should i take a laptop

[Krista]

Hi- i'm fortunate enough to get to take a four month road trip, covering 22,000 miles across the good ol' U.S.of A. this summer. i will be mostly camping(in a tent and in my car), a hostel when i feel like splurging, and crashing on the floor of a friends house here and there. i will cover alot of natl parks, some big cities, roadside attractions, museums and factory tours, and as few interstates as possible. i have put together a website that i want to update every few days with my travels and experiences so that people back home can follow along with me. however, i'm not sure how accessible the internet will be on my trip. i had originally planned to use libraries and cafes so that 1) i wouldn't have to worry about keeping my own laptop locked up and 2) because this is a trip to get away and simplify and reground myself, not to be connected to wires. but after talking to a few friends and thinking about it some more,i'm considering taking a laptop of my own. i don't know what to do....i need some advice. so, my question to all you seasoned travelers is if i do take one, are there places where i can get online on 'the roads less traveled'? or should i just stick with my original plan?

thanks in advance for all your help.
maizy

[PNW Judy]

I'm no expert on this as my roadtrips are also my way of getting away from the dang computer (to which I am rather addicted in my daily life).

I thought most small towns had libraries with internet access. Bigger towns and cities will have their share of Kinko's and similar stores that have computer access. I would imagine you can find a listing of internet cafes somewhere on the web.

But finding these places, getting computer time, etc. may very well be more hassle than finding a hook-up for your own computer. I don't know...I know there's a great area on computing on the road on this website. You might check it out.

Sorry I'm not more help. Please let us know your webpage for your trip so we can visit it and find out about your trip. It sounds great...I envy you having 4 months! Wow, what fun.

Not only take the laptop but purchase a wireless card. I drove xcountry last summer and was amazed by how many hotels, rest stops, restaurants, bars, coffee houses, etc. had free wireless internet available, by this year it will probably be 10x that.

Now if you have a lot of time, you might find that the adventure of going into a town and looking for an internet cafe is a fun thing to do. To me, though, it's just frustrating - it seems that every time I desperately need a net cafe, it's closed, their internet is down, etc. And, increasingly, there are less and less internet cafes and more and more places with free wifi (wireless internet) instead. It's way more cost-effective for a business to offer free wireless than it is for them to maintain a bank of computers.

and about not being 'wired' - it's like having a cell phone. as i tell my friends - the cell phone has an 'off' button. so does the computer. how tied up you get in it is up to you. personally, i found myself more tied up by having to hunt for internet cafes than i did when I had the laptop and could hook it up whenever i needed it.

We are flying to Montreal, driving across NH, VT, and ME to Prince Edward Island, staying one week in PEI then driving up the NB coast and around the Gaspe (QC) Peninsula and down along the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City, and returning to Montreal to fly home. We would like to take a laptop for Internet and e-mail access but are uncertain about wireless capability in these areas. Advice would be appreciated.

[Mark Sedenquist]

One of the most "wired" wireless provinces/states in North America is New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, so access there is likely to be excellent in the cities and towns. Likewise, much of QB is well served by wireless carriers.

VT, NH and Maine is another kettle of fish. Some hotpoint (802.11b) nodes exist in the major cities -- but wireless access is sitll pretty tough in the rural areas.

Mark