Slowest Wi-Fi Connection Ever In A McDonald's -- Absolutely Nothing To Do With The Bakken

Updates

December 16, 2:22 p.m. Pacific Time. Palm Springs. I stopped at McDonald's in Kingman, Arizona, earlier today to post update. That McDonald's had NEITHER outlets nor wi-fi. My notes show that I had driven 1,088 miles when I arrived at Kingman; that was 11:00 a.m. this morning, Mountain Time. I left yesterday at 9:30 CT or 8:30 MT, so I had been on the road about 26 hours. I stopped roadside and slept on three different occasions during the night. Really good rests; had sleeping bag to keep warm. Felt refreshed all day. At Kingman, left the interstate and took the old meandering US Highway 66 -- "kicks on 66" -- all I needed was a Corvette covnertible -- oh, that's already been done ... never mind. Spent some time off the beaten track visiting Oatman, Arizona. Sent postcards. Will upload video later. Now, in the 29 Palms - Palms Spring area. Will rest here for an hour or so before continuing.

December 16, 2013, 5:59 a.m. Mountain Time: Winslow, Arizona. Cool, but not cold. Residual snow on ground off interstate. 

Later, Sunday, December 15, 2013, 8:43 local time, Albuquerque, or however it's spelled:  normally I start driving at night. If I had, I would have seen beautiful mountains of New Mexico during the day. As it was, I was in the mountains in the dark. I believe I saw a lot of white on the ground but none on the roads. It was tough driving not knowing if I was going uphill or downhill, but no precipitation, so it was fine. A lot of truck traffic, which I enjoy. Helps me stay alert. So, still wide awake. I enjoy driving from 6:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. the best. About 4:00 a.m. it is very difficult: diurnal cortisone will bottom out at 6:00 a.m. so I will be napping somewhere after 2:00 a.m. It's a bit cool here in Albuquerque, but otherwise nothing of note.

I have a lot of articles to post later, but nothing that can't wait.

Original Post

I am about 250 miles down the road from where I started at 9:30 a.m. earlier today. I guess at McDonald's you can get a) free wi-fi; or, b) an electrical outlet that works; but, not both. I have an electrical outlet (unusual for McDonald's) so I'm taking advantage of it. Obviously I have wi-fi, but it is so incredibly slow, the rest of the world may not know I have such access.

This post (assuming it actually moves to the ether) is to let family and friends know where I am: I am in Childress, Texas, a town of about 7,000 according to the highway marker. Surprisingly it has a McDonald's. As mentioned above, I'm about 250 miles down the road from where I started earlier today, about 9:30 a.m. central time. Wow, it takes a long time to get out of Texas. I'm not even to Amarillo yet.

I can't access the rest of the web -- I guess I can if I have twenty minutes to wait between webpages, so I will forgo with links at this time.

The high point of the trip (other than the fact that I'm actually back on the road again) was seeing all the oil activity around Electra, Texas. Hundreds of strip oil pumpers. Compared to the huge pumpers in the Bakken, these little pumpers looked like toys. It appears most of them, rusted out, have been there since the 50's; many were probably idle some years ago, but they are now pumping, almost all of them. There are some new pumpers, shiny black, and about three times the size of the toy pumpers, and maybe a third, at most, half the size of the pumpers in the Bakken.

While waiting for web pages to load, I continue to read Max Tegmark's Our Mathematic Universe. He's describing:

Consider the particular sequence of chess moves that have become known as the "immortal Game," where white spectaclarly sacrifices both rooks, a bishop, and the queen to check mate with the three remaining minor pieces as shown in the figure. Here on Earth, this game was first played in 1851 by Adolph Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky. However the same game is replayed annually in the town of Marostica, Italy, with live players dressed as chess pieces, and it's regularly repeated by countless chess enthusiasts around the world.

I can't wait to watch Arianna and Olivia play this sequence when I return to Grapevine to coach them through another game of chess. I'm less interested in watching who wins as I am in teaching them strategy. The seven-year-old, in two "games," learned how all the pieces move and can now play a very simple game. The ten-year-old pretty much taught herself to play (with most help from her dad, some help from me, and all the real help from the Apple iPad). She played chess on the iPad back and forth on the bus from her home in a suburb of Boston into the city when they lived there. Thirty minutes on the bus several times a week gave her quite an opportunity to play the iPad. 

Max's Mathematical Universe has clearly moved into the realm of the television series "The Big Bang Theory." More on that when I have time (and a good wi-fi connection). It's time to get back on the road.

Gasoline is $2.99 / gallon in this area of the country.