geohot across America was big success
As I write this, I am sitting on a bench at the google campus using their Wi-Fi. I love google. Two nights ago, I was in Vegas, and realized Vegas really sucks if you are under 21 and look 16. Everyone seems either pissed off or hopelessly despaired there as well; I guess some lose a little and some lose a lot.
I don't feel like writing much now, since I have so much google to explore. But hopefully tonight I will post a map of all the tracker positions and a summary of the trip.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Days 5 and 6
My bluetooth keyboard is lagging, so this post will probably have more typos than usual. I wanted to do something while in Denver, so I went to the Denver science museum. No, I couldn't think of anything better. I got out of there around noon; four tacos and an empanada later(I can't wait for the google diet, cereal, candy bars, and fast food just doesn't look that good), it was time to get back on the road.
Dramatically the landscape changed once I was west of Denver. I was in the Rockies, and I thought my van was broken. It took a lot of gas to go on terrain that appeared even flat. Turned out that it was a very convincing optical illusion, and I was indeed traveling uphill.
Colorado was beautiful, so much nicer than Indiana and Illinois. Even the rest stops were pretty. Everwood was a pretty good representation of small town Colorado. This was certainly the most enjoyable state to drive through.
About half a mile into Utah,I see a trailer, abandoned, with "Jesus Saves" on the side...great. And crayola should really add a color, Utah, a pinkish flesh tone, because all of Utah was this color. I went for a little walk at a rest stop, and you can see the van in the back of that picture.
Looking back at where I had traveled, America reminded me of Starfox. You can take different paths between the states. The safe first level, Corneria, was like Glen Rock, while Andross was Google(except, unlike Andross, Google does no evil)
I spent the night in Bryce Canyon National Park. I hiked the hike all the way at the bottom of the tourist guide, I'm that hardcore. Next stop, Vegas. And I will gain 2 hours(DST+PST) on the way.
Dramatically the landscape changed once I was west of Denver. I was in the Rockies, and I thought my van was broken. It took a lot of gas to go on terrain that appeared even flat. Turned out that it was a very convincing optical illusion, and I was indeed traveling uphill.
Colorado was beautiful, so much nicer than Indiana and Illinois. Even the rest stops were pretty. Everwood was a pretty good representation of small town Colorado. This was certainly the most enjoyable state to drive through.
About half a mile into Utah,I see a trailer, abandoned, with "Jesus Saves" on the side...great. And crayola should really add a color, Utah, a pinkish flesh tone, because all of Utah was this color. I went for a little walk at a rest stop, and you can see the van in the back of that picture.
Looking back at where I had traveled, America reminded me of Starfox. You can take different paths between the states. The safe first level, Corneria, was like Glen Rock, while Andross was Google(except, unlike Andross, Google does no evil)
I spent the night in Bryce Canyon National Park. I hiked the hike all the way at the bottom of the tourist guide, I'm that hardcore. Next stop, Vegas. And I will gain 2 hours(DST+PST) on the way.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
4th Night
I am writing this from the parking lot of a comfort inn in Denver, and thanks to all the kind(or stupid) people who leave their high speed connections open with the SSID linksys.
Illinois(the state, not Chicago) was unmemorable. Iowa was rainy and windy, and I was waiting for a tornado to brew any minute. Nebraska sucked; they did gas backwards and had unamerican speed limits. A piece of the van's front bumper fell off in Nebraska too.
I'm not sure yet where I head tomorrow, but there should be some things to see here. Maybe I'll take Leslie's advice and go to Bryce canyon.
Illinois(the state, not Chicago) was unmemorable. Iowa was rainy and windy, and I was waiting for a tornado to brew any minute. Nebraska sucked; they did gas backwards and had unamerican speed limits. A piece of the van's front bumper fell off in Nebraska too.
I'm not sure yet where I head tomorrow, but there should be some things to see here. Maybe I'll take Leslie's advice and go to Bryce canyon.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Start of 4th Day
I ended up staying two nights in Chicago. It's a really amazing city and the next leg of the journey didn't sound at all exciting. But I'll have to do it sometime. Today I head for Denver, CO(probably) and am traveling through such amazing states as Nebraska and Iowa. ETA, sometime past midnight. Fun.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
1st and 2nd Night
I don't really have time to write now, I'm in a uchicago dorm room and have had a crazy first two nights.
