In today's video, I take a one-thousand-mile road trip...
Through some incredibly scenic parts of California, Oregon, and Washington...
To deliver my wife's car up to our new home in Southeastern Washington.
I'll share some amazing videos I shot of scenic places along the way...
And even suggest a fun place to stop on a hot day if you're ever driving along the Columbia River.
Plus, the big event I got to witness at our new house...
The landscaping team laying down sod in my new back yard.
So, my mission was to get my wife's Toyota Camry up to our new house in Washington...
And that's a thousand-mile drive from our house in California.
The first few hundred miles of the drive aren't all that interesting, but...
Once I got up to Northern California...
I got the drone out to shoot the first of quite a few incredibly scenic places that were along my route.
This is Shasta Lake, in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, just north of Redding, California.
The entire drive up until this point, the first 450 miles...
Comes up through the great central valley that is the agricultural heart of California.
And it's just not that scenic.
But once you get up here to Shasta Lake...
The entire tone of the drive changes, and it's really beautiful the whole rest of the way.
Now this time of the year, in August, Shasta Lake is full of houseboats, and ski boats...
And people just having fun and trying to stay cool...
Because it was well over 100 degrees outside!
The next beautiful sight along my route was Mt Shasta.
A volcano at the southern end of the Cascade Mountain Range...
And it's the fifth highest mountain in California, at over 14,000 feet.
The last known eruption of the volcano was about 750 years ago, but...
Experts say that it could potentially be active again someday.
Now during a heat wave, in August...
It wasn't covered with snow like it is for much of the rest of the year.
I've been through this area quite a few times in June and July and there is still usually a lot of snow on Mt Shasta at that point, but not so much this August.
After driving 580 miles, I reached the city of Klamath Falls, Oregon...
And that was enough driving for one day for me...
So, I spent the night at the Holiday Inn there, which was a really nice hotel.
The next morning, I fueled up on a nice breakfast from Denny's...
And then hit the road again, where things got beautiful really quickly.
This was the view maybe 15 minutes after I left the hotel.
It's Upper Klamath Lake, just north of the city of Klamath Falls.
The highway runs right along the shore of the lake for quite a few miles.
It's absolutely gorgeous.
This whole second day of my trip was just beautiful the whole time.
If you ever have the opportunity to drive highway 97 through the entire length of the state of Oregon...
You should. It's a real treat.
One of the most beautiful places I know.
What I did all day on this second day of my trip, whenever I saw something beautiful...
Was to just stop, even if it was just alongside of the highway...
Put the drone up in the air and get some good video of it.
Klamath Lake was just the first of many beautiful places along the way on this second day of my drive.
The next spot I want to show you is a little state park along the highway...
That I've stopped at just about every time I've done this drive.
And I've probably done this thousand-mile drive 15 or 20 times since the 1970s...
To visit my sister and her family in Washington.
This is Collier Memorial State Park, in Southern Oregon...
About 35 minutes north of Klamath Falls...
And not far from Crater Lake.
This is forest land along the east side of the Cascade mountain range.
The thing that always jumps out at me when I stop here is the smell.
The Ponderosa and Lodgepole pine trees here smell amazing.
For a city boy, the smell of the forest is just a real treat.
And at this spot right here...
Spring Creek meets up with the Williamson River as it flows towards Upper Klamath Lake...
It's a very quick and easy walk from the parking lot to this scenic spot along the river.
I visit every time I come through here, because it's just so beautiful and it smells so good!
They also happen to have very nice restroom facilities here...
So, it's pretty much a perfect spot to stop during a road trip on highway 97 through Oregon.
Now for hours and hours during this part of the drive through Oregon...
You're just taking this beautiful drive through the pine trees.
It's really a beautiful drive.
And the whole reason I was doing this drive...
Was to get my wife's car up to our new house in Washington, in advance of our move...
So that two weeks later, when it would be time to actually make our real move out of California...
We could make that drive together in my car...
Because I bet we're going to have a lot to talk about!
It's going to be pretty exciting... leaving California after all these years...
And starting a whole new life, in our dream house that was custom-built just for us.
Now this next spot I want to share with you...
Is an incredibly scenic canyon carved out by the Crooked River...
Just north of the city of Redmond, Oregon.
It's a state park right alongside highway 97...
Super easy to get to without going out of the way...
And the views are just insane.
Especially the views from my drone!
There are three bridges that cross the canyon here at this spot.
The first bridge, closest to the camera in this shot, is a bridge for the railroad...
With two sets of tracks on it.
I wish I was lucky enough to be here to shoot video when a train was crossing the bridge.
That would be incredible.
No such luck, of course, for me on this day.
The second bridge, off in the distance a bit there, is the old highway bridge.
That used to be the bridge for all the cars on highway 97.
I went over that bridge many times in my early road trips to Washington in the 1970s and 80s.
But as the highway got busier over the years, they needed a wider one with more lanes...
So, they built that third bridge you see in the distance...
That's now the bridge for the highway...
And the old bridge in the middle is just used by people on foot...
Who are visiting the state park overlooking the canyon.
I get a little freaked out by heights.
So, I was unable to look down from the viewpoint on the edge of the canyon there, but...
Flying the drone was fun.
And I just could not resist the opportunity to fly the drone underneath the railroad bridge!
Now I've got a lot more to show you...
