The post Hikelapse – Enchanted Rock, Fredericksburg TX appeared first on DeFrees Productions.

Route 66 Cross-Country USA – 2012

The post Timelapse USA 2012 appeared first on DeFrees Productions.

Triplapse | West Texas Stargazing Trip

Austin, TX to Mcdonald Observatory in Fort Davis, TX

The post Triplapse | Stargazing Trip From Austin, TX to Mcdonald Observatory in Fort Davis, TX appeared first on DeFrees Productions.

Wild Burros, Gun Fights and Saloons!

Oatman, Arizona – Old Wild West Mining Town

Nearing the end of Route 66 during our Route 66 Cross Country Adventure we took a curvy road through the hills past Kingman Arizona and stumbled upon the old mining town of Oatman, Arizona. We had no prior knowledge of this town, so coming across it was quite a treat and it quickly became our favorite city on Route 66.

Arriving from the east, you suddenly feel as if you’ve gone back in time with an old wagon, town history sign and historic buildings greeting you. We parked our car and started to walk towards the town and were greeted by one of the locals named Skip. He cleaned our glasses for free and told us a llittle about the history of Oatman.

We explored the miscellaneous shops throughout the town where the locals were extremly friendly, making us custom Oatman T-shirts right on the spot at no extra charge from the pre-made ones. We had lunch at the local restaurant and a couple drinks at the saloon.

What makes Oatman so unique besides it’s original wild west appearance is the inhabitance of wild burros that roam the town looking for treats that you can buy by the bagful at any of the local shops. The burros are very friendly and let you pet them while you feed them. Make sure to drive extra slow through Oatman because you never know when one will decide to walk through the middle of the road!

Oatman has a lot of history to it and there is a museum with artifacts and newspaper clippings from many years ago that tell stories of its past. There are also gun fight reenactments and biker rallies that roll through town every year. No matter when you visit there will be something to entertain you in Oatman.

If you find yourself on a road trip near Arizona or are cruising down Route 66, make sure to stop and explore Oatman. It’s one of the most fun and unique wild west towns that still exists in America.

The post Wild Burros, Gun Fights and Saloons! The Old Wild West Mining Town of Oatman, Arizona appeared first on DeFrees Productions.

Road Trip Travel Tip:

Scenic Byways, Not Interstates 

I’ll start by saying this: If you are trying to get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible, then Interstates are your best friend. If you are on a road trip however, Interstates are the worst choice for having a memorable road trip experience.

Think about America’s most famous highway: Route 66. Back in it’s heyday (before the Interstate system closed it down for good) the road was full of motorists out to enjoy the ride and the prestige of the open road. When you stopped for food, gas or to stay somewhere for the night, you found yourself in the company of locals who were happy to tell you about their town and give you the best experience you could possibly have. Unfortunately, the way most Americans travel today is on the Interstates where there is isn’t as much character or hospitality. Chain fast food joints, gas stations and hotels don’t have much history to them and the people working in them aren’t as prideful as the ones you’ll find on the roads less traveled.

When you take scenic byways or non-interstate highways, you are destined to have a better road trip travel experience overall. The problem with Interstates is that you can only really get off at rest stops or exits. When you travel a state highway or scenic byway you usually have the opportunity to pull over almost anywhere for whatever you discover along the way. This allows you to take your time with your trip and not go as fast as you can to your destination. You will get a chance to meet more people, see more things and walk away with more photos and stories to tell then if you traveled only by Interstate.

If that explanation wasn’t enough to sway you, consider this:  Stopping at a state line to take photos is usually a lot safer  and easier on a state highway than the interstate! Plus you might find a really cool historic marker like I did between Colorado and Utah:

The post Scenic Byways, Not Interstates – Road Trip Travel Tip appeared first on DeFrees Productions.

USA Road Trip Routes | Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak has always been an interest of mine long before I visited for the first time in 2011. I heard many stories about it growing up and watched numerous YouTube videos of racers speeding to the top as fast as possible in the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb: 

Pikes Peak is the most visited mountain in North America and one of the highest in which you can drive or ride a train to the top. Make sure to stop and say hi to Santa before making your ascent.

