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Geek Roadtrips Through the Heartland
While researching a roadtrip which I'll be taking from St. Paul, Minnesota to Placerville, Ca I did what any geek would do, I checked out the t-mobile hotspots along the route (some), did various searching on wi-finder (some) and other sites and have been doing some googling around on the topic. I know that there must be some 802.11b access points along and inside the towns along I-80, but for the life of me I'm finding it difficult for me to find any of them. I of course have various wireless sniffing apps, but that is hardly an efficient way to find access. I don't mind paying a small fee, so....with that in mind, if you were to take a trip across the country, where would you stop for access? For specifics, Read More...
If you live along I-80, what are your favorite haunts with wireless? Specifically, I plan on stopping for meals or sleep in Des Moines, Lexington, Cheyanne, Rock Springs or thereabouts, Salt Lake City and maybe Reno and points along the long, bleak road between Reno and Salt Lake. But it's clear that the net needs a good reference for places to check your email through out middle america, so post here even if you want to talk about a great unknown spot in Oklahoma or something away from my route. If you own such an establishment, let us know!
On a side note, the futility of my search seems soemwhat silly, as there are clearly people who use the internet in these towns. Anyhow, I really look forward to seeing your responses! Also, any high quality, unique dining reccomendations would be really appreciated. Also, funny roadside attractions or must see geek spots are welcome, as I intend on blogging my cross country trip as it happens and would like to have something to talk about other than the state lines I cross and the number of retreads I dodge.
Don't take any computers if you can, you enjoy the world better when it has your complete attention.
I'm driving to Florida this week and told everyone they won't be able to reach me until I get back.
-dk
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When you come the the Des Moines area, there is Prairieinet.net. They are a rural ISP that uses wifi. I don't know how open their sites are, but it is worth a try. http://www.prairieinet.net. and see a list of their sites.
Skip the stop in Des Moines and just keep on trucking into Omaha. I know our downtown area is rife with wireless networks. And if you don't want to run the risks of tapping into a local business's WLAN, there are several hotels in the area which have free wireless setup right in the hotel. and have fun making that drive.....iowa through to denver is about the flatest, boringest drive in the entire world.
So, there's net access all over the place -- libraries, Internet cafes, any remotely modern hotel or motel. What's with the insistence on wireless access?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
i go on long bike rides. i used to take my handheld PC with me, but soon i figured it is hard to find a wi-fi spot. So i bought a conector for my nextel phone (approx $45) to my IPAQ and I enjoy connectivity whenever and wherever i want.
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
Well since you are on I-80 you will be driving through Lincoln, Nebraska. I have a couple of suggestions. One, you can try driving through campus (university of nebraska-lincoln) to pick up some internet.
Also, you could drive by my house - I leave a WAP open to all (well bandwith capped at 256/256 for non-fixedlease DHCP address's). Heh, I decided to do this right after I went on vacation and relied on other people's WAP's for internet. I would suggest driving around campus and the college areas, kids always leave open WAP's and the university has a number of WAP's open to all that you can pick up. Downtown also has a ton of WAP's.
Another editor starts the same journey in a few days and doesn't realize it's already being done until they both stumble across each other at 11:00 PM at a Motel 6.
at Slashdot editor's problem with dupes
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I live in Gold River, CA (not that far from Placerville) and basically did your trip in reverse... A co-worker of mine had to move back to Philly, PA, and we decided to road-trip it... Reno, believe it or not, doesn't provide an abundance of internet access at all... They want everybody to gamble instead... I think I found 1 cafe that provided internet access while up there (And it was for a LAN party months prior, not on this trip), and, it wasn't even wireless... was your standard RJ-45 jack, but it worked... There was nothing between there and Salt Lake City, at least on I-80... I didn't even see many signs of civilization, let along, technology...
Salt Lake City has a few internet cafe's, though I don't remember any of their names... I know they were relativly close to the highway... We only passed through Salt Lake, so I didn't get to patron any of them, nor do I know if they're wireless or not...
We then went out to Cheyenne and didn't find a hotel with access, or any establishments either... Over all, it was pretty dull... Nebraska was the same way... I did find a nice location out in Indiana that had wireless access advertized, but it was closed when we drove by... The only internet access I got my entire trip was in Chicago, when we stayed at a friend's house... He let me plug my laptop into his cable modem for a few to check my mail and what not... That's about the extent of my trip... We didn't look that hard, so I probably am missing a whole hell of a lot... but I hope it helps...
