When this blog posts, I will be on a train riding to Seattle, WA for a much delayed honeymoon vacation. I’m pre-loading this post, and tomorrow’s, because, despite riding in a comfortable train car, one amenity we will not have is internet access. Many trains around the country and around the world have internet access on them, which is usually provided by cellular modems. Unfortunately the Empire Builder through the northern United States simply isn’t near enough cell towers to matter.

The route take the train through amazing scenery in the great northwest, but that means that for the most part there is almost no connection. I’m sure we’ll have some signal when we’re going through towns, but otherwise we’re beyond the last mile, and into the space between last miles, where cell phone signal is not even welcome. This is an area of the country where nature rules, and cities are few and far between.

This is a part of the country that you go to when you want to get away from cities and noise and urbanism. When you want to see nature at its most rugged and powerful. It’s amazingly beautiful country, but it’s not “connected”. That’s the way it probably should stay.