When it comes down to business, nothing can be more frustrating than not having a stair when you need to achieve a change in lateral positioning. Fear not! We’ll cover it as I am once again joined by my glamorous co-star, Mr. Tristan David.

Note: This video is from October 2008.

• AT&T is more ubiquitous than Sprint, but Sprint is a faster, more reliable network.
• WiFi has not caught on across the country: it doesn’t even exist in many places, and more and more in the places that it does exist, people are locking their WiFi down.

This post will be part of a four-part series. Today I’ll discuss some general thoughts on being a web worker and what you can expect if you set off on your own adventure.

There Isn’t a Whole Lot of Free Internet Out There

The city of Pittsburgh is stuffed with free WiFi access. Many individuals leave there wireless networks open: which, while exposing them to vulnerabilities from sneaky hackers out to steal their mp3 collections, also does a great service to the world. “Stealing” WiFi from your neighbor isn’t much worse than “stealing” the ambient glow his porch light sheds on your porch: it’s there already and you using it doesn’t affect him much at all. Particularly in cities, where broadband speeds are high enough that we don’t typically use them fully for anything, it’s not noticeable. Pittsburgh also has a great tendency for coffee shops and their ilk to provide absolutely free WiFi.

By “absolutely free” I mean you don’t have to pay anything (including buying something from the store first) and you don’t have to login to any provider’s site. Memphis wasn’t like this, in fact Memphis had relatively little free WiFi access at all, and Austin providers typically want you to log in and will often restrict how long you can use their free hotspots. Portland, OR is another city that has plenty of truly free WiFi.

Once you get outside of the big cities, though, you’ll be desperate to find a connection. While home’s will often have unprotected hotspots leaking out of their houses, just try and sit on someone’s porch and checking your Gmail. If you aren’t kicked off of their property in the first 15 minutes, you’ll be shot at in the first 10. The idea of a “cafe” in most small towns is also unheard of as well, so you’ll have to look around a bit to find a free spot.

What’s a Poor Boy to Do?

The best place to look, regardless of the size of the town you’re in, is the local public library. They very often have free WiFi, typically have no limits to the length of time you can use it, and not many people get bothered at the library.

I’m Not Worried, I’ve got a Data Card

Also known as aircards, data cards are basically devices that allow you to connect to wireless networks like AT&T’s 3G or EDGE networks, or Sprint’s EVDO. These are great, and work wonderfully in towns and cities, but just like your cell phone, they cut out once you get into cow country.

Out of maybe 24 different places we’ve stayed thus far, though, I’ve only not been able to get connection on my Sprint card once (very shakey connection with AT&T in that area as well) which was deep into Pennsylvania farm territory. Due to this, I suspect that the majority of the Northeast, the South, the Great Lakes and the West Coast will have connection. If you’re in a red state, though, God help you if you get more than a few miles outside of the town limits.

Planning for the Internet

You could easily travel indefinitely in your RV and never be forced to go without the Internet, but you will be restricted compared to those without the need to constantly be connected. If you want to delve deep into Yellowstone, for example, don’t count on getting a connection. If you don’t mind hanging around towns and truck stops, though, you’ll likely never go without. Personally, I have the mindset that I need to work, but I don’t need to work every day. So if we want to spend say, a week in the middle of the desert, I can plan my work schedule around that.

You can also research what type of connectivity you can expect to get from the different cell providers by using their maps:

• Sprint
• AT&T
• Verizon

Over the next couple of days I’ll be covering How to Connect to the Web via your Cell Phone, Creating a Wireless Network in your RV with Time Capsule, and How to Prepare for No WiFi.

Download a PDF of the Comic Book here.

From the road — Pennsylvania’s US Route 6 — Kenshire Farm doesn’t look like much, with just a small sign and none of the actual park itself visible as it’s completely surrounded by woodlands. As you drive down the thin path that leads to the park you break through a thin part of the forest that serves well as a gateway. Unfortunately, the first thing you see is two or three rows of older, parked RV trailers. I’m not sure if these are left here by people who own them and only visit during the weekends or on vacation, and otherwise just leave them all parked in a row, or if it’s just that Ken is your typical farmer of an old man and collects all types of spare parts “just in case.” Either way, they’re a bit of an eyesore and at first put me off the idea of even staying, worried that we’d just be lined up with the others.

