Sue,

Keeping in ming that I work for the cell company with the ampersand in the title, you can trust what I am about to give you:

Starting from the handset in your paw, the call is converted into a digital signal (one's and zero's) and then transmitted via radio frequency (RF) signal to the closest serving tower for your carrier (often not the single closest tower).

From the tower antenna, (on 2G and 3G networks) the signal comes down the tower in copper coaxial cable and into the radio infrastructure equipment. There it is converted from RF to fiber optic signal path or copper cable path from the cell site to the Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) landline central office and into the public switched network. On a 4G/LTE network the radio is on the tower, and fiber optic cable replaces the coax down the tower, providing a faster path into the Fiber PSTN.

Once into the public switched telephone network (PSTN) it goes to your carrier's Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO). Then back into the PSTN to either the land line you called, OR to the MTSO of the cell phone you called (if another carrier) and back down a reversal of the chain I just described. This all assumes your call stays in the same local area (like Seattle). The story gets longer if it is a call to another area (Seattle to LA)

Take note, the towers do not talk to each other wirelessly (they can, but it is rare enough not to discuss), AND the satellite does not come into play (except for timing and GEO Location for E911).

That was the quick and dirty version. I can get deeper, but probably not right for here.