What a successful tour! It would not have been possible without the fantastic collaboration among all those involved. A special thanks to the California Air Resources Board, the California Fuel  Cell Partnership, Powertech Labs, the National Hydrogen Association and the U.S. Fuel Cell Council for their organizational efforts. 

We packed the Autonet and I'm blogging from my phone..more typos than usual ahead! Powertech threw a great party last night and we we glad that today's event didn't start until 10. At the our morning meeting, everyone was excited for the big event with Premier Campbell.

After taking into account all public ride & drives along the route, the FCX Clarity logged more than 2,391 miles. The Premier of British Columbia welcomed us across the finish line and spoke about the upcoming Winter Olympics & the fleet of H2-powered fuel cell buses that will be shuttling athletes back and forth from Vancouver to Whistler. It could not have been a better trip with memories of all 12 fuel cell cars driving up from the border and the wonderful people who weclomed us along the way. 

Not just lining up in uniform for the Premier, but shamelessly dressed in the same color "star garnet" uniform as the Clarity, from left to right: Tim Cunningham, Steve Mathison, Steve Ellis, Todd Mittleman and Ryan Harty. Taking into account total mileage on the road (including all of the ride and drives at almost every stop), we averaged more than 200 miles per tank of H2. The tank holds 4 kgs. of compressed hydrogen (4 gasoline gallon equiv.) & mileage is more than twice that of a gasoline-powered car, so we averaged apprx.

We made it into Vancouver with the sun still high in the sky and view of the following day's checkered flag location at the Convention Center. We're all tired from the road, but how can you not feel refreshed with this view:

Day eight: our second-to-last stop before the border in Seattle.  Here we are at a propel biofuel station with Congressman McDermott, who made a speech in support of the hydrogen tour and its connection to energy independence. Propel is set to expand their green fuel portfolio with Hydrogen as being another one of their alternative fuels.  Next stop Western Washington University and then the border. We're amped up on coffee, but how can you resist the drive through espresso "barn" behind the Congressman.  The heat wave continues, so an iced DECAF coffee is due.

The view on the short drive to Burnaby took our breath away! Coming over the bridge and seeing the Vancouver skyline against the pristine mountains was stunning. Ben must have taken 50 pictures from the window of the moving car. We were bound for AFCC, one of CaFCP's members. Although we were late, more than 100 AFCC employees clapped and cheered as we entered the parking lot.

This was a big deal for us. Most of the vehicles have manufacturer or dealer plates on them, which means that they are not registered to an individual. Customs could think that we were driving across the border to sell the cars and skip paying duty. Luise worked hard with customs to smooth the process so that we could drive across today and bring the vehicles back in to the US tomorrow. It went off without a hitch, but took a little longer than we thought. Just like that, the Hydrogen Road Tour became an international event!

Wow! What a great stop in Bellingham at Western Washington University! As we drove the 75 miles from Bothell to Bellingham, we marveled at the lush green forests and water everywhere. Such a contrast to California's "golden" fields and empty fountains.

As we cross over the border today into Canada, Daimler will have added 1,700 additional miles to the 2.5 million driven thus far by its worldwide fleet. In the U.S. alone, the F-Cell fleet has accumulated over 300,000 miles since its debut a few years ago. This journey up the West Coast States has been an excellent opportunity to accentuate the ongoing reliability and stamina of the A-Class F-Cell and further solidify the camaraderie among fellow automakers as we all continue to test and showcase our vehicles while moving ever closer to commercialization.