Mechlin to Banja Luka in statistics

I decided to go to DebConf11 by car. Not willing to do this alone, I asked for volunteers to join me in my car trip. One such volunteer showed up, and the car trip happened. Now, since I remembered to push the correct buttons on my dashboard after I completely fueled up the car and checked the tire tension and other things, I am now proud to be able to present you with the following statistics on this trip:

  1. Total distance travelled: 1466.8 km
  2. Average driving speed: 95.9 km/h [0]
  3. Total number of kilometers wasted on 'oh, crap, we forgot something': 10 (approx) [1][2]
  4. Total amount of fuel used: 81.3l
  5. Average fuel consumption rate: 5.5l/100km [3]
  6. Total amount of kilometers spent behind the wheel by Jeremy: 50 (approx)
  7. Total amount of kilometers spent behind the wheel by Wouter: the rest.[4]
  8. Time of departure: 2011-07-16 21:00
  9. Time of departure after point three and making sure we had everything: 2011-07-16 22:00
  10. Time of arrival: 2011-07-17 15:15 (approx) [5]
  11. Outside temperature at departure: 12 ° celcius
  12. Outside temperature at arrival: 35 ° celcius
  13. Longest (voluntary) break: 1 hour (approx; breakfast, tanking, bathroom visit, watching the sun rise)
  14. Longest (involuntary) break: 45 minutes (approx; customs check) [6]
  15. Last fueling stop: 4 AM.
  16. Amount of kilometers left to go before the car said bleep, you need to tank soon: less than one.
  17. Most tense moment: on crossing the slovenia->croatia border, confusing the border police officer ("no, I'm Wouter, that is Jeremy"—yes, we both had photo-ID), who then promptly holds on to our documents, asks the car's papers, and tells us to please park over there and wait a moment while he gets us to be handled by guy in a somewhat more military-looking uniform.[7]
  18. Biggest "uh-oh" moment: after crossing the croatia->bosnia and herzegovina border, watching the very, very, very, very, very[8] long line of trucks queueing to cross the border. In the other direction. And then realizing that you probably need to go through that very same queue on the way back
  19. Largest single toll fee: €15 [9]
  20. Last bit of time spent asleep before this trip: the minutes surrounding 2011-07-16 05:00:00 [10]
  21. Time wasted writing this blog post when I really should've gone to bed instead: 45 minutes
  22. Time now: 21:02:54

But it was fun. And that's all that matters.

Those who've shown up at debconf already, or who will arrive soon: see you tomorrow. Those who will arrive later: see you soon. And those who won't arrive: better luck next time, I hope.

[0] this includes times when the car isn't moving with the engine running, but not times when the car is turned off, locked, alone and forgotten, in the rain, while those idiots who were supposed to be its drivers were inside having a drink.
[1] Which is surprisingly little. Usually I manage to need more.
[2] Jeremy forgot his^Wa Debian banner. I forgot something, I can't recall what. I decided to bring some CD's to enjoy during the trip, and a 3.5mm audio connection cable which we end up not using
[3] According to the dash. I'm too tired right now to check it. Also see the next two points. [4] This could incorrectly be interpreted as a criticism on Jeremy. It's not his fault that I only told him a day before we left that I have a manual transmission. And in fact, if anything, I'm unhappy with the fact that I even had to hand him the wheel for those 50 km. I would've loved to be able to say "I went all the way from Mechlin to Banja Luka, all by myself".
[5] I forgot to check the clock, to be honest.
[6] What, you think I have a chronometer?
[7] The last four points could really have been written as two. Figuring out which goes with which is left as an exercise to the reader.
[8] very, very, very
[9] 7-day Slovenian road tax vignet
[10] Once I wake up, I hardly ever manage to fall asleep again. Esecially if it's light outside.