Well 8nt,
You can keep messing around if you want to, but doing the hotspot with Verizon hardware is so easy, that it makes everything else look silly.
If you really want to use the crampground WiFi, get serious and look up the Alfa units. Read about them. Before cell tethering was easy, I did this a lot. I often worked with spots I could not even see.
Now, I only use the Alfa hardware when cell coverage is so bad that it is an issue. (In spite of many believe, cell coverage is not universal all over the USA.) There are lots of dark places even if you combine coverages. I recently worked a closed Panera Bread.
If you are going to tether or hotspot from your phone, put it on a good power supply. This operation will toast the onboard battery. It takes about three keystrokes to set it up and which ever phone is hot, we can all (3) use it together.
Matt