Our camera takes 1 exposure every 10 seconds, as we drive from San Francisco to Washington D.C. This was our exact route and the major cities we drove through (in order) are: San Francisco, CA Reno, NV Grand Junction, CO Kansas City, MO St. Louis, MO Nashville, TN Washington D.C. The music is “An Eye for Optical Theory” by Michael Nyman. Enjoy!
Everyone should drive coast to coast at least once in their lifetime. I just drove the San Francisco to Grand Junction Co. leg, taking HWY 50 through Nevada known as the “Loneliest Road in America”.
Been wanting to drive cross country for a while. Hopefully will do it next summer. Want to go to Yellowstone since I have never been their, and take the kids along so that they can see the country. Then again 3 weeks stuffed in a car with 3 kids, even if 2 are teenagers could take a few years off my life.
As is obvious, there is *a lot* of open land in the US.
I’ve driven across quite a bit of the US and I don’t know that people are missing that much, but certainly traveling to other cities in the US is worthwhile.
It was pretty cool until they started f——ing around and being gimmicky halfway. I really liked seeing the mountains approach so fast, though.
Pity the jerk offs decided to do stupid hand bullshit.
Should have mounted the camera up front so we could see better.
US50 in Nevada is known as the loneliest highway because of low traffic. But there are many nice towns on this route.
Not a lot of folks and way prettier than I80, however, want lonely on federal highways, try US6 from Ely to Tonopah.
200 Miles and I doubt you see a car.
Added bonus: “Extra Terrestrial Highway” NV375 which heads out to Rachel and Area 51.
Want Lonely, take gas, water, and a car you trust before you you try the six!!
Cool, looks like they took their radar detector down in Va, where it is illegal.
#7. “Added bonus: “Extra Terrestrial Highway” NV375 which heads out to Rachel and Area 51.”
Have done the ET Highway many times. The stop in Rachel at The “Little ALEINN” is a must. Another bonus is the US Navy ASW (Antisubmarine Warfare) base near Fallon. Huh?
Pretty cool stuff.
I dig the song.
Say What!
Haven’t done the ASW base, next time I am out there. Sand Mountain is another awesome place on US50.
I lived in Silver Peak 60 miles outside Tonopah.
Two Hours to Golf at three of the worlds loneliest golf courses. Round Mountain, Death Valley, and Bishop, CA.
I love central Nevada. Beautiful and lonely!!
2:44 – when they dump the dead hooker behind the motel.
Interesting though as when one drives, distances really can make an impact as to just how big the country really is, even in a time lapse video. Have flown a few times and it just does not seem like your really there till you drive from place to place.
I did happen to spot when they were downtown St Louis and appear to take in a Cardinals game (3:13 Busch Stadium and the Parking garage).
1 exposure every 10 seconds
Figure 120 frames a second?
1 second = 120 frames * 10 seconds = 1200 seconds
4 min 35 sec (length of the video) = 275 seconds
1,200 * 275 = 330,000 seconds = 5,500 minutes ~ 92 hours.
(Guess I could have just re-watched to count.)
Apparently they had a long way to go, and a short time to get there. They did what some said couldn’t be done.
I would have preferred “East Bound and Down” as the music.
Something happened in Colorado and they cut the tape around Denver. For they were in the Eisenhower tunnel on iI70, then it was raining and suddenly a bush is infront of them. Hmmm
Going through Metro Denver from the Mountains would have taken them 30 minutes to an hour…apparently they stopped in Denver and later cut it out of the tape…
……
They should have stopped in front of road signs to give indications of locations.
I’ve driven about 80% of the way. From Baltimore to Boise. And from Boise to LA, and back, about a year later. And then back to Baltimore, two years after that. I didn’t actually see the Pacific ocean, but I have seen the Atlantic ocean from NJ. So aggregated over a decade, I’ve been coast to coast. But I can’t see what the point of this road trip is, besides assessing the current road conditions and improvements. Most major East-West highways aren’t that scenic. It’s not such a unique thing to do, that it needs to be redone by all. And the climbing price of gas doesn’t make it nearly as practical as it use to be.
Take the Amtrak train. You’ll see as many cities and farms. Won’t have to breathe all the diesel truck fumes, along the way. And can nod off when tired, and not end up crashing.
Now if one made the road trip by electric car (or even a Hybrid), that would be noteworthy. In fact I’d like to see some kind of electric vehicle, coast to coast road rally. Like the famed Gumball Car rally (aka “Cannonball Run”).
