JWR,
I’d like to add just a couple points to the excellent “Lessons from the Road” article by R.W..
One key item that I feel is important is to involve everyone in the planning of your escape route. If you are the primary driver, and end up incapacitated, it is essential one of your other fellow travelers be able to take up the mantle and get the BOV to the BOL. In families, route planning can be a great way to get everyone involved and on-board with the preparations process. It also allows everyone to contribute and point out things a single planner may miss.
Next, I firmly believe for long-distance bugouts, a family or prepper should have a primary route and four secondaries, each ranging out from the primary while taking natural and man-made barriers into account, so as to give enough pre-planned options that the performance of the bug-out does not suffer during the stress of driving the actual event. This is one reason why a good deal of over-the-road trucking and aviation involve a lot of time spent prepping the vehicle and planning the route, so that surprises are minimized and all available resources (such as fuel sources, secure overnight/rest locations, etc) are utilized efficiently.
This is one of the first steps I took at the beginning the preparedness journey, and it was instructive. I was surprised at the difficulty of creating a route that took me away from large and medium-sized cities while not increasing the distance traveled by half. It was easy to create a short and fast route through the cities, or a slow and long one through the country, but finding an intermediate one was more difficult.
Finally, I would second RW’s opinion that slower is safer and more efficient. My relatively new pickup with a few hundred pounds of cargo in the back will get 24mpg on state highways at 60mph, whereas on the interstate at 70mph that fuel economy decreases to 20 m.p.g. or less. That’s a big hit in economy for a small gain in speed. Towing a trailer at 65 earns a paltry 14 m.p.g. By taking advantage of an early bug-out and not having to race to your retreat, you can reduce the number of fuel stops and also reduce the total fuel required to reach your destination.
I’ll end with a Bible verse: “Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.” – Matthew 24:20
Regards, – G.R. in Texas