Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Being into preparedness leaves you with various worries that the sheeple usually dont get. Part of it is because we generally think about 'the unthinkable' and do not subscribe to the 'it'll never happen to me' philosophy. Naturally, one of our bigger concerns is that someday Something Bad is going to happen while we are travelling or otherwise away from our fortified homes and bunkers. The irony of having a years supply of food water and fuel stored and then being 2000 miles away from it when you need it is not lost on me. Anyway, the girlfriend, who has of late been reading Aherns The Survivalist series, had a dream last night that she was far and away from the safety and security of Zeroland and stuck on the East Coast when fanatical Muslims start dropping nukes. At that point it basically becomes every post-nuke 'leave the relative safety to wander the wasteland and find your loved ones' movie. The obvious solution is to simply carry with you what you need. Given todays stormtrooper mentality at airports and whatnont, transporting an AR, Glock and an 870, even though perfectly legal, still poses risks. Thats in addition to having to pack along some water purification gear, spare ammo, clothing, boots, backpacks and the usual summary BOB gear. A more practical alternative, if its a place youre going to be visiting more than once (like your folks' place that you visit twice every year), would be to cache a small amount of The Usual Goodies in a nice, sealed, unobtrusive box that you can leave in place. I had to think about this and while I never did anything about it, I thought that one of the best ways would be to get one of those Rubbermaid black-n-gray storage containers in a reasonable size, stuff it with The Usual Goodies (some freezedrieds, water filter, ammo, flashlight, lightsticks, backpack stove, fuel, knife, clothes, etc.) and simply UPS it to my destination a few days before my arrival. When Im ready to leave (assuming I choose not to leave said package there) I UPS it back to myself. Not cheap…probably $30 each way in shipping but, man, wouldnt you want to spend $30 for the relative security it would provide if you got stuck in Chicago, NYC or LA during a blackout, riot or other Really Bad Thing?
Naturally, this begs the question, what would you pack? Well, obviously you cant pack everything you want to…and equally obvious is that certain disasters will call for different goodies (and quantities of goodies). For example, a blackout seldom lasts more than three days and I'll be using up batteries alot faster than I'll be using up, say, soap. Contraversely, if its a riot Im probably going to be using up more ammo than batteries. Naturally, I realize that you cant really pack enough gear to handle trekking 2000 miles back to the heavily armed, well stocked and remarkably friendly oasis that is Zerotopia but I think you can pack enough gear to get you through the immediate crisis until such time as things have calmed down to the point where normal (or semi-normal) transportation services are available.
Your typical BOB is a good place to start. They usually cover the immediate basics of water, food, and that sort of thing. In fact, simply tossing youre average BOB into a hardsided container and mailing it to yourself would put you order of magnitudes ahead of the population.
Anyway, I think that I need to add to the long list of projects Ive been wanting to do…I need to come up with a list of items for a prolonged away-from-base period of time that can all be packaged into a relatively small container for long-term storage, handle the rigors of frquent travel (being shipped around the US), take advantage of local resources to minimize materials needing to be packed (i.e. not needing to pack ten gallons of water since its quite likely local water resources will be available. Simply pack water container and purification instead. [although to be safe a few of the lifeboat-ration packets of sterile water would be a good idea]), and generally give the preparedness-minded individual a serious leg up on the rest of the sheeple. (To say nothing of a nasty surprise to the predatory types…)
Definitely some list-making to do…..
