A Naturalist in CyberSpace

Today I’m out trying to learn how to use my new road tool. My adventures so far have consisted of visits to various places around town that say they have Wi-Fi. It’s been a mixed experience so far. The Williston rest stop offers Wi-Fi, but I’d have to establish an account, which I didn’t feel like doing. So next I tried the Colchester Motel 6 to see if budget motels (the only kind I stay in) offer Wi-Fi in their rooms. Apparently in this Motel 6, some rooms have it and some rooms don’t. It costs $2.99 for 24 hours of Web access, most of which I wouldn’t use. They would give me a scratch-off card that would provide me with a temporary password good for the 24 hours. Next I stopped at the McDonald’s next door to the Motel 6 and learned that they do offer Wi-Fi, but they were out of the cards they hand out to customers who want to go online. I was getting a little frustrated because I had been cruising around for much of the morning with no Web access to show for it, so I went to Pho Dang for a huge and delicious bowl of pho ga (chicken noodle soup improved by the Vietnamese treatment) and met a delightful young man who sat down at the table with me. The soup and conversation with T. J. made up for the defeats of the morning. First stop this afternoon brought me to Healthy Living, where I beamed up the Web free of charge, no accounts, no cards, no passwords — nothing between me and access to cyberspace. So here I sit, completely unwired and battery powered, which feels quite liberating. Now I just need to remember to plug in when I get home so I don’t run my battery out of juice. At this point I’ve got 78%  left — 2.5 hours — which means the battery has enough life to keep me in business for substantial blocks of time. So the challenge when I’m traveling is going to be to find the good Wi-Fi hotspots wherever I am.