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14 Comments

    1. The pistol would have to be with utmost secrecy, because if you are caught with a single live cartridge or anything to use it in, it is 5 years in prison. If you use it, you’d need to disappear in a hurry for the same reason.

    1. I had to smile, remembering a trip to India where it is common to see motorcycles with a half dozen people, usually mom, dad, and two to five kids packed like on sardines. So it is possible! Desperate times call for desperate measures. 🙂

  1. I have checked out and found a military style motorcycle with a side car AND a buddy seat behind the driver/operator seat. Thus, a family of 3 could use AND you can add small pull type trailers. Most are 650-850cc and top speed 65 mph (works for me).

  2. Thanks for sharing your first hand account J.C. I appreciate it!

    I recommend everyone who feels a phone is a valued asset to get a good external rechargeable battery. Or two.

    The good ones cost 40 to 50 bucks. Some can recharge your phone EIGHT times.

    Also, you can do what I did and get a cigarette plug receptacle with battery clamps and a USB plug for your phone charger. Be smart and get the one with at least 2 USB outlets. These items are very lightweight and will get used many more times than our deadly, dearly beloved 1911.

    If JC had those two items in his prep bag he could have recharged his phone off the nearest car battery.

    Steven Harris has a whole one hour podcast on phone recharging linked to his Solar1234 web page. It’s well worth the time for us to listen. He also has the best scientific data for long term storage of fuel. For generators, he explains how to store good viable gasoline for up to 10 years using PRI-G and tightly sealed drums. He’s an automotive engineer with his own private lab, and volunteers at major disasters.

    Who here is paying attention to critical resources like the rare earth availability for making our rechargeable batteries? Thanks to this article further motivating me, I am going to stock up on another 100 bucks worth of Eneloops and external batteries.

  3. All of you might want to buy Zastava PAP type AK rifles/pistols while you can. I noticed that auto-sear pin holes are marked on the receiver. The BATFE has ruled for AR’s that if the receiver is marked for the auto sear hole, the receiver is a machine gun. If this carries over to AK’s, any such marked receiver is a machine gun. With the amount of weapons sold already this might force an opening of the NFA roles for new machine guns.

  4. While living on Crete, Greece would often see vacationers from N. Eur. riding motorcycles. But not just one or two people, these were families of four to five with baggage on one bike, and no trailer or side car. Side car or trailer is just something to get stolen or pull everyone off of bike and steal needed things. Something to think about.

  5. Your car may be immobilized by rubble, but it will still charge your cell phone, if you have a 12v adapter. If running, the vehicle will also provide house current, if an inverter is stashed in your prep gear.

    Always keep your car’s tank at least half full!

  6. Preps are great, but if your family ain’t on board, you may as well be single doing it, because you are. A sneaky way (and I am not above being sneaky) of getting them on board is to tune some of your preps into specifically supporting things critical to your families’ jobs. Such as, my wifes’ use of a computer and her phone to do her job. Those 12 volt big batteries don’t seem half so expensive now, do they? Same with my adult children. Having the ability to easily replenish those devices is so smart now. Bug out bags are in all the cars and trucks. Firearms easily accessible and supplied. Back up water and food, ready and waiting. Emergency everything on hand and in the right quantities and places. Come what may (and I pray G*d not the Big One) I captured the Friendlies not by logic, but by deception, using the adages of Sun Tzu. Works on allies as well as enemies. I lived through a couple of quakes in Calif. and hate them.

  7. Hey J.C.,
    great article. I could relate. We had a 6.3 quake here in my hometown of Christchurch in 2011. While my home was okay, and no-one we knew was killed, my parent’s house was badly damaged and key infrastructure was destroyed and down for weeks.
    First, water. Our side of town had access to clean, bore-sourced aquifer water, while my parent’s side of town had nothing. I needed the ability to transport litres of water across town, in man-portable containers.
    Second, food and fuel. I refused to buy into the mad, panic buying of both of these commodities. We hunkered down for two weeks and didn’t leave home, keeping to ourselves and being frugal. We had to drive across town to help and supply family members, but our best course of action at the time was hunker down, help neighbours and family.
    Thirdly, Liquifaction. Be aware. “A phenomenon whereby a saturated or partially saturated soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress, usually earthquake shaking or other sudden change in stress condition, causing it to behave like a liquid.” In other words; soil and sand volcanoes in your backyard. Check your geotechnical specifications for the land under your home.
    Has the experience made me a better Prepper? Have I learnt anything that I would do differently next time? Definitely. But my basic initial advice in a big earthquake is: 1.Stay calm. 2. Look after your family/neighbours first. 3. Hunker down and ration.

  8. Motorcycle? I choose a bicycle. Slower, yes. More reliable, for sure. You are your own engine, you move silently through smaller spaces than even a motorcycle, less to break down. Family? Plenty of other bicycles for them, or…the various trailers and “pedal behind” devices for the little ones. And, yep, you might want to start riding now to be in shape when it matters.

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