I’m lovin’ it

Ironically, my last two UPDATE columns have been on mobility topics– and now I’m somewhere with no mobile access!
So here I am in Farmerville, Louisiana. What’s there? Not much (rimshot). Seriously, I’m here with my family visiting the beautiful Lake D’Arbonne State Park for our annual family reunion-style get-together. Whoever the State of Louisiana hired to build this place did a terrific job; the scenery is beautiful, the cabins are clean, spacious, and comfortable, and the wildlife is abundant. One thing’s missing, though: connectivity. Ideally, I wouldn’t have to work this week, but I do, so I’ve been arranging my schedule to work when everyone else is asleep. The problem is getting information to and from the people I work with.
Last year, we stayed in the same place, and I noticed that my Verizon cellphone worked fine. I figured that my aircard would give me data service. Problem #1: Alltel is actually the local network provider, as I found when I noticed the “Extended Roaming” indicator on my Treo. No aircard, and no data service on the Treo. The local public library has a few Internet terminals, but they’re a) unstable b) locked down and c) on a network that won’t allow me to plug in my laptop. Last year, I was able to cadge a few minutes from the nice lady who owns the local Radio Shack franchise, but that clearly wasn’t a scalable solution. I didn’t think she’d welcome seeing me twice a day every day, no matter how many batteries I bought.
The solution came from an unexpected quarter. I asked the lifeguards at the park pool, the folks at the public library, and the staff at the Radio Shack whether there were any public Internet points or cafes nearby. No one had a clue. While racking my brain to think of local businesses from which I could beg bandwidth, I remembered the McDonald’s at the corner of La-2 and Bernice Highway– a mere five miles from the park. A quick call to Devin netted me the information I sought: the local McD’s did in fact have Wayport WiFi. Last night I rolled in, opened the laptop, and downloaded the 400+ messages that accumulated since I got here on Saturday. Today I made a grocery store run and stopped off for a Quarter Pounder and some email; I’ll be heading back later tonight for another delivery.
I guess that means that I have to officially retract all the crap I gave McDonald’s about their food. It’s still not my favorite, but I’m willing to put up with a lot for the ability to keep my customers happy by delivering my work on time. It says a lot about their franchise consistency that even a small town like Farmerville rates WiFi in the store.