My involvement with CycleOverRide began in 2011 when my son JP asked me if I would be willing to provide vehicle support (SAG) for a bike trip he was going on. The trip as outlined below ended at a security conference which I was able to attend. I found that driving along the back roads of America to be a completely new experience for me. My extensive travel, in no way, prepared me for sights, sounds and smells this back road routing offered. Just as new to me was meeting so many smart often nerdy people all in one place at the conference. Meeting JP's friends on the ride provided an ongoing education for me. I was hooked. A dailey blog of the current trip is available at CycleOverRide . Some background is provided below:
JP and his friend Bruce were on the phone one day talking about biking. JP was in the process of buying a new ride and they were talking about the finer points of component selection. JP suggests “Hey man, we should do a ride at DEF CON”. Bruce hears “Hey man, we should do a ride TO DEF CON”. Bruce gets very excited and starts planning a cross country ride to Vegas. A few days later, JP realizes there’s been a miscommunication and talks to Bruce again. They decide to do both.
That’s basically how CycleOverRide started. Bad listening skills and two guys with a little too much ambition. Add to this Bruce's wife Heidi’s skills at organizing big events involving geeks and now we’ve got a cross country riding, fund raising, security focused adventure. And the name? It’s an homage to Hackers Teh Movie. Hack the Gibson, baby!
Training for the cross-country ride dubbed Hack the Nation has consisted of two serious road trips and individual training. The first trip, Hack the Hat, was in the fall of 2011 from Columbus, OH to Louisville KY. The second road trip was Hack the East in the summer of 2012. The ride started at Easton, DE and from there went over to the shore in Rehoboth and then up the coast and out to Montauk Point on Long Island.