked. TwoRed is what we call our 2010 Smart Passion. We bought this car to leave on the mainland so that we will have our own car when visiting Kim’s mother. We make the trip to Southern California pretty often. Back-of-the-envelope calculations indicated that we’d likely save money if we had our own car, rather than renting a car on each trip. TwoRed’s role has evolved. It serves our needs when doing family visits. And it is also the car in which we take trips. Long trips. Sometimes very long trips. While most people think of Smart cars as short-trip urban vehicles, we're using our Smart to roam North America. Virtually every trip has been part of an expedition. You'll see from our travel log that we've crossed the US several times and have more long distance trips in the planning stages. Eventually, TwoRed will come to Hawai`i. In the meantime, we will continue to take expeditions along the mainland highways.
TwoRed at the Arctic Circle in Alaska.
TwoRed has been to 49 states, the District of Columbia, and all 10 Canadian provinces.
The Expeditions Past Trips 2010: Coast-to-Coast trip (Sept – November; ~10,000 miles) 2011: SoCal Desert (January; 600 miles) 2011: SoCal to NoCal and back (aka "Redwoods Trip") (May: 1,800 miles) 2011: St. Louis and back (June 24 to July 19: 4,802 miles) 2011: Yosemite (November; 1,580 miles) 2012: Ft. Worth (February; 2,850 miles) 2012: Phoenix & Grand Canyon (May; 1457 miles) 2012: Frostburg & the Northern States (May-June; 6,531 miles) 2012: Death Valley (December 26-28; 913.8 miles) 2013: West Coast to the Arctic Circle! (Aug 4-Sept 6; ~5,470 miles + >2,500 miles on the Alaska Marine Highway [ferry]) 2014: 49 State and 10 Provinces Expedition (April 30-June 12; 10,907 miles) 2014: Ft. Worth Meeting (August; 2,757 miles) 2014: Bash on the Bridge (September 19-21; 608 miles) 2015: Sedona (July; 1041 miles)
All of the trips begin and end near San Diego, California.
Locations of the first 212 gas stations used by TwoRed (6/12/2014)
Statistics (May, 2015) Total Distance: 55,010 miles Total Fuel Used: 1,428.23 gallons Total Fuel Cost: $5,554.45 Overall Mileage: 39.22 mpg Best 5 tank average: 47.10 mpg Total Fill-ups: 232 Average Fill-up: 6.16 gallons Largest Fill-up: 8.70 gallons Average Distance Between Fills: 242.5 miles Most Expensive Fuel: $5.67 / gallon (Wawa, Ontario, Canada) Least Expensive Fuel: $2.66 / gallon Average Fuel Price: $3.89 / gallon
The Extremes Northernmost Location: Wiseman, AK Southernmost Location: San Antonio, TX Westernmost Location: Anchor Point, AK Easternmost US Location: West Quody Point, ME Easternmost Location: Deer Lake, Newfoundland Lowest Elevation: Death Valley, CA Highest Elevation: see upcoming trips We’ve gotten to some extreme locations. Anchor Point, AK, is as far west as you can drive on the contiguous North American road system. West Quody Point, ME is the easternmost location of the US highway system. We were further east in Canada when we drove to Deer Lake in Newfoundland. That drive required a ferry trip to Newfoundland. Our northernmost point, Wiseman, Alaska, is on the Dalton Highway. This tiny village is about 75 miles north of the Arctic Circle. This was a particularly perilous drive. It is likely that this was the only time a Smart car has driven to (and beyond) the Arctic Circle in the US. TwoRed was at the lowest point (-282 ft) in the US on a visit to Death Valley, CA. We hope to bookend that extreme with a drive to the Mount Evans Scenic Byway (14,130 ft). This is the highest paved road in the US.
Fun Stuff Bash on the Bridge 71 Smart cars on London Bridge at Lake Havasu, Arizona in September, 2014. Are Smart car owners crazy?
Tail of the Dragon North Carolina highway US 129 has 318 curves in 11 miles. This is a scenic drive if you’re willing to let your eyes wander from the road. Great fun in a small car.
2013: The Arctic Circle Challenge Planning the Route Many months were spent in the planning the expedition. The trip would start in San Diego. The drive would go up the length of the West Coast. Then we’d board (driver and car) the Alaska Marine Highway (i.e., the ferry) from Bellingham, Washington, to Haines, Alaska. This is a three-day trip, mostly on the calm waters of the Inside Passage. Smart cars qualify for the lowest rate so this seemed like a cost-effective way to get north while avoiding some pretty difficult highways across Canada. (There were reports of some severe damage along the ALCAN so we considered the Alaska Marine Highway as a safe alternative.) The driving route would then go north into British Columbia, through the Yukon Territory, and then back into Alaska. It would be a pretty straight run up to Fairbanks where we would join our friends who live near Fairbanks. The Arctic Circle is about 200 miles north of Fairbanks. For safety, we’d do this leg accompanied by Alaskan friends who would drive an Alaska-prepared SUV.
