We survived the move from Des Moines to Seattle, although there was a period of about 90 minutes in Wyoming where I was almost positive the side-to-side swaying of the rental truck (caused by high winds) was going to result in the truck laying on the side of the road. This is definitely not the time of year to pay a visit to the Cowboy State. The high-winds were a follow up to a night in the North Platte Super 8, which is one of two hotels in that lovely town with WiFi. I'm certainly spoiled by the pervasive wireless Internet access at coffee shops and cafes across Seattle.
Things have definitely changed since my previous cross country drive back in 2001. At the time, asking a hotel desk clerk about WiFi meant either a blank stare or a comment about why I might need it. Now if I ask about Internet access, the desk clerks respond with something along the lines of, 'we don't have high speed Internet, but we have free wireless.' Uh, what exactly is the difference, from a guest's perspective? While you may be thinking, why not unplug for a few days, I'm put in the position of taking an unpaid vacation when I don't check in for a few hours everyday.
Since I don't have Internet access at home just yet, I'm currently writing this from a coffee shop in Seattle called University Zoka, which stays open until Midnight seven days a week. It's just over a mile and a half from our new house, which is in the district known as Ravenna. A few doors down from the coffee shop is world headquarters for The Omni Group, makers of several OS X apps. Rumor has it that a killer cataloging app for personal media, Delicious Library, was birthed in this coffee shop too.
