I work as an independent hospital contractor. Our home base is in Montana, but I am independent. I work as temporary health care staff at hospitals, being licensed in about 5 states. I usually make pretty good money traveling, but I miss having a fixed point in case of crisis.
My wife and I really enjoy living in Montana, we were having a good life: hunting in the mountains panning for gold and camping. While working at a good paying contract, the hospital I was with had asked about renewing the job for another several weeks. I accepted the renewal since the pay was adequate and my wife was taking classes locally. Suddenly, the hospital terminated the existing contract early leaving me scrambling for another job. Usually during the winter months there are more offers than I can handle. This time it was different. Business was suddenly down about 40% nationwide.
I had what I thought was an adequate emergency fund and plenty of survival tools and supplies. Most of our belongings were in storage. I had a cargo trailer which I converted to a ‘camper-survival’ shelter. We thought we were prepared to re-locate anywhere in the country where there was work.
Murphy’s Law kicked in about two weeks after the last day of my job. The head gasket blew on my Toyota Truck, making a serious dent in our emergency/travel fund. Remaining in a fixed place waiting for repairs was expensive with no income to offset the rent. It was the dead of winter in Montana with an average temperature of 20 below at night. It was not practical to camp, since we had no transportation to and from the woods. What used to be ‘fun’ was now ‘threatening’ with the money running out.
Since I had to wait for the truck to be repaired, I used the time to prepare ourselves for another contract offer, I soon got lucky and we had an offer in Texas. Unfortunately, without a vehicle we were stuck indoors, unable to pack our trailer. We worried that the repairs would not be completed before the contract begins in Texas, and that was about two weeks away. The truck was finally repaired giving us about 15 days to get to Texas.
My ‘hard’ experience became a test. It was not a melt-down of society but our current problems were about as I figured it about 10% of what a real crisis would entail. We packed a chain saw, small generator, tools, clothes, and anything else we predicted we would need during the trip and while living in Texas. We had experience camping for several months with our trailer, but never in sub-zero weather. Most importantly, the stress level was high which made everything harder.
With the truck fixed we began "getting out of dodge". We hoped to go south and avoid some of the coldest weather. After packing, we realized there was too much stuff for us to sleep comfortably in our camper-trailer. We re-packed and put about 40% of our gear back in storage. I set priorities to keep, among other basic tools, a battery-powered circular saw, drill, chain saw, 700 watt generator and our sleeping bags. Cooking equipment was also a major part of our load. I left our long guns behind in storage, taking only one Benelli slide-action shotgun, a .22 [rimfire rifle] and a revolver. We would have to stay in apartments or motels so I figured that from previous trips that firing a .308 inside an apartment or populated area would be too dangerous to others during a confrontation (we counted on any work being in an urban area).
It’s important to note that we could not plan or prepare for camping in the open country with a tent, fire, etc. That would put us out of touch with possible employment and required too much extra equipment. In a 100% survival scenario I could foresee possibly camping in our canvas wall tent in a secure area, but not in the woods. The best I could think of in a serious disaster would be to make some kind of deal with a mini-storage and set up the tent behind the fence. Not very romantic.
The trip to Texas would cross into my home state of Missouri. We decided since it was the holiday week we could stay with family and friends we had not seen in 5 years. Our Missouri friends and relatives had always given us an open invitation, often asking when we would return. This was also an opportunity to save on Motel costs on the trip. The contract was to start on January 4, so remaining in Missouri would help us avoid the costs of sitting in a Motel in Texas. I don’t start to make money until the contract begins. We made phone calls to everyone telling them that after five years we would finally get to spend the holidays there.
