truck stop blogging

Back in 1996 and 1997 when Linda and I were roaming the lower 48 states on our year=plus around the country, one of our bigger challenges was in staying on line. When we stayed in motel rooms, getting to the Internet usually was not a big issue: Motel phones usually would accommodate a connection by jack. But not always, and much of the time we were camping. In those days there was no wi-fi, there were no cybercafes (actually, the first of them appeared toward the end of our trip), and option for getting access to a phone line tended toward the difficult.

One of our best options turned out to be something we would never have guessed - truck stops. We'd stop in for a lunch or dinner, and at a significant number of truck stops phones were located at the dining tables. You can see the usefulness for truckers; they were just as useful for us, as we'd play around a bit with the machinery and usually get on line.

Not always, it should be noted, was this regarded favorably by the management: These places are oriented toward truckers. But options were few.

We had to gather the information on which truck stops had phones bit by but. We bought one annual guide to truck stops which provided quite a bit opf help. But would have loved something like Layover.com, which I just spotted on the web. It has a state by state rundown on "computer friendly truckstops," as in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, California, Nevada, Montana.

It not only tells you which stops are "computer friendly" but also how to get the connection - at the dining table, or in some cases just ask the waitress to plug you in (so to speak).

Not a resource to abuse, and probably less critical for most of us nowadays, but something to consider if you've just go to get on line and you have no other good options.