This week, we first stopped over in beautiful Branson, Missouri, also known as the Las Vegas of the Ozarks, with everything from Elvis impersonators to an IMAX theater. The main reason we chose Branson was for the free Wi-Fi at America's Best Campground. They even sell Wi-Fi hardware in the camp store and have technical staff available to help you jump online. Even better, the service worked perfectly.

Continuing to wind our way south, we encountered a horrible traffic jam in Little Rock, Arkansas. One handy thing about having wireless Internet access through a mobile phone connection is that you can surf to a local news website to find out why the freeway you're stuck on is closed! We were lucky. We were only stationary for 2.5 hours. Fortunately, our RV has a bathroom on board! Turns out a truck driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and jumped a bridge. He's okay...but we're pretty sure he's out of a job.

Cuddles the Brahma calf
at the ranch in Woodlands.

We finally arrived in steamy Texarkana, Texas and feasted on boiled crawfish before accessing the Hotspotzz Network for the first time. Hotspotzz is the Wi-Fi offered at the KOA campground chain. Though the service performed well, it cost $5.95 for 12 hours, or $8 per day, more than most. And while most companies let you choose an item first and then give your credit card information, Hotspotzz requires your credit card data up front, before you even know what you're ordering. That made us a bit uncomfortable.

Complaints aside, the Hotspotzz Network is gradually "unwiring" one of the largest campground chains in the country. As of this writing, they have Wi-Fi activated in 83 KOAs, with more coming online each week. In addition, KOA Konnect offers a bundled service of unlimited Wi-Fi on the Hotspotzz Network and nationwide dial-up service for just $15.95 per month, which is a much better deal than the daily service.

Max managed to stay onboard.

We left Texarkana and donned our dusty cowboy boots before arriving at our relative's ranch just north of The Woodlands, Texas. The ranch is out of range for traditional high-speed Internet access, so they subscribe to the Directway satellite Internet service. In general, it worked fine for us. We were able to keep our business running in between mucking out stalls, jumping over the resident rat snake, and praying the children wouldn't fall off the horses or the baby brahma bull, Cuddles.

There are two important things to know about satellite Internet service. First, the upload speed is significantly slower than the download speed. So moving big files back and forth like we do doesn't work very well. Second, satellite Internet service providers perform "bandwidth throttling," which means if they think you are hogging the bandwidth they actually turn down the speed of your Internet connection. Bandwidth throttling prevents someone from using too much of the satellite's limited resources. For these reasons, we opted to go into Conroe and use the local Starbucks and Panera Bread Wi-Fi connections when we had to move large files.

The local Starbucks beat our
satellite connection.

One thing we've been surprised at is how many people approach us at Wi-Fi hotspots and ask us questions. There is definitely a huge interest in the service, though a general lack of knowledge about to how to do it.

Over the past month, we've discovered the mechanics of running our business from the road aren't really that different from when we are sitting in our office at home. Angela handles author and vendor communications for our publishing business, while I handle most of the customer-service and website issues. We expected emergencies to arise and knew that some problems might throw a kink into our itinerary. But except for one 33MB file that seemed to slow the entire connection at the Starbucks in Conroe, we've had no trouble keeping up with our customers' needs. In fact, the demands of family members we've visited have caused more of a disruption than the sporadic periods when we've had no Wi-Fi access.

Next week, we'll be winding our way back north, home to Bangor, Maine. When we return, we'll discuss productivity and what you need to convert your online business to a mobile company. Until then, you can check out our daily adventures at Wirelesstrips.com.