author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf

So I would have blogged on this earlier - like, a sort of running commentary on the wifi hotspots waiting for the intrepid traveler along the road from Boulder to Tempe - but I still haven't (re)made myself an interface to use from my web site, and PHPMyAdmin wasn't liking me much for some reason. I think it was suspicious of the networks from which I was connecting. Now, why it likes the one in the hotel is beyond me - but then I'm getting ahead of myself.
 
I left Boulder around 8:00 yesterday, having gone through the usual barrage of good intentions about cleaning up the house before I leave and really only managing to get around to cleaning out the fridge. Incompletely. (John, if you're reading this, the older of the two milk jugs really needs to be poured down the drain. Trust me on this.) Pulled up MapQuest directions and WiFiFreeSpot listings for my edification along the way. Ripped a whole bunch of CDs to my computer for use with my newest RadioShak purchase, a Headphone-Jack-To-Tape-Player audio adapter, just like used to be popular when CD Walkmen first came out. Stopped at Whole Foods for whatever I could remember was needed, mostly along the lines of drinks and snacks. Then hit the road.
 
It took something like an hour to cross Denver. I had meant to leave at 6:00 AM but I overslept, thus subjecting myself to Rush Hour Traffic. The long Simon & Garfunkel playlist I'd queued up helped, but, really. Had I known that I was destined to hit Phoenix rush hour the next morning, I might have just given up and turned around. Good thing I didn't know.
 
I took my first break in Pueblo. With the Colorado page of WiFiFreeSpot already loaded up in my browser, I went lookng for Solår Coffee. Discovered that the grocery store did not actually stock maps of Pueblo. Got good directions from the manager, though, and was in the right neighborhood shortly thereafter. It goes something like this: Take the 1st Street exit off I-25 and hang a right on 1st. Hang an immediate right on Santa Fe. Go left on 4th and park near 4th and Main. Solår Coffee is 421 N Main, in that big intimidating building that looks like a post office. It is, in fact, the "Historic Federal Building." The cafe is comfy, and the barrista was very kind to me. I had a nap on the couch when I should have been writing.
 
My next stop was going to be in Raton, but that's, like, wimpy. I'd barely been on the road an hour when I got there. But I took a ride down the I-25 Business Loop in search of Raton's single WiFiFreeSpot New Mexico listing anyway: PennyRich International Internet Cafe And Book Oasis, round about 2nd and Clark. (2nd Street is the I-25 Business Loop. Just go south on that until you cross Clark, and the cafe is on your right.) It appeared not to be open yet (it was just going on 2:00 PM) but I got a good signal just sitting out in my car in front. So I took advantage of that to map out my next stop: Las Vegas, New Mexico. (I also put the entire YesYears box set into Windows Media Player for my next playlist.)
 
Now, I could swear I've been in the Las Vegas Historic Plaza before. Seems to me John and I once stayed at the Knight's Rest Inn nearby, and then found breakfast in the Plaza Circle. You take the street west from the circle and that's where Second Tome Around, the next internet cafe on my list, was. The listing says something about Bridge Street but it looked like it was on West National. It's a tiny little used bookshop with a cafe in the back, and I never quite succeeded in connecting to their network. Well, I lie - I got connected for all of one minute, lost the connection, and never got reconnected. The tea was nice, though. I had the "purple sage earl grey green tea," and if that sounds like too many colors in one pot of tea, take it up with the New Mexico Coffee Company, not me, 'cause I liked it quite well. All three advertized flavors came through and blended well.
 
I tried walking down the street to the Plaza Hotel, another WiFiFreeSpot listing, but the "free" part of their wireless is for hotel guests only. For non-guests, it would be $10, a little steep for a five minute MapQuest hit I thought.
 
That was the last internet cafe stop I took. I lined up three Tori Amos albums to take me as far beyond Albequerque as that would go. It was 6:00 PM and I wanted to start making some real progress. Just past Albequerque my computer hibernated, and when I pulled over to deal with that, I discovered that the lunar eclipse had started.
 
I climbed up on top my car to watch. The moon was half obscured when I noticed it, and when about half an hour later it reached totality, the disk had taken on a pumpkin-like appearance, more orange than I was expecting. Me, I wanted a good ol' New Testament "moon turns to blood" spectacle, but I guess you can't be too picky. It was a lovely hour of skywatching, even considering the yahoos that pulled up nearby and left their freakin' headlights on and wouldn't turn them off even when I asked. Oh well.
 
I wanted to watch the eclipse begin to end, but I couldn't really afford the time. It was already 9:00 PM when I took off again, restarting the Tori Amos setlist and swearing I wouldn't stop until Flagstaff. Actually, I flagged a little short of Flagstaff and had a nap in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn Express. Then I managed to get to Flagstaff and turn the corner from I-40 W to I-17 S, and stopped again.
 
When I woke up at 5:00 AM, it was snowing. Snowing hard. From a privacy point of view, that was great, 'cause no one could see into the car. But from a driving point of view, not so great. Fifteen minutes later I was back on I-17 S, singing along nervously to the Talking Heads Sand in the Vaseline album, absolutely sure I was going to die. I survived by respectfully tailgating this truck that was tailgating this car that was tailgating this semi that apparently could see where it was going a lot better than we could, and we all just kept our eyes glued for dear life to the taillights of the car ahead, at 35 mph, for about fifty or so miles.
 
Eventually the snow lightened and turned to rain, and it stayed rain right up until I got stuck in (did I mention?) Phoenix Rush Hour Traffic.
 
So here I am now. The wireless situation at the Tempe Mission Palms is what I call "enforced sociability style" - the signal won't actually reach the individual rooms, so you have to do internetty stuff down in the lobby where you might actually meet people. I've already had a great chat with this gal who'll be on a panel tomorrow, and I was able to flag Alma down when she arrived too so we could decide when to have dinner. So that's all good.
 
All for now. More later, maybe. Then again, maybe not. We'll have to see, won't we?