Thus improvements in range and charging times, would be inspired. Rather than waiting for Detroit to come up with these things, in their own good time.
#17, it good for a sense of scale. By and large when Americans travel long distances we do it through the air. We are usually in a hurry to get from point a to point b, and miss much of whats in between.
The purpose of the road trip I want to take is to take my time. See different things, different types of people, ect. Most of all show the kids how big the country is, and how much their is to the world outside of the small town they live in. Thats why I planned 3 weeks for the trip when you could probably go coast to coast in 4-5 days. I will take allot of detours, and take my time.
#17, one last thing. I really wish we had a good train system in this country. If we had a good train system, with allot of routes something like a US rail pass would be worth it. When I went to Europe, and toured around their, I just used the trains, their was really no reason to use a car.
Big FFukking Deal. This is so 8-9 years ago… the first time I saw a video like this on the interweb. Fail.
Just got back from a driving trip across Wyoming:
Rapid City SD, Gilette, Buffalo, Thermopolis, Dubois, Jackson, Yellowstone, Cody. Some unforgettable landscapes — devastatingly bleak or breathtakingly beautiful. I have driven coast to coast and back too, but for packing it into one 1200 mi trip, this was just awesome. You can’t see this from the air. Nothing like watching a bison drool on your fender….amazing that less than 500,000 people live in the whole state.
You want to experience high winds out in the middle of nowhere trying doing the cross country trip on a motorcycle.
I did it in ’79 on a bike with no windshield, no rainsuit and 1,100 miles of the trip was in the pouring rain at 70mph.
Worth doing once that way but I would never do it again. Last time I drove cross country was in a new Cadillac Seville STS. Could make over 800 miles a day easy and not know you did it.
Good stuff. I’d like to do this sometime before I die. I agree with #19 that a train trip would be great if it were possible.
#18 Bob nailed it. It’s the sense of scale. There’s an incredible variety of terrain in the US. One thing I miss, though, is the variety in businesses. I used to have a gas credit card that had the different brand stations it was good at across the country. And the different motels/hotels, eating places, stores, etc. Everything is pretty homogenized today. The McDonald’s in Long Branch, NJ is just like the one in Yuma, AZ. Wouldn’t it have been great to travel the old Rt 66 back in the day?
I did a cc (Worcester Mass to Newport CA) with a friend back in ’86 to deliver a car for someone who took a job out there. I still think of that time now and then, and would love to re-drive the trek.
I did several partial trips with my wife from Mass to Kansas. I will NOT do those again…
You want a long ass empty drive? Drive across the Nullarbor from Perth, Western Australia to Adelaide, South Australia. 2700km (1680 miles). 2 to 3 long days of a lot of nothing. You hit two medium size towns (Kalgoorlie and Pt. Augusta) and a bunch of tiny ones.
Most Aussies I know that have driven it once subsequently op to fly over and ship their car on a train.
The name Nullabor, if you haven’t figured it out, is Latin for “There are no damn trees anywhere”.
first of all there should be a warning for epileptics not to watch this haha.
second…
#14 said
“1 exposure every 10 seconds
Figure 120 frames a second?
1 second = 120 frames * 10 seconds = 1200 seconds”
120 frames per second multiplied by 10 seconds equals 1200 FRAMES not seconds. so u messed up a little bit.
#14 It’s 60 frames pr second, possibly 30.
#27 The original is correct. But there is a confusion of labels:
1 second in the video = 120[sic] frames,
each frame in the movie is 10 seconds on the trip,
so 1 second in the video is 1200 SECONDS on the trip.
Except that it is 600 seconds, or possibly 300 seconds.
Amen to #19.
Forget green cars – I say we build a better railroad infrastructure. Imagine being able to actually zip down somewhere fun for a weekend and not have to worry about gas and driving and such.
As a trucker I’ve done a number of coast to coast runs. Gloucester, Mass to Stockton, California; Santa Maria, CA to Newark, NJ; and Bridgeport, CT to Burlingame, CA. This lat was my fastest. I finished loading late Sat morning and delivered Wed morning, driving alone in a truck that was limited to 65 mph. And the manager of the business had the gall to ask why I didn’t deliver Tuesday.
If you want a lonely stretch of road, try US 85 from Belle Fourche, SD to Bowman, ND. Even the antelope will wave at you.
My parents tried Amtrack about 8 years ago. I think they had to leave the train and ride buses at least three times.