Dealing With Internet Addtiction

Remote camping is great and very enjoyable. However, the downside is lack of internet access at decent speeds. All Verizon towers haven't been upgraded to 3G -- let alone the latest 4G speeds. Those Verizon towers in those parts of the west where the number of people per square mile is less than two persons just can't justify upgrading the Verizon towers to the faster speeds of 3G and 4G.

The very slow speeds of National Access is what I found when I arrived at Nebraska's Fort Robinson State Park. Passing through northwest Nebraska on my way to Rapid City, I stopped for a two night stay. Great place to park and explore.

A Fort Robinson Wikepedia entry tells the history of the fort. Today it is essentially a "state park resort". No swimming pool, but it is a place to get away from the hustle of the big city. In addition to RV and tent camping, original officer quarters are available for rent. Ride horses. Attend the rodeo. Canoe down the river. Have a steak in the restaurant. Or just hang out sitting on the porch and watch others.

The park is remote. The nearest town of Crawford has a population of about a 1000. A much larger town is about 30 miles distant.

So what's the problem. It's my internet addiction. The slow speeds caused frustration. Finally, I realized it wasn't going to get better. Decided I may as well turn the negative into a positive. Didn't take long to pick up some books to catch up on some "real" reading rather than the daily repeats (bad economy, poor governance, etc.) showing up in the Google reader.

Two days later when I had good internet speeds once again, there were about 100 "reader entries". Knowing that many of the individual site entries have essentially the same subject material day after day, most entries were deleted as read. After whittling the list down to the infrequent posters and road acquaintance/friends blogs, there was very little to read. Hmm. Perhaps I could learn from this experience about what is really important.

An addiction to Hawaiian shirts in harmless. Not so sure about an internet addiction.