Including a fun spot along the Columbia River where you can take a swim for free.
As well as two different times I crossed over the Columbia River...
On the way to get to our brand-new house in Washington.
That's all coming up, right after this.
This is the little town of Madras, Oregon...
And I thought it was so cool that they had made the effort to beautify the entrance to the city...
By planting lots of trees along the street...
And also by placing hanging baskets of flowers all along the street.
I needed a small lunch to tide me over for the rest of my trip that afternoon...
And the Taco Bell there in Madras did the trick nicely for me.
Back on the road after lunch...
There is a stretch of highway 97 in Oregon, north of my lunch spot of Madras...
Where you leave civilization behind...
And you travel for about 90 minutes through a pretty desolate part of the state.
It's mostly range land used for cattle grazing...
And there's just not a lot out here.
There are no gas stations, there's no fast food...
You just settle in for a 90-minute drive on the highway.
And you better have good passing skills because...
Some of the RVs and 18 wheelers on the highway move a little slower than you're going to want to go.
But at the end of this very lonely 90-minute stretch of road...
There is a big reward.
First off, restaurants, gas stations and bathrooms...
But also, your first look at the Columbia River.
And for about the next hour, you're on a nice Interstate freeway with a 70 mile per hour speed limit...
And on one side you've got nice views of the Columbia River...
And on the other side, very dramatic canyon walls carved out by the river over millions of years.
This is known as the Columbia Gorge...
And the geography is just perfect to create pretty steady winds through the gorge.
So, there's hundreds of wind turbines on both the Oregon and Washington sides of the river...
As well as numerous hydroelectric dams, to generate environmentally friendly energy.
If you find yourself travelling here on Interstate 84 along the Columbia River...
I want to recommend a place to make a stop.
It's the little town of Arlington.
You can stop for food, or fill up on gasoline, but...
The best thing they've got going is a little park you can visit...
On a hot summer day driving through Oregon, it's the perfect place to stop for a swim in the river.
It doesn't cost a thing to stop here and use the park.
They've got a little beach that you can use to just wade in to the river...
But my favorite part is this little pier that you can walk out on...
And then jump off the pier and in to the water.
There are no lifeguards telling you what you can and cannot do...
There's no entry fee or parking fee...
It's just simple small-town fun on the river… for you and your family.
You gotta love it!
It was over a hundred degrees on this particular day.
It's not always like that. Most summer days the highs are in the 80s or 90s, but...
There's nothing like a swim in the river to cool you down on a long road trip.
Now the route I take for my trip has me crossing over the Columbia River at two different locations.
Because in this part of Southeastern Washington, the Columbia River does this very unusual 180 degree turn.
And I first cross the river on Interstate 82 right here...
And then later, I cross the river again at this point to get in to my new hometown of Pasco.
That first river crossing, near the town of Umatilla, Oregon, is pretty basic.
The first several times I did the trip, in the 1970s and 80s...
There was just that bridge on the left... one lane in each direction...
And then later they built this second bridge on the right so that each direction of traffic had their own bridge.
Now my second crossing over the Columbia River, in to Pasco is a little more scenic.
At least the way I did it.
I went a couple of miles out of my way so I could drive over the area's most beautiful bridge.
There are actually four different highway bridges that cross the river in to Pasco...
Plus three railroad bridges.
This one, known by most folks as the cable bridge, is the most beautiful of all.
Officially, it's called the Ed Hendler Bridge… he used to be the mayor.
The bridge was constructed in 1978, and was way ahead of its time!
This type of bridge is called a cable-stayed bridge...
And this one, in little ol' Pasco, Washington, was the very first one ever built in the United States.
It's a very popular landmark in the Tri Cities area...
And an unofficial symbol of the area.
987 miles after leaving my home in California... after two days in the car...
I finally made it to my new neighborhood.
This view from my drone gives you a pretty good look at it.
This is all former farmland.
These homes in the foreground were the ones completed in previous years.
And off in the distance there, closer to the river...
Is the new section where they're building homes this year...
Including my brand-new home.
As we go in for a closer look at this new section of the development...
You're going to see that about half of the lots have homes that are either completed, or are under construction.
Quite a few of those other empty lots have been sold, but construction just hasn't begun yet.
We were really happy to buy our lot when we did, there were still many lots to choose from at that point...
And we were able to pick what we felt was the best lot for us.
Now coming in for a closeup of our back yard here...
You can see that I just happened to be there on the very day that a landscaping crew was laying sod in our back yard.
That was really fun for me to see as I flew the drone over the property.
And if you look carefully, you can see an oval-shaped cement path that winds all the way around the lawn...
You will be seeing, sometime later this year, model trains running along that cement path around the lawn.
After the crew finished laying down the sod, they ran the sprinklers...
Because it was a ridiculously hot August day...
And I had the drone do a low fly-by.
So, I successfully completed my main mission...
Which was to safely get my wife's car up to our new home in the Tri Cities.
Where, by the way, I paid $2.55 a gallon for gas...
Compared to about $3.30 a gallon back in California.
While I was in the area, I had a nice visit with my Washington family...
And also met some of my new neighbors for the first time...
And then I got on a plane at the Pasco airport and flew back to California using frequent flyer miles.
I arrived after dark, after about 9 hours in airports and airplanes.
Compared to two days of driving on the way up.
And my wife was waiting for me outside the airport when I got there!