Playing in the Shanandoahs, Virginia!

[AllFlash]

Ok so for those that don't know it yet, I have finally been given some playtime to travel, get to lknow the Z, and actually visit you as we come back into Canada via BC and travel eastbound. Anyway, this morning we traveled the Shanandoah and Blue Ridge Parkways where we traveled Skyline Drive and drove through the top of the mountain ranges. This is a 7 hr drive from Niagara and well worth the trip. Having a bit of fun with sound and turns, here are two vids I took on the PDR. I have plenty of GoPro as well but they are so darn large to upload... Very new to video shooting so any advise at all is appreciated...now lets have some fun!







Today we do the Snake Run on Hwy 421. It makes the Dragon look silly with 429 turns, 3 mountains and a valley in 33 miles. The last time we were there a few years back there was a controversy over whether they would be keeping all the white croses up which were being placed where enthusisasts perished if i remember right....LOTS OF RADAR!

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Too cool Les. You like tunnels don't you???

Is the car comfortable on these long distance drives?

Travel safe and enjoy yourselves.

 

[AllFlash]

Very comfortable!!!!

 

[smackYYZ]

Les, Have a great time.

One thing I use on these long road trips is the App Waze, if you have a data plan ( I have Wind so unlimited US ). It's a crowd sourced road data app, so if you see a cop, an accident or construction you mark it. So as your driving you can see on the map where other people have spotted these things, gives you that little extra heads up, it's hard to beat laser!

 

[CCO]

Wow, what a trip. Very cool Les.
Thanks for sharing and be safe.
C.

 

[Nik]

All tunnels to be taken in an absurdly (borderline dangerous) low gear, read the manual Looks like a nice trip.

 

[Zeeman28a]

Great videos Les. I've been wanting to put together a week long cross country cruise to include Bowling Green, through some of those parts for the group. Scenery is awesome in that part of the country. I want to do the cruise first myself to find stopping points of interest, hotels or motels, maybe even some night life in the area. But as I'm not familiar with the area

Question about the PDR. Does it only display in standard or does it also switch to metric?

As for the large files, you need to compress the video from your GoPro's. And you do that by using codec's when compressing. A great, somewhat inexpensive, tool for Windows is Adobe Premiere. It allows you to edit, crop, split, join, etc ad well as convert to different formats. It's what I usually use. There is a free App called SUPER but it's very limited. No editing capabillites, but it can convert to different formats.

On the Mac side, if you have a Mac, use the iMovie application that comes with it. It's part of the iLife package. It also has fantastic editing and compressing capabilities, and some would even say, it's a lot easier to use than Premiere.

Also, depending on the size, if you upload the video to Youtube, youtube does the conversion to flash video (.flv) which also compresses the video and makes it a lot smaller than the original.

Stan.

 

[nascar03]

Great vids Les....
Keep 'em coming.
Graham

 

[AllFlash]

Thanks for the comments all...we are at the Tail of the Dragon now and I have some amazing video of both the Dragon and 421 Snake Run. The Dragon hasn't changed much with a fatality a few days back, biker down on our first pass and didn't appear conscious and then another unhurt but down on the second pass where I got Karen to drive. I cant wait to see today's vids however.. I will try to get something up tonight but weak internet here... NCM visit and VIP Tour tomorrow...

 

[c6zed]

Les
I don't know your itinerary or schedule but if you are anywhere near Monterey CA between August 8 - 16 you should spend at lest a day at Laguna Seca for the Rolex Monterey Reunion (formerly Monterey Historics). Aug 8,9 are practice days at Laguna (still free I think), Aug 11 is Concours on the Avenue in Carmel-By-The-Sea (free if you can find anywhere to park!), Aug 14, 15, 16 are the Historic races at Laguna (any day is good for wandering through the pits - check cost on Mazda Raceway website), and many other car show/auctions etc during the week of 10-16. One of my favourite drives is Highway 1 along the coast between LA & Monterey. Would be great in a new Z with roof off.

 

[Riley P]

Great vids Les! Love the laugh at the end of the tunnel..... Very fitting. Looking forward to some snake vids!