Even if it seems like a nice warm day at the bottom, don’t forget your winter coat for the top as it gets quite chilly up there:

Without stopping, the 20 mile road to Pikes Peak takes about an hour to reach the summit. Along the way there are several gift shops and lots of places to pull off and take photos.

When you reach the summit be prepared for some spectacular views and warm up in the gift shop/restaurant with fresh made donuts before making your descent.

You also have the option to hike to the top (if you’re brave enough) or hitch a ride and then bike all the way down (better check your brakes first).

Pikes Peak used to be a combination of pavement, dirt and gravel. Unfortunatly for it’s racing history, the road has been paved…but foruntatly for me I got to pull a couple drifts when I visited in 2011 just before they paved the remaining dirt section.

Careful on your way up and down…there are no guardrails and it’s quite a long way to the bottom:

If you are looking for USA road trip routes through Colorado I definitely suggest making Pikes Peak one of your stops. Depending on the time of year you might find snow at the top which was a nice contrast from the warmer conditions earlier on my 2011 USA road trip. It was also the highest elevation I reached during my journey as well.

See Pikes Peak featured in Drivelapse USA 2011

The post USA Road Trip Routes | Pikes Peak appeared first on DeFrees Productions.

Travel Tools | Road Trip 66 – Route 66 iPhone App

If you are thinking about driving any large or small portion of Route 66 and have an iPhone, the Road Trip 66 Route 66 iPhone app is a must-have for your journey. On my Route 66 Cross-Country Road Trip I used this app to follow every mile from Chicago to Los Angeles. 

The Road Trip 66 – Route 66 iPhone app has a red line drawn on current roads that were at one time Route 66. Along the red line it has indicators color coded for lodging, art, attractions and historic markers.

As you are traveling you can click on the markers to find out more information about an attraction.

The Road Trip 66 – Route 66 iPhone app provides you with a description, map, directions to the attraction and a website if it has one.

The Road Trip 66 – Route 66 iPhone app was extremely useful in helping us find the oldest portions of the route, including the original routes many of which are not traveled today.

For the most part, the app warns you of any rough terrain or hazards your car might not be able to handle. We did however come across a few sections of the road that were not marked and had ourselves a situation similar to when Michael from the TV show”The Office” trusts his GPS too willingly:

Luckily for us we were able to get out of the sand using the same techniques I used to escape snow living in the northeast for so many years with some rocking back and forth.

Unfortunately, the app does not follow your location automatically like the built in maps app does, so you have to keep scrolling the map with your finger to keep up with your current position (I wouldn’t suggest doing this while you are driving). Besides that small flaw which will hopefully be updated in a future version, the app is built great.

Overall, the Road Trip 66 – Route 66 iPhone app is an incredible deal for $0.99. On our Route 66 journey it not only helped keep us on track and gave us a guide beyond the historic Route 66 byway signs, it led us to many attractions we would have passed by without the app. If you plan on driving any part of Route 66 in the future I strongly suggest downloading this app to assist you on your way.

Download Road Trip 66 – Route 66 iPhone app from the iTunes store here.

The post Road Trip 66 : Route 66 iPhone App | Travel Tools appeared first on DeFrees Productions.

Travel Tools | iPhone Road Trip Photo Apps

If I could only choose two items to take with me on a road trip, one would be my car and the other would be my camera. Photographs are the best way to capture parts of the world you’ve never seen before and may never see again. Even though I own several DSLR’s, my favorite camera is the one that’s always in my pocket: my iPhone. One of the advantages of shooting photos with a smart phone is being able to review your geo-tagged photos after the trip. Here’s what it looks like in the Places map in iPhoto for Mac:

There are hundreds of photo applications in the Apple app store. In this post I’m going to focus on the seven I use most frequently.

