Wardriving in a small Oregon town

ASTORIA, Ore.--I'm well along on my tech-related Road Trip through the Pacific Northwest now, having driven nearly 900 miles from my home in San Francisco.

As I go, I'm constantly facing the question of how to get online so I can file stories and blogs.

So far, it hasn't been that big of a problem. I've found it surprisingly easy to track down free wireless Internet access.

For example, in Eureka, Calif., I went to the Old Town Coffee and Chocolate shop and, for the $2 it cost me to quaff an Italian soda, I surfed the Internet and filed stories to my heart's content.

Next up, I found the Good Harvest Cafe in Crescent City, Calif., where a kind waitress allowed me to log on even though the place was officially closed.

Later, in Portland, I found a Starbucks whose T-Mobile system was down for maintenance, allowing me for some reason I don't understand to log on for free. Take that Starbucks!

In fact, Starbucks is my Wi-Fi source of last resort.

And so when I found myself Sunday in this coastal town just across the Columbia River from Washington state, I wondered how I could get online to file a story. It was kind of urgent, as I didn't expect to find another place to do so for two days, as I'm heading to Olympic National Park next.

At first, I tried wardriving (the process of finding and marking the locations and status of wireless networks) one of the town's tonier neighborhoods. And my review MacBook Pro did sniff out a couple of connections at one point. But it couldn't actually connect. Which meant driving into the heart of town and trying to track down a live connection.

And that has actually been a fun thing to do in all these places: trying to find the Wi-Fi. After all, without a connection, one can't access a list of Wi-Fi hot spots. So that means asking locals. And in these small towns, it can be a challenge.

Yet, there's always someone. In Crescent City, a helpful Ace Hardware clerk pointed me toward the Good Harvest Cafe. And here in Arcata, I followed a chain of suggestions to the Sea Star.

The lesson: The Wi-Fi is there, but it often requires talking to people to find it. And on a road trip, that's just as much a reward as actually getting online, if not more.