Luckily, though, I was too tired to give up so we approached the big yellow house that doubled as both the farmhouse and the office. It was a Sunday afternoon and signs indicated that I should just open the door and yell “Hello” twice, and that someone should hear me, and sure enough, Shirley herself did so. This set the tone for the entire experience and really shows what the entire place is like: you’re literally staying on someone’s farm. There is very little “business” that gets transacted, you pay for your space and then from there on out it’s all friendly waves as Ken passes you on this tractor or in that pickup truck.

The campground has three “sections”, including the aforementioned giant RV parking field, where very few people are actually staying (though a few were packed in there). I don’t believe your average camper would ever stay here, though during the summer it may get packed enough that you would be. This area is basically just a giant grass field and, to be honest, I would never want to stay there. They did mention, however, that they hold a non-denominational, “wear your camping clothes” kind of Church service in the pavilion that sat next to an old thyme weather vain here.

The second section is for permanent sites; the type of people who have their RVs permanently situated, jacked way up on blocks and with wooden porches built and tons of little gnome and country frog statues and Christmas lights strewn everywhere. This section also has riverfront access, to the Pine Creek River to be exact, the very same one that flows through “Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon”, the actual name of which is Pine Creek Gorge. These riverfront sites are available for occasional campers and are definitely the best spots.

The final section, where we stayed, was tucked far to the back of the campgrounds, behind a small grove of trees. There were probably 15 spots in this section, but as we were the only people staying in the park (late September) other than those frequenting their permanent sites, we had the entire spot to ourselves. In the corner of the area there’s wide open access to the river, and a pavilion and playground are in the center of the spots. In fact, every one of these three sections had its own playground.

The river itself was very low while we stayed, and though we rented tubes (for only two quarters an hour!) from the Kenshire’s, and were able to float down most of the waters that bordered the entire farm, there were definitely spots that I had to get out and walk. The farm also holds a giant, wonderfully typically red, barn that has showers, laundry, a store and a small game room. There’s also a particularly intrepid-looking bridge made of cables and two-by-fours that you can cross the river via, which leads to some simple paths on the other side. It’s all great, great fun.

As we stayed at Kenshire Kampground for the last week of September, the leaves were already very much changing, that particularly wonderful part of the beginning of Autumn where half the trees are still green and the sun is still hot enough during the day, but then the other half of the leaves are all of their goldeny red hues. The one time we floated down the river, the leaves were even falling down all around our tubes, quite pristinely, if I might add.

The only major drawback that Kenshire has is that there is basically no cell phone reception whatsoever, so if you rely on your cell phone for whatever reasons (like getting the Internet so that you can work) then you’re out of luck. The farm is just outside of a very small village (10 houses and a gas station which is open only sporadically but does sell a plethora of hunting and fishing gear) and about 20 miles away from Wellsboro, which is a truly excellent town. Aside from providing cell reception (for AT&T at least, not Sprint), it also provides town-wide free WiFi access and for faster speeds, the Green Free Public Library provides, as its name would imply, free WiFi access. Wellsboro also has two outdoorsy stores, a hardware store, a couple of bars, restaurants (including an old school diner cab), a large grocery store and a bunch of other places of business ripe for the frequenting. The town has a definite “Main Street” feel to it and could easily be right out of 1955.

All in all, for a relaxing get a way from the city, Kenshire Kampground and the surrounding Pine Creek Gorge area is an incredibly beautiful and truly wild place, which is why we chose to stay there even though it required me driving into Wellsboro every day to work.

A raging and truly “campfire style” blaze glows up and out of a well-rusted fire ring while my best gypsy music bumps through the high risen smoke.

It was a long day of work and a first day at school, but well worth the evening together, a boy, his dad, and hot dog conversation over GI Joe and bike riding. Give me campgrounds or give me death!