The first night started off pretty uneventful. I realized I forgot both the whiteboard of the states and the network crimper, but neither were worth an hours detour back home for. So onward to CMU I pressed. Since I had delayed leaving for so long, I wouldn't get there until 2 am. The van was vibrating weirdly, but at least I didn't smell the brakes. Although the brakes didn't seem to be as responsive as before. And on top of that, I had gotten on 81 instead of 76. So I had to make the 10 mile trek back to the correct highway. Getting off the highway was the first time I had really used the brakes in a while. The van shook violently as I stepped, and didn't seem to want to stop! Eventually it did; I was hoping to make it to Pittsburgh before I'd really have to deal with it.
Well that was wishful thinking. I ended up on a road that was practically dirt. There wasn't a light for a couple miles, and now, the brakes were really dead. Like the brake light was on, and stepping on the brakes actually seemed to make the car lurch forward faster than it had been going. I had to stop. Slowly, I rolled to a halt(with the help of the e-brake), in between two of some farmer's grain silos. Holy shit! What do I do?
This was really creepy. Already my adventure had hit a major roadblock. No way was I going to make it across America like this.
I called my Triple A, but all they offered was a tow between 3-5 miles. So helpful. I figured they'd tow me to a mechanic and I'd have to wait it out until morning. I was going to take them up on the offer, but aside from latitude and longitude, I had no idea where I was. And Triple A couldn't do anything with that information.
So I punched nearest service station into my GPS. 4.3 miles. Using 1st gear, neutral, and the e-brake, I made it. Welcome to the Newville Auto Mechanic, the sight of my first "hotel" Newville was a little town with your Pennsylvania staples, a car shop, a diner, and a gun shop. I felt like a team on the amazing race, rolling up to a place and reading the time it opens(9:00), and knowing I can do nothing but wait. Figuring that my van wouldn't be disturbed in the midst of all the other cars, I set the iPhone alarm for 8:55, and fell asleep.
I awoke to the sound of Marimba and remembered where I was. My dream was so much more tranquil, although at least I woke to the sound of the alarm I set, and not a cop banging on the windshield. The mechanic finally showed up at 9:20, but was gracious enough to look at my car right away, despite a rather long lineup of cars outside his shop. After about half an hour, I see the van sitting outside the shop. The mechanic told me he had fixed it, and one look inside showed me he was right. The brake pedal was a good 2 inches more raised then it was. There was a kink in the pressure return hose linking the power steering and the brakes. Awesome, the two things that sucked sucked slightly less. For the mere price of $37.50, I was on my way.
Except for the damn rest stop being out of chapstick, the ride to CMU was good, although the Robot Roundhouse was rather tricky to find, even with the GPS coords(which I was too lazy to actually enter) Pretty sweet place. Ray, his friend Ross, and I set off to find lunch. After hassles with the van clearance and handicapped parking spaces, we got pizza. I ate a whole pie, since I didn't know when I'd eat again.
On the way back to the car, in search of a chapstick store, we passed a sharper image going out of business sale. I'm a sucker for these things, and after a little persuasion from Ray, I bought a mini electric Vespa. Totally worth it?
After some laps around the Robot Roundhouse parking lot on the Vespa, I was off to Chicago, desperate not to fall behind. Long drive, every rest stop in Ohio looks the same(no tax on starbucks either) and Indiana has a speed limit of 70. Although tolls were a major rip off.
I arrived at uchicago around 12(CST), and met my attractive female acquaintance at a frat party. We hung out at the party for about a half hour, then headed back to her dorm. Good deal. I didn't have to sleep in the van tonight. I awoke the next morning, took a "hot" shower, and sat down at her computer. Which brings me to this minute.
The first night started off pretty uneventful. I realized I forgot both the whiteboard of the states and the network crimper, but neither were worth an hours detour back home for. So onward to CMU I pressed. Since I had delayed leaving for so long, I wouldn't get there until 2 am. The van was vibrating weirdly, but at least I didn't smell the brakes. Although the brakes didn't seem to be as responsive as before. And on top of that, I had gotten on 81 instead of 76. So I had to make the 10 mile trek back to the correct highway. Getting off the highway was the first time I had really used the brakes in a while. The van shook violently as I stepped, and didn't seem to want to stop! Eventually it did; I was hoping to make it to Pittsburgh before I'd really have to deal with it.
