Best of Canucktuk 1 Photos from the Road!

The photos are now online and the website working!  Click on Gallery and "The Best of Canucktuk 1"

Home Safe & Sound (but missing the road!)

After 38 hours of travel, Canucktuk 1 is back home and nursing some serious jet lag.  It's too quiet here and the driving is boring!  Missing the nightly Kingfisher and curry!  Oh well....

Thanks to all who supported the team and followed along.  Hope to have a Best of photo gallery up and online within a couple days so stay tuned!  And yes there will be photos of Lorne's Road Trip Secret.....The 8 Stitches from Goa!

Just When You Think...

....you are making the final 500km run to the finish line with 2 days to spare, the Indian highways will kick the crap out of your rickshaw!  Not Canucktuk 1 however as it is a finely tuned piece of mechanical engineering! Canucktuk 2 took a beating and among a list of problems, broke the crank shaft.  So we have been halted now since 2pm on Day 10.  Repairs should be done by 11am today which will give us about 5 hours to try and cover about 150km before dark.  That will leave 250km final run for the finish line on Day 13.

We are trying to get there in time to spend a day at a tiger and elephant reserve just south of Cochin but we will have to see how that goes now.

We are now sitting in the Hotel Highway Castle in Karasagod which has a nice air conditioned bar and cold bottles of Kingfisher so all is not so bad!  Just watching teams go by us is a bit annoying seeing as how looking back at the updates we may have been as high as 3rd place in the last day or so!

Highlites from yesterday were the first "on the fly" driver change!  Somewhat of a risk as 2 of us were hanging out the side of the rickshaw while #3 takes over!  Canucktuk 1 and Team Altitude had a tomato, banana and biscuit food fight while driving....another first!  Team Altitude's windscreen looked like a Greek Salad until the had to pull over in defeat!  Good times!

WiFi is spotty so will try and upload more photos from the iPod when I can.

December '10 Update

**Let's Get the Party Started!**

**Dec. 6:** Well visa #3 (Lorne's) arrived today in the mail so the complete Canucktuk 1 team is now officially "official"!  International Driving Permits have been obtained, immunizations are in the blood stream, flights are booked, trains are booked, hotels are booked, Taj Mahal has the welcome mat out for us, rickshaw has been pimped, and Shanghai is hosting Christmas Dinner for Lorne and Grant on their way over!  As of today Ted is already in India training for the race....should be down to a svelt 210 lbs using The Delhi Belly Zone diet a couple weeks in advance!  All that being said....we are ready to go!

**Our Goal: **aside from coming back alive and having a ton of good stories to tell, our goal is to come in 39th place!  Why 39th you ask?  Well being that all coming in first means is you are at the finish line by yourself, we figured lets shoot for the exact middle spot in the race!  78 teams means 39th is ours!  **Secondary goal:**  most kilometres travelled and the only team to get a round of golf in and visit Grandmother's Hole (go ahead look it up)!

**The Travel Plan: **the daily driving goal is 300km.  At a top speed of approx. 50km/h that's at least 6 hours of driving a day.  So the plan is up at 6am and on the road by 7am and barring any major breakdowns (ya right) to be poolside with a cigar in one hand and a gin & tonic in the other by 3pm daily!  Sounds pretty straight forward right?  Well to follow along how well our travel plan is working visit the race website or this website and click on the daily updates  / route section where you will see our current location and text messages of all the debauchery while on the road! And....as a bonus...we have 2 cameras mounted on the rickshaw and will download some of the action while we are racing so you can feel as if you are riding shotgun (or looking at the barrel of one from the local Indian police wanting bribes.)

**Thank-you! **To everyone who has supported us and our fundraising efforts so far!  As you can see we have exceeded our goal of $1600 (1000 GBP) and still climbing!  We are currently sitting in 20th out of 78 teams in money raised for charity!

**Lastly: **going to start the blog and report from the road as soon as we leave Kelowna, and probably at least once more before we go so stay tuned!  Don't forget to come out to one more fundraising party, **Dec. 18 at Creekside Pub** to help our partner team **Canucktuk 2** reach their fundraising goal in support of Frank Water Projects!  Canucktuk 1 heading to the start line.....over and out.

Fundraiser Party Huge Success!!!

**The fundraiser party has come and gone and was a huge****success****!** 

90 people came out Saturday night to support the cause and dined on a spectacular Indian Buffet at **Dakoda's Sports Bar & Grill**.  The **Silent auction** was a complete sell out with all 30 items receiving bids and being sold!  Some great bidding wars saw the dollar amounts climb, pens being stolen (so no one else could bid!) and drinks being delivered straight to the auction room!  The toonie toss featured $2 coins being tossed at bottles of rum and vodka 15 feet away down a hallway with the closest one winning the bottles.  This generated some impressive revenue as well as soom great bank shots, draw weight, and other flying money strategy!  The **50/50 draw** shows that sex does sell with some very creative ways to flog the tickets (see photo gallery).  In mere minutes the tickets were all sold, the Bud Lite Lime bucket was completely full, and I am sure a few phone numbers were secretly offered as the 50/50 girls were a big hit!  Congrats to **Al Kirkwood** for winning the draw and $276, with the other $276 going towards the cause!  The **Pimp the Rickshaw Colouring contest** resulted in some "interesting" submissions...one or two of which might actually be usable without breaking some kind of Indian decency law! 

