He disabled the internal one because the Hawking has superior range compared the the Dell internal.
He stops at truckstops that have wifi hotspots in the parking lot like Flying J and Petro.
Most of the national truckstop chains have them.
He pays something like $30 / month for nationwide access at certain truck stops.
He says that the most important part of this is the Hawking adapter, it has superior range compared to anything else.
An awful lot of chain motels also have wireless access. It seems they initially required a password, but then their front desk people spent all night doing tech support (probably not very well.)
So it seems most of them are just wide open, now. When traveling I often pull into the parking lot of a Quality Inn or Best Western to check my email. Sometimes you have to try different places in the parking lot to connect.
I hadn't thought of truck stops, thanks for the idea.