After the truck repairs, the next major problem occurred during the trip. A winter storm had settled in the mid-west. Travel was extremely difficult, made worse pulling the trailer. Also there was the psychological ’effect’ of a deadline. With no other short-term option, we had to go. We hit black ice in Kansas causing our entire rig to slide into the oncoming lane. I managed to recover control, but the near-disaster shook us up pretty good. I drove an average of 35 MPH across Kansas in the winter storm. I was fearful that road conditions would prevent us from reaching our destination. Motel rates in one town were high and the fog was starting to settle in so we stopped early, and slept in our trailer. The fog was so thick we had trouble finding a Wal-Mart parking lot. At sundown, as my wife and I crawled into our sleeping bags we heard a loud Boom! This was the was the start of a big pile-up on the iced-over highway nearby. We had done the right thing stopping early, knowing when to quit.
The weather the next day was only slightly better, requiring very slow going. People were trying to get home for the holidays and taking the risk of driving too fast for road conditions. We saw the wrecked cars and trucks to prove it. We picked along, avoiding the Kansas City and its rush hour. We were trying to outrun another storm from the north by heading as far south as we could. When we finally arrived at our parents’ house, there was an unexpected reception. Our relatives seemed indifferent to our visit, and had no interest in the stories of our 1,400 mile trip. They did not care about hunting stories in Montana, camping, or gold panning. They spent the entire day watching sports television and talking about sports. They crowded around the television during a news report of the pile up of cars on the highway in Kansas we had experienced. When we tried to report on our first hand experiences, they ignored us. This attitude added to our stress.
We increasingly began to be viewed as inconvenient outsiders. This lack of respect started wearing on our nerves.
I tried to keep busy with constructive tasks. My portable generator was leaking gas, so I worked on it in the basement of the parents’ house, carefully laying out all of the parts searching for the source of the leak. I went back upstairs to attend to another matter and when I returned my 80 year old mother had taken the parts and placed them in random boxes. She was in the process of attempting to move the generator from the work table so the grandkids could have a place to play. She was trying to push the unit off of the table (waste high) and onto the floor. I was just in time to keep my Yamaha 700 watt generator from being smashed on the concrete. I sorted parts for two hours after that. My wife had similar stress in the kitchen, while attempting to cook for my parents. My mother had shut the stove burners off when my wife was trying to cook, somehow resenting the effort of my wife’s cooking. On the bright side, one older uncle and his wife of about 85 were highly interested in our lives, having done similar things after WW II in Wyoming.
The last straw and the strangest thing to happen, was when we threw away some accumulated trash. In organizing for next leg of the trip, I repacked food items into bags, which took up less room. The Oatmeal supply went into plastic bags rather in the bulky round box. I used the round cardboard container as a trash can in our (mostly private) sleeping room. After carefully tearing up some minor personal junk mail and receipts (I usually burn all of our mail for security reasons at home), I took the container to the kitchen to throw away , leaving it on the table. Later that day a relative who had taken little interest in our presence had emptied our shredded documents and trash onto the table. She was going through our trash, carefully sorting through the shredded documents and other trash, trying to put together the pieces as if it were a jigsaw puzzle. I looked down and she was piecing together one of my wife’s empty tampon boxes. This was the last straw. We decided to ‘try’ our friend’s homes for a few days.
We had been in regular contact with two of my best friends from Missouri over the years and looked forward to the holiday visits. Unfortunately, calls to one friend suddenly were not returned. I usually always talked to this guy. After numerous messages left I began to be concerned that someone had had a serious accident and was unable to communicate.
I told my wife, “That’s not like Tom, he usually returns calls right away.”
She said, “Maybe he does not want to talk to us.”
I replied, “That’s impossible, we talk all of the time, and he knew we were in the area.”
We never did hear from my friend until we were headed out of Missouri. I had made one last call and he answered. He said everything was ’fine’ but he was having some kind of arguments with his wife.
