I recommend that anyone traveling far from their home base, especially
given the spottiness of cell site access in some large rural regions of
North America, contact your local amateur radio club (or go to www.qst.com)
and
study just a little bit to obtain the basic amateur radio license.  Most
clubs do not charge a fee in excess of the fee required to obtain the FCC
license.  For not a lot of money, it is possible to obtain technically
effective equipment which can facilitate long-distance communication to seek
assistance.

It is no longer required that a ham radio licensee learn and use Morse Code.

An example of how effective this resource can be occurred just a few years
ago when a European family, sailing not far off the Honduran coast, was
raided by pirates resulting in serious injuries requiring emergency rescue
and hospitalization.  It was amateur radio (hams) hearing the distress calls
from there, but who were sitting in their "radio shacks" here in North
America, who contacted Coast Guard authorities and others who were able to
contact Honduran authorities and the rescue happened.

Before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck our southern coast line, ham radio
operators, had established emergency communication sites, and supplanted
cell phone and land line resources which had been knocked out of service.  I
recall hearing (I am in Northern Vermont) a call for assistance from within
New Orleans which was answered by several of us.  A ham radio station based
in Colorado was able to contact Louisiana emergency service authorities and
helped get emergency services to the affected neighborhood.

Several years ago, during my "Westy mid-life walk-about," I used my amateur
radio equipment to maintain contact with family members and friends
throughout the country who were "tracking" me on my quest to hang my feet
over the Grand Canyon's north rim.