The joys of wi-fi and digital cellular

I’m up “across the bridge,” as Michiganders refer to the Mackinac Bridge that seperates the Great Lakes state’s two peninsulas.
Here in the U.P. - Upper Peninsula - town of St. Ignace, I’m delighted to find solid digital phone signals on the Sprint-AT&T Network. That won’t last as I venture out on a bicycle trip that leaves tomorrow around the eastern half of the U.P. where remote and undeveloped is an understatement.
But here in St. Ignace, I’m also finding lots more tech access, compared to my last visit two years ago. My hotel - the Quality Inn on U.S. 2 -is all wi-fi and several other places in town also offer it free.
The hotel just ports over an Internet conection through routers in the hallway. There are no annoying advertising screens to go through, either. Just boot up, and your wireless card zaps you on the Net.
Mackinac Island just offshore offers wi-fi in the marina and from the porch of the sprawling Grand Hotel.
Meanwhile, I note that down below, over in Southwestern Michigan near Kalamazoo, there are some fledgling experiments underway with WiMax, or wi-fi over larger areas. Wide Area WiFi Tested in Michigan Towns.
Traverse City in northwestern Michigan has wi-fi throughout much of its downtown, and Grand Haven further down the Lake Michigan coast is totally wi-fi with citywide coverage.
Add that to work to turn much of suburban Detroit and Ann Arbor into a huge and seamless wi-fi hotspot and Michigan is emerging as a pretty wired state.
Meantime, look for scarce postings here for a couple of days as I burn some vacation time peddling around the U.P.
If I find Internet access, I’ll update a fitness blog I keep with some pictures of the ride.