We visited my other friend, one I had known since grade school. He clearly stated his desire for use to come over and spend a few days. He is a lawyer with a big house and many guest rooms. He was also having trouble. His 24 year old live-in son had been arrested for DWI. His son also smashed some furniture in a drunken fit the night before we arrived. The stress of this family ’problem’ was evident. During the first night’s stay, the reception was cool. My friend did not talk much. He said he needed to go into the office the next day, a Sunday. His wife talked to us for only a brief period, spending most of the time watching television on her laptop computer, wearing earphones. I admit I questioned his ability to control his now ‘adult’ son and suggested throwing him out. Due to his son’s erratic behavior, I also felt our belongings were unsafe in the house. They had asked us to stay for several days. We left the next morning.
We re-packed our equipment , and, using our depleted funds, stayed in Motels during the rest of the Missouri ‘Holiday Family Visit’. We left for Texas earlier than planned, glad to be away from our ‘friends’ ‘and family‘. We finally arrived in Texas, mentally exhausted from the experience. It actually took several days to ‘recover’ from the trip. After I finally secured work, our financial situation began to right itself.
Lessons Learned
Our winter travel experience in my estimation was about 10% of what a real-world melt-down would be like:
1. Little Money
2. No Job
3. Bad Weather
4. Forced to ‘evacuate’ to a better place quickly.
5. Refuge with friends or relatives.
A ‘real’ melt down , I think, would include:
1. Lack of law and order, requiring more security arrangements during travel.
2. No ATM or Credit Cards, thus the need to carry large sums of cash.
3. Absolutely No Help from Others (based on what little help we did get from people we thought would help us AND the behavior of others in the household.
Knowing what we know now, in a Real Emergency the only chance would be to have a well-insulated, secure place with plenty of stored food and fuel. One would need a propane tank, wood cook stove and wood heating stove. Long-distance travel, relying on relatives or friends is ‘out’, for us. If we had to travel it would be to a motel/hotel with good security. The transaction would be in cash, no promises or favors from others. What would happen if one stayed with friends during a true melt-down and the live-in son decided to steal our survival equipment? Or vandalize our truck out of spite because he could not get his drug fix that day?
Lessons Learned:
1. Have all of your equipment in good working condition. Do not expect to repair or maintain anything during a crisis trip even if you think you will remain in one place for one or two days. I had a small 700 watt generator I took along, that developed a fuel leak. I had all the parts spread out on a work table in the basement during disassembly in order, looking for the leak. I had left them out for a couple of hours only to return to find the parts thrown into a cardboard box! The reason: the kids wanted to play a game on the table I was using and my ‘stuff’ was in the way. Do not expect people to respect your property or understand why you have certain items. In addition, I could not help thinking that there was some envy or resentment by some family Members regarding our preparedness gear. I couldn’t help thinking that in a ‘real’ crisis kids or other people may attempt to vandalize, steal, or otherwise disable our gear if left unprotected. Keep your stuff locked up, no matter what or how relaxed you feel.
2. Have three portable light sources with you at all times. You have to be able at any given moment tell if your trailer chains are hooked up in a snow storm. It’s just as important to be able to read at the end of the day in a dark unfamiliar room. Few if any houses or even motel rooms have good reading or task lighting. The Dewalt 18 volt flex-light with an LED element was a very useful light source for us. We had a 12 volt charger in the truck for the Dewalt. We also both carry LED head lamps (hung around neck at night). I also had my sure-fire light. Sounds like camping in the woods? It’s harder camping in someone’s house due to the human factor. Other unpredictable people were around; including undisciplined kids. The job of camping out in someone else’s home is exponentially harder. I would also try to add to our gear a way to lock a door from the inside, any door.
4. If you like an alcohol drink at the end of the day, keep that in your personal gear, not stored away in the truck. My wife and I like a private drink at the end of the day in our bedroom away from the need to have a conversation with everyone else. It helped us unwind and plan the rest of the project, not to mention get away from impolite questions and improper behavior.
5. Bring your sleeping bags with you into the bedroom or hotel room. For some reason people do not provide enough blankets or bedding. One sister’s house provided us with a room, two small beds and one blanket! People are used to turning up the thermostat. We like good bedding. Also have ear-plugs. Kids and even adults in some households keep the television on at top volume 24/7. They will not give consideration to guests. What would you do if you had to sleep in the same room as snoring (or worse) strangers during a real melt-down?