The return trip would go through Fairbanks and then to Anchorage. A bit more drive to Homer for a few days and then a short trip south to Whittier to catch the Alaska Marine Highway ferry. This would be a five-day ocean trip back to Bellingham. A few days of driving down the West Coast would bring the car back to San Diego.
Preparing the Car The drive across southern Alaska was expected to be "tough" and a few preparations were made. Some things are standard equipment in TwoRed while a few are temporary modifications or single-use items. As usual, we relied on Smart Madness to help us with these preparations. • • • • • • • • • •
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Wheel change (winter tires and steel rims) Spare wheel (carried on board behind passenger seat) Tire change kit (jack, wrench, rubber mallet, gloves) Tire repair kit Tow "rope" (25 ft web) Tow hooks (including punching a hole for the left front hook) Spare rubber belt Bra (to protect against rocks and debris) Collapsable water container (2.5 gallon) Jump-starter battery (Black and Decker 350 amp, w/ light; 10 pounds) -- with short extension cord; charges in 2 days ProClip mount for Galaxy Note 2 phone (this adds more real-time information on the car and access to the music library).
The winter tires and spare tire went back to Smart Madness at the end of the trip. A few of the items were left in Alaska.
Winter rims and tires. Not pretty. Very functional.
Spare tire and emergency gear take up a lot of the storage space.
The preparations were made using advice from our Alaska friends. We recognized that many of the highways would have potholes and surfaces would often be rough gravel. Fortunately, the only problem was a broken windshield. A crack started when a stone hit the windshield north of Seattle. The crack grew during the trip so a complete replacement was done on the final day of the trip. The preparations were essential as the driving conditions were as difficult as we had imagined.
Emergency repair kit.
On the Road The drive went about as planned. The first part, the trip up the West Coast, was not tightly scheduled other than the need to arrive in time to board the ferry to Haines, Alaska. The ferry trip north was comfortable as I unexpectedly got a cabin. I had planned on sleeping on the deck (which is done by quite a few people). I was glad to get back on the highway and enjoyed the scenery in the short stretches of Alaska and British Columbia. It was a rough road across the Yukon Territory.
TwoRed in Fairbanks awaiting the trip north.
The highway conditions improved after entering Alaska. This let me push on to get to Fairbanks a day ahead of schedule. Nancy flew into Fairbanks so that we could do the leg to the Arctic Circle together. Having a co-pilot really helps, in many ways. The trip starts with an 84 mile drive north from Fairbanks to the Dalton Highway. The Arctic Circle is then 114 miles further. You cross the Yukon River on the way. Most of the highway is a gravel road. We hit wet sections and did a bit of slip sliding as we went up and down the steep grades.
At the Arctic Circle; muddy car, happy people.
Peter and Carla with the chase car. Nice to have friends standing by to help.
The Return Trip The trip from Fairbanks to the Arctic Circle is sufficiently long that an overnight stay is required. There aren’t many choices for lodging this far north. We spent the night at Cold Foot, a former camp for people building the TransAlaska Pipeline. Primitive but adequate. The weather was not as good the next morning. We delayed the drive to Fairbanks by visiting the small village of Wiseman, about 15 miles north of Cold Foot.
We then started the drive south. There were periods with light rain as we drove the increasingly muddy Dalton Highway. We pushed on and got to Fairbanks by late afternoon. We later heard that Wiseman had gotten the first snow of the season soon after we left. And that there had been an accident that closed the Dalton Highway soon after we had passed through. That was the end of the driving season for cars on the “Haul Road� (its oftenused local name). Count us lucky. Very lucky. TwoRed got a thorough cleaning and we were soon headed to Anchorage. It was a nice drive even though we had rain most of the way and there were some unreal sections of road construction. Nancy flew back to Hawai`i from Anchorage and I pushed ahead to Homer for a few days of photography. Later, I took TwoRed to Whittier, passing through the train tunnel to get to the ferry. Driving the tunnel alone and in a small car was a stressful experience. The ferry to Bellingham, Washington, takes about five days. Nancy decided to surprise me by flying back so we could do the Bellingham to San Francisco leg of the trip together.
The next leg of the trip let me cruise down California’s famous Highway 1 from Monterey to Morro Bay. Doing this drive in a Smart was perfect. Along the way I encountered thousands of pelicans. That called for a two-day stop to do some photography. The final drive took me to the Long Beach area where I had arranged for a windshield replacement and a stop at Smart Madness so that I would get my non-winter tires put back on TwoRed. After that, it was an easy drive to the San Diego area to complete this long and adventuresome trip. I was glad to be back.