Camera + ($0.99)

Camera + is my favorite iPhone road trip photo app. It acts as an alternative to the built in camera app, allowing you to take photos from within the application with more features such as a stabilizer, timer and burst modes. It also allows you to set your exposure and focus separately, which is a huge advantage over the built-in camera. My favorite part of the app is the editing tool which has dozens of effects to chose from as well as cropping, border and scene selection options. This iPhone camera app makes it very easy to take a normal photo and make it more unique in just a few seconds.

Pro HDR ($1.99)

Pro HDR is an excellent iPhone road trip photo app that really makes your photos pop. If you aren’t familiar with HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography, what it does is basically merge an underexposed (dark) image and an overexposed (light) image into one photo. For instance in a landscape photo it would take the sky from the under exposed photo and merge it with the ground from the over exposed photo. The built in iPhone camera does have an HDR option but I rarely use it since it doesn’t achieve the results that Pro HDR does.

Fisheye Lens ($1.99)

Fisheye Lens is a great iPhone road trip photo app for easily achieving a wide angle fisheye look in your photos. It has lots of lenses to choose from and allows you to control how much of the fish-eye “warp” effect you want to use.

Pano ($1.99)

Pano is an excellent iPhone road trip photo app for shooting panorama photography. It’s very easy to use and allows you to capture entire landscapes if you are outside or interiors inside since a normal photo’s dimensions are too small to capture wide scenes. The iPhone 5 comes with a Panorama feature built in which achieves the same results, but if you have an older iPhone or an Android, Pano is an excellent application to use for road trip Panorama shots.

Big Lens ($0.99)

Big Lens is an iPhone road trip photo app that realistically gives your iPhone photos the depth of field effect that a DSLR camera would with an expensive lens. By selecting the area you would like to keep in focus with your finger, Big Lens blurs out the rest of the photo leaving you with a professional depth of field look to your photos. It even lets you choose your aperture and lens within the app so you have total control of how much of the shot you want to be in focus. It also has some nice filters and an HDR option to polish your photos.

Slow Shutter ($0.99)

Slow Shutter is another iPhone road trip photo app that gives you the control and ability of a professional DSLR camera’s shutter speed control. You choose the shutter speed so you can blur objects that are moving in your image. Another cool feature is the “Light Trail” capture mode which allows you to create light trails with bright objects against dark backgrounds in your photos.

PicFrame ($0.99)

Pic Frame is an excellent iPhone road trip photo app for putting multiple photos into one image. If you follow me on Instagram (@DeFrees) you’ve seen me use this app to summarize photos from my road trips into one image to represent one day of the trip or the photos taken from one city to another. There are dozens of layouts to choose from as well as sizes, effects, and other various controls that allow you to place the images exactly how you want them.

What are your favorite iPhone camera photo apps? Let us know in the comments section below:

The post iPhone Road Trip Photo Apps | Travel Tools appeared first on DeFrees Productions.

Welcome to the brand new website for DeFrees Productions!

The amount of interest I gathered from my Cross-Country 2011 Roadtrip both on my personal blog and YouTube last year was phenomenal. It was an incredible experience getting to talk to people from all over the world who were curious about my trip and hearing about how it inspired them to make their own journeys.

After seeing all the Youtube comments, blog comments and reading all the e-mails I received, I created this website to display information and media from my past, present and future road trips. I hope it’s informative and useful to anyone thinking about traveling in the future.

Feel free to leave comments anywhere on the website and make sure to keep up with us on Facebook and Twitter. I will be sending out a new blog post every week so make sure to subscribe on the home page for a weekly e-mail as well.

Thanks for visiting and safe travels!

The post Welcome! appeared first on DeFrees Productions.

