Had a BLAST with a couple of car buddies this past weekend. I thought Sunday would be a good day to drive over to central Oregon, and I was eager to take a drive, too, since it had been a while since I’d really driven the M2 in anger. With stay-at-home orders being relaxed a little bit here and there, I figured it would be okay to just go over to eastern/central Oregon for the day.
I first met Matt in fall of 2018, when I took a drive with my buddy Tyler (Shelby GT350R), and he invited his buddy Matt along (Focus RS). I did a blog post about it
here. We’ve kept up on Facebook since then, but we hadn’t had the opportunity to go for a drive again. He’s an accomplished autocross racer, and his Ford is pretty badass. The last few times I’ve posted something on FB with photos of a drive or ride, he has asked me to be sure to invite him next time, so today was the day! Tyler couldn’t make it, but Matt invited another autocross buddy of his, Bradd, with his very sporty 400 HP Golf R.
Long day, ambitious route – 600 miles total. First and last two hours out of Boise are pretty boring farmland. But the entire middle part is just WOW. And there was NO ONE out there. Day two of a three-day weekend is always pretty great, because people are generally where they’re spending the weekend – not on the way to and from that place. Add the fact that most Oregon campgrounds are closed due to Covid, and it meant empty roads everywhere.
And we TORCHED those roads. So intense, so fun. I’ve never driven so many miles, so fast, so hard, for hours and hours, with a couple of really great drivers. It was pretty darn spectacular. We didn’t take many pics, but a few (including with the drone), and I shot some video with drone and GoPro (link below).
What a great day. Perfect conditions, and some incredibly skillful and fun driving. Everyone I take over to those roads comes away with the same reaction I always do, which is being completely blown away by how cool that area is, for driving or riding. I sure feel blessed to live so close to this paradise for motoring fun.
I put together a quick video sample with a bit of our adventure here:
https://youtu.be/ImIBOl2IJp8
We all can’t wait to go back and rip up some more Oregon tarmac, ASAP.