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"My only problem with the disk is downloading it. Hard to do at 52K connect LOL."

There are some downloaders (free packages, programs) that allow pauses and resumes. There's a Firefox browser extension that's easy to use, and it's called DownThemAll. There are others.

"But there is a Book a Million about 20 miles away with several Linux variant magazines that have the disk inside them. You buy the magazine for $10-$15 and the free disk is yours. That should also be able to boot from disk shouldn't it?"

Yes. That should boot and work fine. But you might want to upgrade from the Net anyway, eventually, which brings us back to downloading much sometime.

You might check to see if there is a wireless Internet provider within ten miles or so. It's different from cellphone access and requires a small, easy to mount antennae with line of sight to the provider's relay (usually on a hill somewhere). Should be able to deliver 10 Mbps or more and shouldn't cost much.

VOIP phone service with that can run as little as $10 with such providers that have that to offer, too. I do it from over 20 miles, but this is a very high elevation (usually less atmospheric matter between here and there than in lower areas). Well, time to charge some batteries now. It's been very unusually cloudy, and the sky has been hugely smoked-up for days. Must be some fires to the west or something.

Wireless is definitely the way to go, and depending on the local topography the range can be surprisingly good. My astronomy club has an observatory in Blue Mountains, ON and we have a wireless link to an ISP in downtown Collingwood more than ~30km (20mi) away.

The VOIP phone is the way to go as well, because most plans include ludicrous long-distance minutes for $10-15 and unlimited for $20-25. If you don’t mind doing all the configuration and management yourself, you can get phone service for $1.00 per month plus one cent per minute for all calls in North America. My local and 1-800 numbers cost me a total of $2.50/month plus talk time.

Another option if you can’t get a CD is to drive to a public library or a coffee shop in the nearest town. Most coffee shops don’t mind you hanging around if you order something every couple of hours. Go with an independent shop if you do that, though, because a lot of the chains will slow your connection if you do big downloads. OTOH some places have connections that are fast enough to download the CD in less than 30 minutes. As always, YMMV.