Final numbers are still being calculated as the bills, fines, bribes and bets are paid off but it looks like Frank Water will get a strong shot in the arm courtesy of the friends, co-workers and family of Canucktuk 1!  Thanks to everyone who came out and special thanks to the following people and local businesses that contributed to a fun night:  Kelly at **Dakoda's Sports Bar & Grill**, Dean Draginda at **Players Choice Sports Cards & Collectibles**, Dr. Buschel of **Springfield Dental Centre**,  Gilles of **Harvest Golf Club**, Robin or **Rustic River Home Decor & Gifts**, Shannon of **Shari's Fashion**, Eileen of the **Body Talk Studio**, Stephanie (for the purses), Peter Grewal for the Rockets tickets, Dave Kandola of **City Furniture,** Colin Burton of **Pioneer Gourmet Coffee**, Dana Cotton (massage gift certificate) and the others I have forgotten at the moment (as I am writing this off the top of my head) but will add shortly!

November Update

 4 days from the big fundraiser and things are looking good!  Ticket sales are now in **triple digits** and the silent auction room will be full to the ceiling!  Flyers done.  Pimp the Rickshaw colouring contest placemats done.  ETA & Kilometers Travelled pools done. 50/50 tickets purchased and ample supply of toonies ready for the toonie toss!

Flights booked and paid for....Vancouver to Shanghai for a little Dim Sum and staying for a night or two at Shanghai Stadium!  On to Delhi and then a day trip to Agra to see what this Taj Mahal fuss is all about.  Next day is meet up with Canucktuk 2 and hop the westbound train for the start line!

For those of you coming to the fundraiser, thanks for supporting the cause!  It will be a fun night!  For those of you who cannot make it but still want to toss a loonie or two towards the charity, click on the button on the right.  It all goes to support Frank Water Projects.

Next up....immunizations...ya...fun.  Oh and don't foget those great tasting Malaria pills the size of manhole covers.  Oh...and Immodium.  Why is it we are doing this again.....

September 2010 Update

**Visa Received!  **After 4 tries and a couple of WTF phone calls to their "call centre" (insert joke here!) Grant has a shiny new approved tourist visa in his brand new passport!  Bureaucracy complete!  Now for the rest of the team to work their way through the process!  Flight prices are dropping like a Commonwealth Games team count so hopefully we can grab a deal very soon before the planes are full!

The Canucktuk 1 "Bash for the Cash" Fund Raiser has been booked (Nov. 6 at Dakoda's Sports Bar and Grill) and the silent auction table is filling up with some top shelf items (thanks Dr. Darren Buschel (Dentist) and Dean Draginda of Player's Choice Cards and Collectibles)  It will be a fun night so get a hold of Grant or Lorne as soon as you can to get a ticket ($20)  Proceeds go to the race charity of choice Frank Water Projects.

Next up is the online pimping of the rickshaw.  Colours, design, artwork all done via this interweb thing so it will be ready to go when we arrive!  Open to any and all sponsorship logos to make it look like a slow, non-aerodynamic, 3 wheeled NASCAR racing machine!

Countdown to Race Day

**February '10 Prep Report:**

Let the gong show that is "getting an Indian Visa" begin! 

Application #1 by Grant - rejected. Reason: Wife's name not listed on application.  Actual:  Not married, never have been.

Application #2 by Grant - rejected.  Reason: Passport photos needed to be cut 7mm thinner even though there was no mention of this on the application form.  Actual:  phone call to the consulate to say "Are you kidding me?" Does no one have any scissors at the consulate?

Heads up to the other Canadians in the race regarding the tourist visa application - fill out every line on that application form no matter if it applies to you or not, and DO NOT mention that you are in the race!  That is a different can of worms you do not want to open.

Website up and running! Pub confirmed for Fundraising Night!  Lorne has decided to train for the race by weekly sessions at Pompadoms Indian Buffet.  Grant training at altitude by drinking India Pale Ale after skiing. Training going exceptionally well.  First roll of rickshaw repair Duct Tape purchased using the Canadian Home Improvement grant.

Looks like Dec. 24 will have to be the "Leave Canada for India" date so will pass Santa Claus somewhere over the Pacific.  No flight deals yet....cheapest round trip so far $1797 each.  Search continues...