Route 66 Cross-Country USA Road Trip - 2012

TRIP DATA:

Travel Dates: July 28, 2012 – August 19, 2012
Trip Time: 22 Days
Distance: 9,188 mi/14,786 km
States Visited: 24
Temperature: Low: 44°F (Yosemite NP) High: 117°F (Needles, CA)
Vehicle: 2009 Honda Civic Si
Avg. MPG: 30.07 MPG, $.0132/mi
Total Gallons: 311.39 Gal
Total Fuel Cost: $1,235.27, $53.71/Day
Total Approx. Trip Cost:  $1,250 (1 of 2 people)
Trip Theme Songs: John Mayer – Route 66

TRIP VIDEOS:

Drivelapse Route 66

Download:

$1: Drivelapse Route 66 The original Route 66 Drivelapse video. Duration: 3:28
$2: Drivelapse Route 66 Extended The extended version Route 66 Drivelapse video. Duration: 5:14
$5: Drivelapse Route 66 Uncut The full-length Route 66 Drivelapse video. Duration: 51:40

Pay-to-view: (Coming early 2013)

$1: Drivelapse Route 66 Extended - The extended version Route 66 Drivelapse video. Duration: 5:14
$3: Drivelapse Route 66 Uncut – The full-length Route 66 Drivelapse video. Duration: 51:40

Featured On:

Yahoo!

Mashable

Laughing Squid

Most Watched Today

Devour

Timelapse USA 2012

Drivelapse USA 2012

TRIP SUMMARY:

After driving the mother road from Amarillo to Flagstaff on my Cross-Country 2011 road trip last year, I decided my next trip had to go from Chicago to LA and over 2,000 miles all the way this year. Route 66 has always been an interest of mine and in recent years my interest was spiked after seeing the Disney movie “Cars“. In case you haven’t seen it (or you’re unfamiliar with the history of Route 66 in America), this short clip from the movie portrays an accurate depiction of what happened to many of the towns Route 66 used to run through:

With Route 66 as the focus of the trip we set out on another Cross-Country adventure a year later that took us from the Atlantic to the Pacific once again. The first and last days were the longest since we had a 3 week window in which we had to complete the trip by. The first day we started in Austin, Texas (Live Music Capital of the World) and ended in Nashville, Tennessee (Music City). Arriving in Nashville on a Saturday night proved to be a perfect timing of events. The streets were crowded with people and live music was flowing out of every bar and restaurant on Broadway. We left early the next morning, heading west on I-40 into the Smoky Mountains onto my favorite road in the country: Tail Of The Dragon. After cruising the dragon with a Mazda Miata group and lots of motorcycles we headed north up to Asheville where we stumbled upon the last day of a festival was taking place. We enjoyed some food and live music music on the closed streets of Asheville before heading north into Virginia to camp for the night.

From Virginia, we headed north up into New York City for the night. After enjoying some NY pizza in Brooklyn we took the subway into Manhattan and visited Times Square. After New York, we continued up to Boston for a night and enjoyed food and drinks downtown including the historic Green Dragon Tavern. We set foot in the Atlantic and then started the journey west into Upstate NY. Originally hailing from Upstate New York and now living outside the state of New York, it shocks me how many people are unaware that New York isn’t just a city:

We visited Albany (The capitol of New York), enjoyed Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in my hometown Syracuse (The Best BBQ in the Northeast US), and chicken wings at the Anchor Bar where they were created in Buffalo back in 1964. After a quick detour to see Niagara Falls on the border of Canada we took I-90 west to Wisconsin.

We spent the night in Beer City aka Milwaukee, home to some of the United States most well-known breweries. The next day we drove down to Chicago and enjoyed some deep dish pizza at Gino’s East before officially starting our Route 66 portion of the trip and heading out of Chicago.

Our first official stop on Route 66 was for some ice cream in Joilet, the city known for it’s scenes in the movie The Blues Brothers. From Joilet we continued deep into the “Land of Lincoln” where it’s easy to spot Abraham Lincoln everywhere from license plates and walls to the the world’s largest covered wagon. We stopped in Springfield to visit his grave and rub his bronze nose for good luck on our journey.

