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    California to New York: A Complete Road Trip



    This is a complete road trip compilation from Santa Monica, California to New York City over eight different days from June-September, 2017 – all recorded in time-lapse at 4fps (nearly 100,000 frames total). Of the 3,253 miles (5,235 kilometers) driven, about 3 miles of this drive is missing, mostly in Colorado near Poncha Springs. Nearly all of this drive was done in daytime, but there is about 10 minutes of this video done in darkness in Arizona (about 1:00:00 to 1:10:00). The weather was good for the most part, except from Pennsylvania all the way to the Bronx, before clearing up in Manhattan. This trip also includes driving through the solar eclipse of August 21 in Nebraska (at about 3:30:00), as well as driving over the old Tappan Zee Bridge in upstate NY, which permanently closed a month later with the opening of the new Mario M Cuomo Bridge adjacent to it.

    The states passed through are
    California (0:00:35-0:40:54)
    Arizona (0:40:54-1:40:26)
    New Mexico (1:40:26-1:41:09)
    Colorado (1:41:09-3:07:17)
    Nebraska (3:07:17-3:51:05)
    Iowa (3:51:05-4:24:17)
    Illinois (4:24:17-4:50:42)
    Indiana (4:50:42-5:10:51)
    Ohio (5:10:51-5:39:13)
    West Virginia (5:39:13-5:40:48 & 5:47:09-5:51:52)
    Pennsylvania (5:40:48-5:47:09 & 6:04:43-6:32:49)
    Maryland (5:51:52-6:04:43)
    New York (6:32:49-6:50:03)

    The cars driven in this video are
    Santa Monica to Omaha: 2017 Nissan Altima
    Omaha to Cumberland, MD: 2014 Honda Odyssey
    Cumberland to Hagerstown, MD: 2017 Dodge Ram
    Hagerstown, MD to NYC: 2015 Acura MDX.

    The highest elevation of the drive was 11,539 ft (3,517 m) at 2:28:10. The highest elevation anywhere on the U.S. interstate system is 11,158 ft (3,401 m) at 2:33:41. Both of these elevations are two of the three continental divide crossings; the other, at 2:04:38 (10,856 ft / 3,309 m), is the first.

    The hottest temperature of this trip was 110 F (43 C) in Needles, California (about 0:40:16), and the coldest temperature of this trip was 53 F (11 C) in Tusayan, Arizona (about 1:10:04) – only about 230 miles (370 km) from Needles.

    Here’s the compilation of New York to California:
    NY-VA: https://youtu.be/Hov8R0Ad4g0
    VA-NE: https://youtu.be/n2MwuYkOOWs
    NE-CA: https://youtu.be/qrhdQfBYAfY

    20 Comments

    3. Scott Pardee on

      When my son was studying for his MBA at Stanford, he and I drove across from New York, twice, and back once (the other time he had his car shipped). On that trip back we did cover some of the routes you cover here, evoking scenic memories. And, yes, I did get a speeding ticket. This trip is amazing, partly of course for the time lapse, but also for the number of trucks we pass. And for the number of people who have now watched it, on the order of 400 or more a day! Thank you for sharing!

    5. Scott Pardee on

      I just realized why the number of viewers is so huge. Sure, there are many if us who would like to take such a trip, and this one is great. But, I can’t watch it all day long, so when I come back the next day, relinking to the site, I see hundreds of more views. I will have added five already by myself. It’s no problem, since it shows that we do come back again, and again, and again. Thanks for streaming!

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