6. This next lesson is important believe it or not. Go to a Laundromat and fish out of the trash an empty detergent bottle. Instead of wandering through a house looking for the bathroom, use the makeshift urinal in the bedroom. Don’t use a throw away drinking bottle or anything for human consumption for a urinal! It seemed to us that during the stressful time we had there was a greater propensity for accidents. While it’s irritating to pour your laundry urine bottle in the washer by mistake, think of what you would do in the dark if you made a mistake with a container for drinking. If I were (god forbid) to have to stay in a room for an extended time, I would make the purchase of a portable toilet a priority. Along with taking a shower once in a while, being able to carry out this function (in private) is of the highest necessity to help keep you sane. The rule is: you have enough stress already, do what you can to minimize any stress. For us, privacy is a stress reducer.
7. People you deal with that are not preparedness-minded will not understand you and for some reason work against you either consciously or subconsciously. I have read stories about this but it never hit home until our trip. I keep everything locked away and secure or on my person at people’s houses as if I were sleeping in a subway station or a public park. I don’t need curious teenagers or careless adults to have access to my valuable equipment and supplies (they really don’t understand your equipment, and will break it when your back is turned). I had many experiences during our trip of this happening on a ‘good day”. Who knows what someone may do in an actual emergency.
8. Be prepared to have people you thought were your friends or whom you could trust to suddenly at the last moment back out on promises, ignore agreements, be unavailable, or even be counterproductive to your situation. I don’t know where this comes from but it’s out there. Maybe it’s because people no longer have the skills or mindset to make even minor adjustments in their lifestyles to help friends or relatives. Conversation is a lost art. After experiencing this ‘new’ social trait numerous times, I can’t help thinking that there is always some level of envy and resentment going on in general towards preparedness minded people.
9. Television broadcasts have more truth to most people than the written or spoken word. I tried to talk about our near-disaster sliding on black ice and the car pile ups we encountered. People either were disinterested or cut us off in mid-sentence to talk about something else. These same people we noticed would crowd around the television to hear newscaster’s reports of the same events. In a real melt-down these same people will probably believe government propaganda or lies before they listen to a verbal account of a shooting or other social unrest. They would be inclined to turn you in for a reward, or for some other kind of recognition.
10. Have food that is ready to eat with you in your personal gear. We avoided most family meals after we noticed unsafe sanitation practices going on in one household. I had limited health insurance and needed to be prepared to work, not spend time in the hospital suffering from food poisoning. Being aware of unsafe sanitation which will be more important if one is faced with no hospital or limited access to antibiotics in a true ’hard-core’ emergency.
11. My main advantage was traveling with a caring, supportive spouse. My wife did not mind sleeping in the trailer and tolerated our bad times with a positive attitude. She knows more about survival than I do, having grown up poor and under a Military Dictatorship in a third world country. She was much better had identifying the weaknesses of various people we met on our trip than I was.
12. During stress and moving I am more intolerant to people making disrespectful comments, digs, ‘jokes’ poking fun at my situation, and lack of empathy. Stress has a way of doing that for me. I have read of people taken hostage also have this problem. Little things matter. Plan for this kind of added stress by avoiding people likely to behave in this way. This is another reason to have your own place prepared and avoid staying with other people (unless they are very trustworthy). My wife and I seriously considered sleeping in our camping trailer, even at 10 below rather than spending another night in the house with my brother-in-law who made continuous jokes (to his kids) about us ‘living in a tent’ (referring to our propensity to camp and practice survival skills) . He also made a comment to my wife how she “must like having running water [in the house]”. Pride is a sin. Many of these basic teachings were reinforced during the trip.
13. Have at least $10,000 ready at all times for emergencies. When things start to heat up, have it in cash. During the storm, it was difficult to access an ATM. I was able to negotiate auto repairs at a cheaper price by paying cash. During a ‘real’ crisis the need for cash in some form proved to us to be even more important based on our ‘experiment’. Get a money belt and pre-arrange secret compartments.
