Down to the Wire

Thursday, the last work day, continued to see quite a few visitors to the site.

78 messages sent

The number of messages continues to creep up – keep sending them and we’ll get them delivered all the way through tomorrow morning! The US sent eleven more messages yesterday, retaking the lead from Canada by a total of seven. Bragging rights for most messages sent are still up in the air – we’ll announce the winner tonight as everyone enjoys pizza from Scribbs (a local favorite).

Web Site Visitors

For Thursday

• US: 111
• Canada: 85

For the Past Month

• US: 568
• Canada: 419

It looks like the US is going to hold on for a strong win this year, though Canada can hold their heads high: Canada’s margin of victory in 2009 (602) was larger than the US’ total number of visitors this year (568).

Two notable changes in the top ten cities: Phoenix passed up Muskegon, who I’ve been excluding from the list but had been the actual top city for visitors. Clinton also passed Red Deer, with 76 visitors to 75. Finally, the top ten sees a new addition, with Green Bay bumping Grand Rapids from the last spot.

1. Phoenix, Arizona, USA
2. Clinton, Ontario, CA
3. Red Deer, Alberta, CA
4. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA
5. Agincourt, Ontario, CA
6. Toronto, Ontario, CA
7. Goderich, Ontario, CA
8. New York City, New York, USA
9. Vancouver, British Columbia, CA
10. Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA

Neck and Neck

Time to look at yesterday’s numbers.

76 messages sent

Every day that number goes up, but time is running out to meet or beat last year’s one day record of 116. Out of those messages, exactly half came from Canada and half from the US. Despite a slew of messages out of Phoenix, Canada’s continued to gain ground and they now hold a slim lead over the US for the total number of messages sent.

Web site visitors on Wednesday

• US: 107
• Canada: 89

Despite not sending as many messages (percentage-wise) as the Canadians, the US maintains a lead for total visitors.

Web site visitors for the past month (June 14 to July 14)

• US: 463
• Canada: 337

The top five cities remain unchanged, but I thought I’d fill out the other five for a top ten. I have to admit that this listing is a little unfair, depending on how your area divides itself up. For example, visitors from the Toronto area are split among Clinton, Agincourt, Toronto, and Goderich, whereas Phoenix is nice and consolidated. If the Toronto-area suburbs were consolidated they would easily pass Phoenix for first place (sorry AZ folks).

1. Phoenix, Arizona, USA
2. Red Deer, Alberta, CA
3. Clinton, Ontario, CA
4. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA
5. Agincourt, Ontario, CA
6. Toronto, Ontario, CA
7. Goderich, Ontario, CA
8. Vancouver, British Columbia, CA
9. New York City, New York, USA
10. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

Just The Facts Ma’am

Here are the numbers from Tuesday:

51 messages sent

That’s quite a jump, from 10 messages to 51! Nice work, but we still have a ways to go to beat last year’s record of 116 – just head over to the contact form and send some messages to your friends and loved ones. With that said, I can tell you that Wednesday is already off to a smokin’ start. I just hope we don’t overload the printer (just kidding)!

Web site visitors on Tuesday

• US: 95
• Canada: 82

Web site visitors for the past month (June 13 to July 13)

• US: 357
• Canada: 248

US maintains its overall lead with a strong showing. I thought it might also be interesting to break down the visitors by town/city; here are the top 5 (excluding Muskegon) for the past month:

1. Phoenix, Arizona, USA
2. Red Deer, Alberta, CA
3. Clinton, Ontario, CA
4. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA
5. Agincourt, Ontario, CA

Mail Call Do-Over

When it comes to running a web site, you can have too much of a good thing. Which is what happened yesterday; we had so much traffic to the webcam watching the kids come back from the work sites that it crashed. My apologies: I’ll have that fixed for today’s mail call, at 4:00 PM EDT.

US vs. Canada

Last year I tracked the total number of messages sent each day, urging site visitors to break the record set the previous day. This year we’re kicking it up a notch, taking the competition international.

Last year Canada stomped the US, sending 147 visitors to the site to the US’ measly 29. The tables have turned this year, with the US taking a 262 to 166 lead.

Will the Stars and Stripes reclaim bragging rights, or will we be singing “O Canada” by the end of the week?

Side note: our coolest visitor last year hailed from the Netherlands. You know you’re Dutch when you still have family back in the Old Country.