Hi everyone, I want to start today with an encouragement to all the readers to keep the emails coming! I want to know what you’re thinking and especially what kinds of things you’re facing… Maybe you’re about to start on a project and we could spend the day discussing it or if you have thick enough skin – poke some holes in your idea or just add something you’ve forgotten to consider? I do appreciate all the feed back I’ve been getting but I also want your personal perspectives, I DO NOT have it all figured out and if I give the impression that I do? Just let me say that I am on the same journey that my readers are on and I’m far behind some of you, please share your perspectives and we can all glean from your experiences too!

 

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  Back on track with the topic at hand. So your rig is all loaded and you just pulled out of the driveway… What now? Where are you going? Are you hooking up with another party to caravan? Did you remember to get those short range radios off the charger or were you going to count on the cell towers? Alright CB radio, hmm – I wouldn’t bet those frequencies will be available in an emergency. Not to mention that you don’t need every other vehicle for miles to literally hear you coming. I’m not going to get bogged down in the communication arena right now but it is something you should be thinking about…

 

   For the sake of argument and keeping this topic progressing, I’ll use my BOL as a destination. I’m going to trust all of you with some of my personal bug out plans. Some of you already know me and I know I’ll be meeting more of you as the months go on. These plans though are my personal plans and as thus are only an example. Like most all of this prepping we do, each of us will have customized plans to our exact situations. What we discuss here today is a fair generalization of some things that the road could throw at us just when we are in need of no more surprises.

 

   Since we are using me as an example, I’ll be driving my 3/4 ton pickup w/ canopy and I’ll be followed by my wife in the Jeep. We will each have a 2 way radio as well as a cell phone for back up if they are still working. The radios are kept on chargers all the time and would be grabbed on the way out the door. For the sake of brevity our vehicles will be loaded with the remaining self sufficiency gear from the house along with our Bug Out bags and all the food from the house. Lets just leave it at that so we don’t get to far off track!

 

   Our journey will take us from our current home to our stocked and fairly secure BOL. Our primary route would take us over a mountain pass and could very well be in the middle of winter… What should we expect to find during the time we travel “The Road”? Sounds dramatic but I think we might be surprised to find the highways and byways we all travel everyday to be a much different place during an emergency.

 

   First off, when did we finally hit the road and get this 2 car caravan underway? Did we beat the disasters worst or are we trying to make up for some lost time, putting us out in the thick of evacuation traffic? Is the road going to even be open? Could we be facing a political disaster that would make the likelihood of road blocks higher than blocked roads? Like I said I haven’t got it all figured out but I have spent a good deal of time pondering the possibilities and used these pondering to develop my plans…

 

   As preppers we should always deal with the most likely scenario’s first and work our way out from there. As you know we live our day to day life in the Seattle WA. area and so we need to take a moment to assess the possible troubles our area might face. We have the full range of weather and natural disater possibilities. We are surrounded by military bases of every shape and size. We are blessed to have a variety of large corporations in our region as well. The Boeing Company, Microsoft to name a couple but there are many companies big and small that are contributors to the military and related fields. We have 2 large ports as well as a slew of smaller regional air fields. As you can see we have no shortage of potential targets for legitimate enemy nations or terror attacks.

 

   As I was saying about the idea of a true long term bug out, weather related and or regional disaster would most likely not trigger a reaction as drastic as pulling up stakes to make a run for it. The military strike possibilities have potential and of course the very real possibility we all face of society finally pulling the plug and causing a breakdown on a scale that I would throw in the towel and get moving. What I have come down to when deciding what would put me and the family on the road is most likely a military attack or political breakdown of large proportion. The only other potential for leaving would be financial… If I could no longer support myself and or find gainful employment in the area, I would head for the BOL as a way of preserving my ability to provide for my family long term. This last option would however be more of a matter of just moving away as opposed to “Bugging Out”…

 

   Having identified the reasons that would cause me, personally to be out on the road, I can come to a few conclusions. Nothing can be ruled out but we are going to deal with the more likely challenges first and then go back to figure out some of the long shots.

 

   I’m going to pick this up again tomorrow but I will say that the conclusions I have arrived at for potential issues are relatively few. No one could prepare for every eventuality but I believe I have covered the most likely but I will again encourage you to knock some holes in m plans… I’d rather it was you doing me the favor than deal with that Guardsman one dark night… Oh well, see you tomorrow!

 

 

Prepper