As I prepare to cross into BC by car and then float into Alaska by ferry I wonder, yet again, if I can really live with limited access to the Internet. Like most of us, I am an information highway addict. In my own way. I don’t stream much of anything, however, I do a lot of reading and researching online. Newspapers, journals, and blogs. Google Maps, Yelp, and camping apps. Pinterest, Feedly, Gmail.  Banking, insurance, weather. Also, assorted clouds hold my life documents. Google Cloud, for example, has personal documents and my writing stuff. I can write in Google Docs offline, but nothing is permanently stored until I log in from somewhere. And, I can’t do the research that I sometimes do when I am writing (e.g., what is a Bunch Grass Prairie, where I am now?).

In preparation for my trip, I dialed back my unlimited data plan to a paltry 5 GB. When I received a text from my carrier about using up 90% of my data with 12 full days left in my billing cycle, I panicked. Twelve days without adequate Internet. How will I survive? No news, no texting, no research, no downloading books, no Facebook! This seemed like torture.  I called and upped my data for that one month back to unlimited, for $15 more than if I had left it at unlimited.

No sense in keeping it for those months I am in Alaska, so I asked to put it back to a minimum level at the next billing cycle, after which I will not have access anyway.

The turkey girl who visits our campsite near Grand Coulee Dam wanders over as I think about lack of access to the Internet in the near future. Yeah, Turkey Girl, I did not do well tapering off voluntarily so, yes, I will be going cold turkey. 

I fretted further: will I really find an idyllic cafe where I can connect via wi-fi while I drink my skinny latte on their deck that overlooks the wooded mountain slopes along the inside passage? Will the local library let me work there and use their Internet as a guest? Should I offer a donation? What will I do in the evening when, after dinner, I jump online to see what is up in my world?  Will my friends and family get by without regular updates from me via Facebook? How will I get by without regular photo updates of my growing g-baby. Will it seem so easy then? Will I suffer from withdrawal? I am already suffering, just thinking about this. 

I won’t even have music or Rachael Maddow to entertain me since I won’t have satellite radio service up there either. 

During an optimistic moment that lasted one second, I decided that this will be good for me…to break the addiction. I always find a way to adapt.

More about this as I spend some time in Alaska. ‘