Welcome to Mary Ann’s Electric Drive 2.0
Mary Ann’s Electric Drive is named after my late wife Mary Ann. We were both wanting to visit Newfoundland by driving across Canada in a new Electric Car unfortunately our dream was curtailed due her losing her battle with Cancer in June of 2018. The following summer of 2019 I decided to do the trip on my own with Mary Ann with me in Spirit and always in my heart. It was started on July 2, 2019 and successfully completed the drive 63 days later in my new Audi e-tron fully electric SUV September 2, 2019. One of the purposes of this trip was to show that a fully electric vehicle or EV could not only traverse the country on battery power and charging along the way but do it in remote locations. For the original story of Mary Ann's Electric Drive became a reality please go to the top of this page and click Mary Ann's Electric Drive.
The summer of 2021 I did a second drive in my wife’s name called Mary Ann’s Electric Drive 2.0 . During the first drive in 2019 the charging infrastructure was very limited and a challenge to make it across the country. Now 2 years later the route from coast to coast has conveniently located super-fast chargers that will charge my car in about 30 minutes.
There are a three main reasons for doing this drive:
1. Due to Covid 19 I miss seeing my family and friends that are located across our great country and instead of flying and renting a gas car I much prefer to drive in my Audi e-tron fully electric car. Now that I'm double vaccinated and most of my relatives and friends have also received both their vaccinations I believe it's safe to travel and visit. Thankfully Canada has done a great job in getting back to normal as the vast majority of Canadians have also been vaccinated. Now that travel restrictions across Canada have allowed me to travel I've already started to travel.
I left Vancouver on Tuesday July 20th and first headed to Victoria to Mile 0 and then heading east to Newfoundland. I plan to arrive in St. Johns on Sept. 3rd or 4th. Along the way I'll be spending time with as many family and friends that I'm anxious to visit.
2. On Monday, September 13th I'm very excited to do a non stop drive, starting downtown St. John's at KM 0 and then arriving at Mile 0 in Victoria BC. The goal is to to establish a record for an EV to do this non stop drive and do it in less than 5 days. I'll be doing this drive with my good friend Kent Rathwell as my co-pilot. Kent is the founder and owner of the Sun Country Highway charging network. If it wasn't for Kent and his chargers I wouldn't have been able to do my first drive across Canada the summer of 2019.
The main purpose of this non stop drive is to show that you can now drive in an EV very quickly and with minimal inconvenience or no inconvenience at all. In most cases charging happens next to or very close to important amenities like restrooms, restaurants retail stores and more.
You may want to know why there is no end to the Trans Canada Hwy, only two beginnings as neither BC or NFLD want the distinction of being at the end of the TCH. To understand Why please check out this link for more info on the Trans Canada Hwy. https://www.macleans.ca/general/the-graceful-end-of-the-trans-canada-highway/
3. I'm also raising needed funds to the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation, Mary Ann's favorite Cause of Parkinson’s research and functional neurosurgery. Twenty-one years ago Mary Ann suffered a life threatening ruptured brain aneurysm which she fully recovered from thanks to the emergency brain surgery performed by Dr. Chris Honey of Vancouver General Hospital. Dr. Honey’s main work is research on Parkinson’s and other brain disorders. Every Christmas Mary Ann acknowledged and thanked Dr. Honey by sending him a card and a nice donation for his research. Just before her passing she gave his research fund a legacy donation. I'm committed to continue her support and therefore asking for donations for Dr. Honey's work which is administered through the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation. The link to find out more info and to easily make a secure donation with a tax receipt is here. http://vghfoundation.ca/mary_anns_electric_drive
Your support is greatly appreciated.
For more info on Dr. Honey and the work that he is doing to change the lives of so many people living with so many different types of brain disorders please visit: http://drhoney.org/
To follow along my journey across the country I'm posting regularly on
Polarsteps photo Journal
My personal YouTube Channel
and of course this website with other articles and blog pages.
back please click on the various links at the top of this page.
As I update each social media platform please subscribe to the respective sites.
Its so much more fun to have you follow along. Your support is appreciated.
