I'm writing this as She Who Puts Up With Me deftly steers our van ("Van Haulin") at something over 70 MPH along I-90 towards Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park. Three kids, ten days worth of clothes, and random electronic and edible junk fill the van.

But most remarkable is that I'm getting Internet access in the middle of nowhere between Worthington, MN and Sioux Falls, SD. And even more remarkable is that I'm paying $20/month for the privilege through T-Mobile.

Wow.

Granted, the speed is nothing to write home about if you're used to a cable modem or WiFi access (it is about comparable to a dial-up modem, though it seems faster in the country than in the city). But the amazing thing is that it is possible at all.

The interesting question will be how far I'll have access. Based on T-Mobile's coverage map, I should have data service at least as far West as Sioux Falls. I may have intermittent data access through parts of South Dakota, and maybe even into Wyoming and Montana.

[For the technically inclined, I'm using a Treo 650 with Bluetooth Dial-Up Networking to connect to T-Mobile's GPRS service. That means that my laptop is talking wirelessly to my smartphone, which is connecting to T-Mobile's data service. With all this microwave radiation flying around, I suspect a hot dog positioned just right should cook nicely.]