Sending and receiving e-mail on the road, while no longer difficult, can still present an occasional challenge. Daily e-mail contact is important to us, too. We have found that a nationwide internet service provider, laptop computer and a unique service called PocketMail assures us of daily e-mail communication.

More and more RV parks and campgrounds are offering e-mail access by providing a telephone jack that you can plug your computer into. The telephone jacks are usually located in the campground office, laundry room, recreation room or at the pay phones.

As you might expect, these phone jacks are programmed for non-toll, local or 800 calls only. You will also run across an occasional phone jack that you have to pay to use. We make a habit of patronizing (and thanking) the businesses that offer free e-mail access and we try to avoid those that do not.

There are also a number of RV parks that provide a telephone hookup at individual campsites. Some of these hookups are available on a day-to-day basis, while others are limited to those who intend to stay in the RV park for extended periods of time.

Phone jacks can also be found at truck stops (most Flying J Travel Plazas have them) and Kinko's copying centers.

Sign on with an internet service provider (ISP) that provides a large number of free, local access phone numbers throughout the nation. This will allow you to go online by dialing a local phone number instead of making an expensive long-distance call to the access number in your home town.

Be sure the internet service provider also offers an 800 access number. Local access phone numbers usually serve high population areas. Since many RV parks and campgrounds are in lightly populated locations, there will be occasions when a local access number is not available. This is when you will use the 800 access number. The 800 access number will probably cost you about 10 cents a minute while you are on line.

Get a laptop computer. A laptop is built for travel, does not take up much storage space and can be carried to the location of the telephone jack. Be sure the computer is equipped with a modem that allows it to go online.

Have someone show you how to program your computer to dial the various local and 800 access phone numbers. Write each programming step (there are only a few) on a 3 x 5 card. Keep the card so you can refer to it the next time you go on the road.

Learn how to compose and read your e-mail messages off line. That way you can write your e-mail messages at your convenience and in the comfort of your RV. When you are ready to send and receive your messages, you simply plug your computer into the phone jack, go online, send the outgoing messages and download your incoming messages. Then you can disconnect from the phone jack, return to your RV and read your incoming messages. The process is easy to learn, makes doing e-mail a little more convenient and is appreciated by those waiting to use the telephone jack to do their e-mail. And, since you will only be online a few short minutes, it will save money if you happen to be using the 800 access number.

One way of getting online from the comfort of your RV is to connect via cellular phone. This requires a careful mating of laptop, cellular phone, modem and connecting cables. Not all laptops are compatible with all cellular phones.

Transmitting data via cellular phone is slow and, depending upon your cellular service, can be expensive in terms of air-time. Also, if a campground is in a remote location, it is not unusual for the cellular signal to be too weak to transmit data. Our experience has been that if the cellular signal was strong enough to go online, faster and less expensive alternatives were usually available. It seems that the number of times we have needed to go online via cellular phone and the number of times we have been successful has not justified the expense of the connecting cables and modem.

We use our Trailer Life RV Park, Campground & Services Directory to locate campgrounds that provide e-mail access. The directory describes them as "modem friendly" and the campground listing usually indicates if the telephone connection is at the campsite or in the office.

About the only time we try to go online using our cellular phone is when the weather discourages us from going outside.

Occasionally, we make a point of staying at an RV park that provides telephone hookups at the campsites for overnight guests. This gives us the opportunity to surf the net, make telephone calls and do our e-mail in the comfort of our RV.

You may run into an occasional glitch but sending and receiving e-mail shouldn't be a problem.