Appropriately enough, we left Maine on Father's Day, with our children, Ali (13), Frank (11), and Max (2) in the RV. Heading west into the darkening mountains, with a breathtaking orange sunset on the horizon, was like driving into a painting.

Our goal was to find Wi-Fi hotspots at as many stops along the way as possible, making do with slower phone lines only in emergencies. So before we left, we compiled lists of campgrounds and RV parks with Wi-Fi access from several sources, and tried to synchronize reasonable daily drive times with specific Wi-Fi locations, a challenging but fun exercise. While it's true many RV parks now offer high-speed Wi-Fi access, those parks aren't necessarily located along your preferred route.

Sunset over Lake Ontario,
Henderson Harbor, NY.

And anybody with kids knows there's a finite amount of time you can force your kids to sit in a vehicle before a mutiny erupts. The fact that our RV has a bathroom definitely extends that time. (The kids are happy they can now super-size their sodas instead of all sharing one.) Even with the ability to relieve bladders enroute, our daily driving limit is about five hours.

It took some trial and error using Mapquest.com and Wi-Fi directories to find the right combination. We used JiWire's hotspot directory, as well as the campground hotspot directories of KOA and Linkspot.

Catching frogs at Lake George.

Our first stop was Lake George Escape Camping Resort. This was a rousing success in the kid department. From train rides to scavenger hunts to a lollipop-licking contest, the children were exhausted by each evening. Frank spent hours catching and releasing giant frogs. Except for when Max dumped an entire bag of cookies on the carpet, the stay was also pretty much stress-free. Thank heavens for handheld vacuums!

Lake George was also great from the connection point of view. Our cell phones didn't work, but it wasn't a problem since the park has excellent Wi-Fi access through Linkspot.

We left for Lake Ontario on Wednesday, driving through the mountains instead of using the Interstate. One turn was a bit sharper than we anticipated and our pantry door opened and all the food flew out! It took several miles to clean up the mess.

Richard wields death by duct tape.

Our destination, the Association Island RV Resort & Marina on Lake Ontario, was gorgeous, despite constant 30mph wind. There were thousands and thousands of bugs during the night so Ali brandished our trusty handheld vacuum, sucking up all the critters one by one. They kept escaping, however, so Richard grabbed a big piece of duct tape and started waving it around. He looked pretty funny, but it worked!

Once we conquered the insects and unpacked we discovered the promised Wi-Fi access was not working (they say it will be in a few days...but we'll be gone by then). Then, suddenly, we had a barely functional cell-phone signal. Turns out they'd put us in a spot with sporadic cell phone coverage (stay away from the "G section" if you come here).

We ended up moving to another spot in the campground with good cell phone coverage and will make a trip to the local Borders (20 miles away) to use the Wi-Fi access there. We can work right here on the water using our T-Mobile cellular connection, but we can't move any large files until we're back on Wi-Fi.

What to do when Wi-Fi fails...

Our connection problems here emphasize an important point -- even if the resort says it has Wi-Fi, you should have a backup plan. We invested in T-Mobile's cellular data service (cell phone Internet access) after reading "Cellular Fills Gap Between Hotspots" by Paul Boutin. T-Mobile offers unlimited access.

A Bluetooth-enabled cell phone (the Nokia 3650) is an additional contingency. Bluetooth technology lets you connect to computer peripherals wirelessly. It also lets you turn your cell phone into a modem, which is a plus since T-Mobile's cellular data service only works with certain types of cell towers.

It isn't particularly fun to access the Internet for several days over a cell phone (the best speed we could get was 14.4Kbps), but it is good enough to access email and the administration pages of our business sites. One thing we've learned is to immediately move any large files when we have reliable access and not wait until tomorrow, because tomorrow...it just might not work.

Tune in next week, when we'll hit Jellystone Park in Mantau, OH (which promises operating Wi-Fi access, a 50-acre lake, and Karaoke!), and Grand Haven, MI where the entire downtown has been turned into one big Wi-Fi hotspot!

You can also check out our adventures daily at www.wirelesstrips.com.