From Illinois, we drove into St. Louis Missouri for a stop at the iconic Gateway Arch. After St. Louis we saw the world’s largest rocking chair in Cuba, Missouri. We then traveled down one of the preserved doublewide portions of Route 66 in Devil’s Elbow and stopped for lunch at the Elbow Inn. From Devil’s Elbow we continued westward through Springfield and into Joplin before exiting Missouri for the short stint of Route 66 that goes through Kansas.

The brief section of Kansas on Route 66 has Galena, a place that inspired “Radiator Springs”  (the town from Disney’s Cars). There is even a full-size character “Mater”  on display. After Galena, we began the Oklahoma portion of the trip stopping in Chandler to check out a Route 66 Interpretive Center that had tons of great information about the Mother Road along with photos and videos. After Chandler, we headed through Tulsa and stopped in Oklahoma City for lunch before continuing on into one of the best sunsets of the trip in West Oklahoma.

After Leaving Oklahoma we began the Texas portion of Route 66. As soon as we got to Amarillo we made sure we had big appetites for lunch at the Big Texan (Home of the free 72 oz. steak). The steak is only free if you can eat the whole thing so we opted for the 18 oz. instead which fed us for both lunch and dinner. With full bellies we made a quick stop at Wal-Mart for some spray paint and headed over to Cadillac Ranch to leave our mark before continuing into New Mexico.

Reaching New Mexico, we cruised through Tucumcari and then opted for the pre-1937 alignment of Route 66. This took us up to Santa Fe and then straight down through Albuquerque instead of the post-1937 alignment which goes east-west. We saw wild horses on an old portion of Route 66 between Alberquerque and Gallup where the road appears unchanged since it closed. When we arrived in Gallup there was a Navajo song and dance festival going on so we had to detour around the city.

We entered the Arizona section of the journey next, stopping in Holbrook to see the largest map of Route 66 and the wigwam motel. Next up we stopped and stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona  (The town made famous by The Eagles song in the 70′s). From Winslow we continued our Arizona adventure into Flagstaff and Williams. Unlike a lot of the towns and cities along Route 66, both Williams and Flagstaff are still thriving today with lots of shops restaurants and tourists, many of whom are on their way to the Grand Canyon. From Williams, we continued west into one of the most scenic points of Route 66 (and the entire trip) as we entered Kingman. We made a last minute decision to take a break from Route 66 and head north up to Las Vegas for the night, stopping at the Hoover Dam on the way back before returning to Kingman and continuing our journey west.

After stopping in Kingman and seeing the world’s longest Route 66 map and an abandoned motorcross raceway park, we headed up into the hills into the twistiest part of Route 66. After summiting, we started down the other side of the hills and stumbled into Oatman, Arizona to which we had no prior knowledge of. It turned out to be one of our favorite spots of the trip thanks to the friendly locals, interesting shops and businesses, gunfights and of course the wild burros that you can feed and pet as they wander around the streets.

After Oatman, we headed into the final state of Route 66: California. Until this point, the trip had gone very smoothly with no hiccups of any kind. Getting a little too comforterable with the Route 66 iphone app that was guiding us we encountered some troublesome sand trying to follow the historic route and got stuck. Luckily I used the same techniques I had used dozens of times getting stuck in snow and we were able to shake the car loose and continue. Later that night however we got stuck again turning around on a dirt access road in the Mojave preserve. I learned that night that 1) AAA does not help you if you are not on a paved road (Thanks a lot AAA!) and 2) Tow truck drivers will make any excuse not to come and help you out if you are on a dirt road (my favorite was “We can’t afford to get our truck dirty”). Luckily the folks at Big D’s towing actually cared that we were stuck in Mojave Desert and charged us 1/3 of the price that the AAA company quoted us, Thanks Again Big D!

So for two years in a row I have gotten stuck in the Mojave Desert leaving Las Vegas. Luckily this time I won a little bit of money which helped pay for the towing charge. Fortunately, the whole ordeal didn’t take any time off the trip since we camped in the spot we got stuck. We got up early the next day and continued west on old 66. This part of Route 66 was unique in that there were graphitti buildings and countless rock formations, many spelling out names of people who had stopped next to the road. After a quick stop in Barstow for lunch at the same In-and-Out Burger as last year (even more packed and crazy than before) we headed to Victorville.

