Bears with Cell Phones?

I live in the country, in the middle of nowhere, near a wide spot in the road in north-central Indiana, but does that mean I am doomed to unreliable or non-existent cell-phone coverage? Apparently it does. After having Verizon coverage for nearly fifteen years, service here is no better than it was fifteen years ago. (We had GTE MobileNet, the precursor to Verizon before 2000)

Sure, I can stand in my driveway, with my head tilted to one side, and maybe, just maybe, I can get a signal. Usually, however, I forget and turn my head, or I sneeze, or… well, you get the picture.

I had resigned myself to poor coverage and figured it was as good as it was ever going to get and that there was no use complaining… that is until a recent hiking trip in the Weminuche Wilderness in Southwest Colorado, where we had far better coverage than we do in Indiana.

The Weminuche Wilderness is nearly 500,000 acres of untouched wilderness. The nearest town is approximately 30 miles away. As we hiked we took pictures and texted them to our friends. 'Amazing! We can't do that from our house in Indiana,' we exclaimed as if witnessing some brand-new technology for the first time.

Our home is only fourteen miles from several decent-sized towns and even though it is in the country, we have plenty of neighbors. We also have roads, indoor plumbing and mail delivery, if you can believe that! In other words, it's not the wilderness and we should be able to use our cell phones. Hey, Verizon! CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW???

At least the bears have good cell phone coverage!