Best of luck, Chris, safe trip!
-PhaseBurn Welcome to Linux country. On quiet nights, you can hear windows reboot.
First, I'm sure a lot of people are going to suggest that you forgo the interenet altogether. There is something to be said for this; it sounds like you trip is, at least in part, designed to be an adventure, and being 'offline' might enhance it.
That said, if you do decide to go online, for blogging or e-mail, pick up a prepaid phone card, enter the 800#, your pin, and a juno access number into the PPP settings, and then every phone jack you see on your way will be a 'net access point. Wireless is fun, but if you just need to transmit text, the phone connection is easiest, redily availible, and certinly powerfull enough.
PS - it sounds like a lot of fun. Enjoy yourself.
foldplay your photos won't know what hit them.
I took a road trip across the southern US. I loaded up my pickup truck with a tent and a laptop in Atlanta and wound up in Alamogordo, NM before I turned around and headed home.
:)
Every KOA campground (er, "kampground") I stayed at had a phone jack for plugging your laptop into in one of the public areas, usually the rec room (though in one it was the laundry facility.) Dialup may not be sufficient for, say, uploading the day's digital pictures to your webswerver, but it's enough to check email and at least do the text portion of a 'blog.
I dunno where you're planning on overnighting on your trip, but if campgrounds have phone lines, I'd guess darned near any hotel does, too. And if you're not crashing at a hotel or a campground, please, find somewhere to take a shower.
Look, if you want to enjoy your trip, leave all your gear home. I enjoy technology, but it has to have limits. Shortly before year's end I took a trip with my friends to the beach. There was no cell reception, and it was great!!! I work as a freelance sysadmin/computer geek for hire, and generally have to stay in touch. I limited myself to check my voice mail a couple of times. In the only voicemail I got from a client, he was just calling to wish me a happy new year. Hell didn't break loose while I was "out of touch." I love techonoly (I currently have 5 computers setup in my room, but should drop to 3/2 soon) but there are times when everyone needs to unplug (or get away from wi-fi access or whatever) Do you really think you need to be hooked up? I'm pretty sure you don't, try it and you'll see.
please excuse my apathy
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~cfarivar/warchalking
... a pretty bad one.
Why not try doing the "stupid tourist thing" and avoid computers for a while? See the sights, appreciate some wilderness, pick apples, etc..etc... just something that may give you a new outlook, and perhaps distance you a bit from the day to day life we all try and avoid when we go on a holiday.
Blogging across country? Please....
But if you must, pick up a GSM cell phone and simply dial in to Juno, etc. Otherwise you'll spend all your time looking for access, and not smelling the roses.
I mean what are you going to do...stop at every StarBucks just to tell the world you've stopped at every StarBucks?
Hey!!! Cool!!! I'm calling you from the airplane/highway/truckstop/motel!!!
the hawthorne inn in cedar rapids (25 miles north of 80) has wifi access that blocks http but is open to ssh and pop3 last I checked.
I think so, Brain. But where will we get a duck and a rubber hose at this time of night? --Pinky
Find the local public library. You might have to register and show ID to get a machine with a fast connection but you'll see locals and get a chance to talk to real people.
Use the restroom, wash your hands, interact.
AOL.
Cheers,
Jim
-- My Weblog.
Hao wants to host the first wet DeCSS t-shirt contest in history! Set me up with Natalie Portman please.
I suggest you read Slashdot
You're starting out in St. Louis and have an end objective of Placerville? That's like leaving hell to go ...somewhere even worse.
-- http://www.criticalassets.com
www.surfthing.com -- free wifi.
-- dieman - Scott Dier
Boring for some, yes. But having spent the first 12 years of my life there, and spending the next 12 years in New York, I find myself pining for that flat, open nothing more often than I'd like.
For instance, did you happen to look up at night while you were there? It's amazing.
Karma: Dyn-o-mite!(mostly affected by Jimmy Walker reading your comments)
Hopefully, you're aware of the Twin Cities Wireless User Group.
http://www.tcwug.org
We have a map system of available access points, and other fun stuff
That wouldn't really work for a site like slashdot. I mean, you'd put the CD in and load the front page and all the stories would be dupli..... oh wait, nevermind.
What, exactly, is so great about unplugging for a while?
;)
I take my laptop and cell phone on every trip. I dont use them to work, I use them to play. I like to stay in touch, to be able to talk to people, and to do all the fun things I do with them when I'm not at work.