Well that was wishful thinking. I ended up on a road that was practically dirt. There wasn't a light for a couple miles, and now, the brakes were really dead. Like the brake light was on, and stepping on the brakes actually seemed to make the car lurch forward faster than it had been going. I had to stop. Slowly, I rolled to a halt(with the help of the e-brake), in between two of some farmer's grain silos. Holy shit! What do I do?
This was really creepy. Already my adventure had hit a major roadblock. No way was I going to make it across America like this.
I called my Triple A, but all they offered was a tow between 3-5 miles. So helpful. I figured they'd tow me to a mechanic and I'd have to wait it out until morning. I was going to take them up on the offer, but aside from latitude and longitude, I had no idea where I was. And Triple A couldn't do anything with that information.
So I punched nearest service station into my GPS. 4.3 miles. Using 1st gear, neutral, and the e-brake, I made it. Welcome to the Newville Auto Mechanic, the sight of my first "hotel" Newville was a little town with your Pennsylvania staples, a car shop, a diner, and a gun shop. I felt like a team on the amazing race, rolling up to a place and reading the time it opens(9:00), and knowing I can do nothing but wait. Figuring that my van wouldn't be disturbed in the midst of all the other cars, I set the iPhone alarm for 8:55, and fell asleep.
I awoke to the sound of Marimba and remembered where I was. My dream was so much more tranquil, although at least I woke to the sound of the alarm I set, and not a cop banging on the windshield. The mechanic finally showed up at 9:20, but was gracious enough to look at my car right away, despite a rather long lineup of cars outside his shop. After about half an hour, I see the van sitting outside the shop. The mechanic told me he had fixed it, and one look inside showed me he was right. The brake pedal was a good 2 inches more raised then it was. There was a kink in the pressure return hose linking the power steering and the brakes. Awesome, the two things that sucked sucked slightly less. For the mere price of $37.50, I was on my way.
Except for the damn rest stop being out of chapstick, the ride to CMU was good, although the Robot Roundhouse was rather tricky to find, even with the GPS coords(which I was too lazy to actually enter) Pretty sweet place. Ray, his friend Ross, and I set off to find lunch. After hassles with the van clearance and handicapped parking spaces, we got pizza. I ate a whole pie, since I didn't know when I'd eat again.
On the way back to the car, in search of a chapstick store, we passed a sharper image going out of business sale. I'm a sucker for these things, and after a little persuasion from Ray, I bought a mini electric Vespa. Totally worth it?
After some laps around the Robot Roundhouse parking lot on the Vespa, I was off to Chicago, desperate not to fall behind. Long drive, every rest stop in Ohio looks the same(no tax on starbucks either) and Indiana has a speed limit of 70. Although tolls were a major rip off.
I arrived at uchicago around 12(CST), and met my attractive female acquaintance at a frat party. We hung out at the party for about a half hour, then headed back to her dorm. Good deal. I didn't have to sleep in the van tonight. I awoke the next morning, took a "hot" shower, and sat down at her computer. Which brings me to this minute.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Track Me Across the Country!!!
http://lpahome.com/track/
I figured I had a GPS and a data plan. Why not? (don't think that blackjack ii replaced my iPhone, it is just a cheap 3G modem)
I will pretty much be following 80 the way to California. Got any good places to stop?
Also anyone want to buy a 350Z? Seriously, email me geohot at gmail.
I figured I had a GPS and a data plan. Why not? (don't think that blackjack ii replaced my iPhone, it is just a cheap 3G modem)
I will pretty much be following 80 the way to California. Got any good places to stop?
Also anyone want to buy a 350Z? Seriously, email me geohot at gmail.
Pimp My Ride
Take a nondescript 1995 chevy van...
Paint the dashboard a pretty color and add a computer...
Throw in a nice TV and some fuzzy carpet...
Make sure you have a place to hack...
And sleep...
Don't run out of batteries...
Buy a lot of cereal...
And hit the road!
Paint the dashboard a pretty color and add a computer...
Throw in a nice TV and some fuzzy carpet...
Make sure you have a place to hack...
And sleep...
Don't run out of batteries...
Buy a lot of cereal...
And hit the road!
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