2014: 49 State & 10 Provinces Challenge I guess that it all started in 2010 when TwoRed was driven across the US for the first time. We got to a lot of different states. And when we did more of the long-distance drives, we chose routes that added more states to the total. By 2014, there were only a few states that TwoRed had not visited. Why not finish them all? I was heading to a meeting in South Carolina so I took a southern route so that I could add the one missing southern state, Florida, to the “visited” list. One the way north I was able to drive the “Tail of the Dragon,” just for fun. After my meeting, I headed north. That was the direction of the missing states: Delaware, DC, Rhode Island and Vermont. It wasn’t a hard trip except for the intense rain that made me stop driving for the day in North Carolina and the horrible pothole on the George Washington Bridge as I crossed from NJ to NY. Finishing the 49 states and the District of Columbia gave a sense of completion. Was TwoRed the first Smart to do this? Maybe.
As we planned this trip with thought, “Why not come home via Canada?” That led to the logical next step. “Why not do all of the Canadian provinces?” Nancy flew into Boston so that we could do most of Canada together. We headed north with a stop in northern Maine so that we could add the easternmost point of the US North America highway system to our “extremes” list.
We got to the lighthouse at West Quody Point early in the morning. The gate was open so we drove in and went to the gift shop. They were still setting up. We were the first visitors of the season. Lucky timing; had we gone a day earlier we wouldn’t have been able to add this location to our “extremes” list.
Then it was off to Canada. This wasn’t TwoRed’s first Canadian visit. We had crossed British Columbia and the Yukon Territory on the Arctic Circle expedition. Now, on the other end of Canada, we’re ready to drive to the nine remaining provinces. We crossed the border into New Brunswick and enjoyed the smooth drive along a great stretch of freeway. Our bliss was shattered when we hit an out-of-alignment bridge joint that nearly killed TwoRed. We were shaken by the experience; there was no warning of the abrupt high section of highway. From then on, we didn’t trust the Canadian highways. We paid extreme attention to road conditions. We discovered that few potholes are patched this early in the season. Even with our new caution, it was fun driving to some beautiful areas. We got to see the tidal bore at Moncton, cross the long bridge to get to Prince Edward Island, take a ferry from PEI to Nova Scotia, and take the ultra-scenic drive around Cape Breton.
Our next destination required an overnight ferry ride to Newfoundland. Once on land again, we drove up the west coast to Rocky Harbour. On the way, we passed through Deer Lake. That would be TwoRed’s furthest point east.
Nancy and TwoRed at the Captain James Cook Historic Site above Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Summer: Cold. The several days we spent in Newfoundland were great. It is worth a return visit. The drive south to catch the ferry back to Nova Scotia marked the turning point for the expedition. From this point on, we are heading home.
Canada is a big country. For our purposes, that means that it is a wide country. And it takes a lot of driving to cross the expanse. We pushed on. There was a particularly memorable visit to Montreal. Good food and an outstanding botanical garden. Heading west we avoided the big cities of Ottawa and Toronto. A small-town overnight stay was in Wawa, Ontario. This is an attractive village on the shore of Lake Superior. The location has the distinction of selling the most expensive fuel that we’ve put in TwoRed. After conversion from liters and Canadian currency, it was $5.55/gallon. Yike! Our next anchor destination was Winnipeg. It was from there that Nancy would fly back to Hawai`i. Kim was going solo on the remaining trip back to SoCal. The last province that needed a visit was ahead: Alberta.
Crossing into Alberta brought another sense of completion. TwoRed had now been to all of the North American US states and all of the Canadian provinces. That must certainly be a record for a Smart car. After Alberta, TwoRed ventured briefly back into British Columbia and then took a turn south and slipped into the US on a scenic mountain highway. Suddenly, the highways were well maintained and driving became less stressful. Northern Idaho provided spectacular scenery. Driving along the Clearwater River provided an up-close view of the challenges of white-water kayaking and rafting.
Wet, wild and cold. The Clearwater River has its challenges.
The remainder of the trip crossed the high plains and through the mountain forests of eastern Oregon and California. TwoRed had been over most areas of California except this north-east corner. It was good to see this unique part of the state. The drive further south went on now-familiar highways. It was just a matter of refreshing memories of previous trips and heading to our destination near San Diego. Mission accomplished. It took nearly 11 thousand miles of driving and about six weeks. A major item on the bucket list can be checked as “completed.” In addition, TwoRed notches another “extreme,” the easternmost point in the US. Does this mean that there won’t be any more longdistance trip? Probably not. It does mean that we won’t have to go far out of our way to get to an out-ofthe-way state or province in the future.
TwoFer: Our Other Smart One Smart is in Hawai`i and the other is on the mainland.
TwoFer is a 2013 Smart Pure. It is our all-around useful vehicle in Honolulu.