Plus, on the off chance that some emergency should come up (it's happened), I CAN be reached.
As far as people griping about the whole wireless thing, I think it's pretty cool that he's looking for wi-fi hotspots. Ok, so the world may not all be wireless yet, but we're trying, and what's the point of implementing this cool new tech if nobody's gonna use it? Sure, when I go places with my laptop, I fully expect to have either no net access, or dialup, but I bring a LAN cable and my wireless card anyway, just in case I luck out, and when that happens, I am one happy camper.
There's just something about being able to lie on the beach, work on my tan, and be playing starcraft with my friends back home that appeals to me
Remember folks, for some of us, technology makes our lives BETTER. I dont think I've ever thought of tech as a burden, and before I get all those angry comments asking if I've ever stepped outside and appreciated nature, yes, I have. I thoroughly enjoy rock climbing, ice skating, roller blading, and a variety of other non-tech outdoor activities. I've been to italy, greece, turkey, and about half of the 50 states. I've seen the world, and you know what? With a few exceptions (greece was seriously bad ass), it was pretty boring, and some good tech would have made it much more fun for me.
I'd see some geocaches along the trip. Not only are they fun, they often bring you to cool places to see that only locals would know about.
I am from the midwest myself and glad I no longer live there.
I use to Live in New York and it feels like a prison. A really big prison. Maybe its because I didn't have a car but I never left manhattan for almost years on end. It just feels strange and condensed. I felt like I lived on a tomb almost and could never leave. I now live in the desert of the southwest and love it. Yes its alot more boring but I have huge mountains and mild winters and varied geography.
Last week I was bored and decided to drive up in the mountains to see some snow and walk around in the pine forests. After a few hours I got cold and drove back home in the warm desert. I am 30 minutes from 5 different climate zones. How cool is that? Even if its 70 degree's outside like today I can look out my window and see snow topped mountains. I love it out west and would never return to the dull plains again in my lifetime.
http://saveie6.com/
My girlfriend and I are planning a road trip for this May (our planned route is listed below), and I came across some books that you may want to look into. While they don't deal with wireless hotspots or technology in general, they do deal with things that are essential for any cross-country trip: weird stuff and good food.
The first book is called Eccentric America by Jan Friedman... It highlights many interesting, different, and just plain weird places to visit. For example, there's a guy in Washington state who is building and plans to fly a hydrogen peroxide-fueled rocket, not unlike what John Carmack is currently doing. The book is also useful to find out what is weird/eccentric/etc. in your own city or town.
The second book is called Roadfood , by Michael and Jane Stern. It is a compendium of restaurants, ice cream parlors, highway diners and so on across the country. I haven't read in too much detail, but it should come in handy.
For those of you who are interested, my girlfriend and I are planning the following waypoints for our roadtrip: Tallahassee, FL -> New Orleans, LA -> Austin, TX -> Roswell, NM -> Albuquerque, NM -> Grand Canyon -> Las Vegas, NV -> San Francisco, CA -> somewhere near the CA/OR border -> Eugene, OR -> Portland, OR -> elsewhere on the way back home. The trip back will wind through Helena, MT and Denver, CO to visit some relatives, with everywhere else just being nightly waypoints. Am I bringing my laptop? Probably not... Am I bringing a digital camera? You bet!
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
last year I took a trip to the states local to Virginia. Never logged into anything till I got to Ohio and used a friend's link to acces my webmail to hook up with a friend I was going to drop in on in NC. Then we used the cell phone when we were close to Charlotte to get precise directions. But, dude, when you're in a bar you would look a little odd carrying along a laptop.
-
Along your route, I stopped at University of Utah (Salt Lake City), which has a big lab in the library, with wireless. However, you have to be a student to get access. I just used a floppy (remember floppies?) to move stuff from the laptop to a lab machine and did the FTP from there. Or, try unplugging an ether cable from a lab machine and plugging yours in. Might work - it does at University of Vermont (heh heh).
While on campus, try wandering around outside the dorms. I imagine you'll pick up a few access points there.
As for stuff to see, if you're not in a huge rush, take the scenic route across North Dakota and drive through the Teddy Roosevelt National Park, then go south and see Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial (crazyhorse.org, thanks to a previous poster). I cannot say enough about this one - it's about the most awesome sight I've seen. I hit it before Mt. Rushmore (they're about 35 or so miles apart) and it made Rushmore look small and insignificant.