Just outside of Victorville is a Bottle Cactus Ranch, a very unique collection of bottle and other miscellaneous objects. We talked to Elmer, the owner and creator of the ranch who was happy to tell us about many of his items before we started the final stretch of 66. Up until this point we hadn’t skipped any part of Route 66 and had taken every scenic detour and oldest route possible. We were trying to get to Santa Monica before sundown and it would have been nice to jump on the highway and save a couple hours. Instead we stuck to old Route 66 and went from San Bernindino all the way through Hollywood and Beverly Hills stopping at every stoplight and stop sign taking several hours in rush hour traffic to reach the end.

Luckily the strenous end of the journey was worth it when we reached the Santa Monica pier, got out of the car and walked up to the “End Of The Trail” sign just as a picturesque sunset was taking place.

After a night in Hollywood and an oil change we started the voyage up Pacific Coast Highway 1. Along the way we got glimpses of some unexpected creatures including zebras and elephant seals. The road was extremely scenic again like it was a year ago on my 2011 trip. A little more fog was present this time but it was still an amazing drive. Unlike last year, when we arrived in San Francisco the entire Golden Gate Bridge was visible. We played some Disc Golf in Golden Gate Park and then headed down Lombard St and battled traffic to head west over the Bay Bridge out of San Francisco.

From the Bay Area we started our trip east into Yosemite National Park. We didn’t have time to go on any of the trails or tours of the park but we were able to see some spectacular views from a few hours of driving around the park. California held both the highest (117°F in the Mojave desert) and the lowest temperatures as we left Yosemite (44°F).  Coming out of Yosemite on California 120 proved to be a lot of fun as the road has a roller coaster effect for several miles.

Without knowing it at the time, we found ourselves on the Extraterrestrial Highway (Nevada 375) not far from Area 51. We stopped for gas and some Alien Jerky learning from the locals that sonic booms, strange low-flying government aircraft and other mysterious lights are normal in this part of the state. We also learned of several ghost towns in the area and decided to check out one near Caliente, Nevada. Unfortunately, my Civic got a flat tire due to some rocky roads near the ghost town so we were forced to find help in Caliente. We decided it was a good excuse along with the constant rain, to stay in the first motel of the trip. The locals helped me change my tire and we enjoyed dinner and drinks with them in what turned out to be a great totally unplanned night.

The next morning we headed further east into Utah near Zion National Park. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit it but it’s in the cards for the future. From Utah, we headed east back into Arizona and New Mexico to the Four Corners. The Four Corners is the only place in the United States where four states meet directly on their corners and you are able to stand in all four at the same time. We camped out in Farmington, New Mexico that night and made the final trek back the next day. We drove all day long but stopped in Roswell for lunch and got back into Austin after nightfall.

It was an incredible journey seeing Route 66 from start to finish and realizing how much of the Disney movie Cars accurately depicts the mother road and it’s towns. Even though I can say I drove Route 66 from start to finish I’ve been told that I need to do it on a motorcycle to really get the full experience. I won’t argue this point and would gladly travel it all over again via bike for my first motorcycle drivelapse video and see all the things I missed out on this trip. Until then enjoy  the three videos I made on this trip: Drivelapse Route 66, Timelapse USA 2012 and Drivelapse USA 2012.

TRIP PHOTOS:

View Album on Flickr

Order a texture print of Signs of Route 66 on Instaprinter. Enter “Signs of Route 66″ in the Image URL field at checkout.

Order a texture print of any of the images below on Instaprinter. Enter the Image URL at checkout.

 « prev      1   2   3   4      next »  
(308 Photos)

TRIP EQUIPMENT:

BEHIND THE SCENES:

The post Road Trip | Route 66 Cross-Country USA – 2012 appeared first on DeFrees Productions.