14. You won’t have the time or the place to camp, pitch a tent or otherwise ‘rough it’ in a bug-out situation. All you can do is keep moving to your designated objective. Remaining too long in one unfamiliar place can become both expensive and unsafe. It would have been impractical to camp out during our winter trip. A.) It would have taken too long to obtain fuel for a fire. B.) Setting up and taking down a tent would have cut into our travel time. C.) Camping ‘looks’ wrong—people will investigate an obvious campsite, but will often leave a trailer alone. Our trailer is based on the cargo design, making it easy to overnight discretely in Urban areas.
15. We tried to carry too much stuff. Many items we carried were useful but only when we arrived at the final destination. It was very hard to make room to sleep in our trailer en route. It was very hard to get (sometimes to find) some of the basic tools and food due to the amount of stuff we packed.
16. Have some way at the end of the day to relieve stress and relax. We found that running or jogging (despite the cold weather) followed at sundown with some beer or whisky along with a good novel, as well as the radio, away from other people to be our method of choice.
17 Have some method of contacting people who you consider truly to be your friends and who are on your side to give encouragement during a crisis. During our emergency, we relied on our cell phones
and the Internet to contact real friends. Our long distance conversations with real friends helped remind us of our strengths. They helped us focus. The encouragement helped keep our spirits up. I had read about hostages relying on messages from supportive people (and being devastated by negative messages), and now understand better the need for this support network communication. In a ‘real’ Crisis one would have to consider some type of short wave radio and/or relay messages via short wave. I can’t think of any other practical method. I want to get some type of portable short wave transceiver and license.
18. Don’t expect people around you other than you spouse or trusted friends to behave reasonably during a crisis. I now don’t even expect grow up people to behave like adults. Keep your equipment just as secure as if you were in the middle of the parking lot of an inner-city. You never know what people may do out of envy, greed or resentment, not to mention hunger in a real crisis.
19. As hard as this sounds: try a ‘trial run’. See point #15. Pack everything you think you will ‘need’ and drive about 200 miles. See what happens. I really wish I had done this when times were good, instead
of the last minute. This would be a great weekend family project that could require very little money.
Maybe this list of lessons do not apply to your situation. You may think, ‘I have a great support network; this story pertains little to my situation. I have plenty of money and resources. I don’t have to worry about outside help. ’ I hope so. That’s what I used to think. My biggest lesson learned during a stressful ‘survival’ move is how much even we, as preparedness minded people took for granted. Moving under the best of conditions is stressful and can wear you down. Plan to have the basics always available: Have someplace secure and quiet to sleep, a place to go to the bathroom, illumination, food, and a few comfort items. Stay away from (or if you have to) be ready for rejection, indifferent (sometimes hostile) friends and relatives in a real crisis.
I only covered a few real-life experiences we encountered on our latest “10% crisis” trip. After looking back on the trip and knowing what we know now, the best thing to do is to have a fixed place that you own to retreat to during hard times. Get there as quickly and as early as possible. Stay in your own place. Have preparedness equipment there, ready for use. An RV [or fifth wheel trailer] would have been more valuable than our camping trailer for the trip but would have been greater expense and harder to tow. Again, looking back, staying with relatives or friends en-route, even for one night will not be to our advantage during a crisis. Staying with other people distracted us , and almost prevented us from completion of our ‘mission’. During the trip, my wife and I kept fantasizing about a private cabin in a quiet place. We kept thinking of someplace with a wood stove, plenty of Fuel, Food, and Water. We found being a ‘refugee’ carries with it too much potential for people to be emotional and/or create problems for one another in good times let alone during some disaster. I learned there were very few individuals we could count on. We kept asking ourselves: “if we experience these problems on a good day, a ‘Holiday’ what can we expect on a ‘bad day’, a crisis, a melt-down of our current system?