When in Green River, Wyoming, don't forgt to see the Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport (along the road to the Flaming Gorge Dam and Recreational Area). Then again, don't bother - it looks like this. The Bonneville Salt Flats are mightily impressive.
One other thing - you will not get a decent cup of coffee until you get to California. When I was in Cheyenne, I drove half an hour out of my way to find a Starbucks. Get a french press (you can get them in plastic - reccomended) and grind up some beans before you leave.
One other other thing - never eat, or even stop, at Stuckeys. Trust me on this.
Other than that, have a great trip, and like others here have said, don't let the tech get in the way of enjoying it.
What if life is just a side effect of some other process and God has no idea we exist?
Wireless access points are easy to find along the highway; just look for the skidmarks and wreckage left by previous users.
---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
http://www.i-spotaccess.com/
They limit you per month, but have several access points including a mall, a jazz bar (Doc's), and other sites.
Truckstops such as Flying J and TravelCenters of America offer dialup as well as 802.11b access. Most of the drivers I know would be lost without their laptops.
I used WirelessModem, a shareware PalmOS app that bridges the Treo's serial port and built-in wireless modem. Yes, it works in Linux, MacOS, and Windows. Supposedly, the USB cable even works in Linux and MacOS.
Be aware that Sprint's transparent proxy re-compresses Web images, similarly to AOL. The maximum theoretical rate is 144kbps, but I haven't yet achieved that due to weirdness in Windows's modem drivers.
I just drove cross-country, and wanted some sort of Net access. I bit the bullet and installed AOL from one of those "1K free hours" CDs.
So kill me.
The result was that, at all but one hotel, I had free local calls and I could relax on the Net whilst sitting in my underwear watching CNN.
Yeah, it was slow, but not the end of the world. I could read E-mail, check somw sites, update my blog with travel news, and snarf porn.
Six days later, end of trip, call to AOl, cancel account.
Java is the blue pill
Choose the red pill
or just the plain brown snakes that cross the road, or just sunbake in the middle.
Not to mention the roos, when it is drought and there is more grass along the road sides and grain from passing trucks. Galahs and Cockatoos are fun windscreen smashers too.
And just when you think you can set and forget the cruise control and tie the steering wheel up, you come across herds of cattle or sheep using the road as a stock route or long grass paddock.
That's the Hay plains (NSW Sydney to Adelaide). And then there is the nullabour (Adelaide to Perth), where a passenger can go to sleep for five hours (550km), wake up and wonder if we've moved at all.
And not a wi-fi or even a mobile phone signal the whole way. But our capital city CBDs are full of free unprotected wi-fi. Just no good for road trips. If you don't count Canberra, the closest they get together is 800km (500miles).
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
There is one of two cold water geysers in Green River, Utah. The other is somewhere in Switzerland (so I hear). I was last there about 5 years ago when you could stand next to the geyser and lean into the stream while errupting. Pretty cool if you're into natural phenomenon.
Crystal Geyser
Suncoast Linux - Sarasota, FL
Your primary concern is wi-fi internet access, so I'll address that first. Seriously consider researching which small towns along the way have broadband internet access. Perhaps unsurprisingly, small town people like high speed internet. They also dislike running cables. Therefore, they buy a cheap router/access point from Best Buy, plug it in, and never look at it again. I'm from a town of about 2500 people. I went wardriving one day just for fun and found 10 access points without even trying very hard.
Secondly, why are you stopping in cities anyway? Why not get some of the local "culture" along the way? Diners tend to be as cheap as fast food, and depending on the time of day, faster. Not to mention you don't have to deal with going through the city to get to a restaurant.
It's not so much that I'm down on bringing gear. There is a time and place. My day usually goes something like this. iPaq wakes me up, I go check email, VPN into the company servers and check things out. Grab a quick bite, and I'm off to work, sit in front of various systems all day. Most of the conversation revolves around work and the computers therein. I go home, get back on my computer and check email again, work on a website or a programming project and go to bed late. Often I get called in the middle of the night to fix problems.
I give myself one week to forget all of that. During that week, we bring no technology. Not because it's impossible to use technology for entertainment, but because it is easy to use technology for entertainment. If the laptop was there, I know I'd be doing the exact same thing you mentioned, sitting around playing StarCraft. I can do that at home. We go technology free because you definitely do enjoy the experience more if you don't have the temptation to revert back to your computer.
Anyway, this is just why I don't bring gear along on my trips, YMMV.
- "That's just the kind of fuzzy-headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten."