James,
Our family recently found your book and blog. We are working diligently to prepare. One question I have not seen addressed: What do you think about sending a child to college? We are a conservative, Christian, home schooling family. Our daughter has been looking forward to attending a small Christian college that is about 1-1/2 hours from our home. Now that we are awake we are feeling that keeping her close to home as we prepare to relocate is best. Any thoughts? – S. in Southern California
JWR Replies: A college that is just a 1-1/2 hour drive is probably close enough, especially if she has her own car. But living in Southern California–with both earthquake risk and a high crime rate–be sure to identify and practice driving several alternate routes on surface streets and back roads, just in case she must “Get Out of Dodge” (G.O.O.D.)
As a backup, keeping a Montague folding bicycle–kept chained to the bed frame in her dorm room–could get your daughter home, even in the event of a major earthquake that causes road closures. Montague folding bikes are available from Safecastle, one of our loyal advertisers.
I also strongly recommend self defense training for your daughter–both firearms and martial arts. (The latter is important for Californians, since open carry of firearms is effectively banned, and concealed carry permits are very difficult to obtain in most of the more populous counties.) She should attend Front Sight or Gunsite, and one of the better full contact martial arts schools that teaches an art with plenty of kicks and punches (such as Tae Kwon Do), and then perhaps she might move on to one of the advanced grappling arts (such as JuJitsu).
Oh, and as previously mentioned in the blog, I recommend that the first two years of college credits be obtained by a combination of CLEP tests and on-line courses. Not only is this less expensive than resident on-campus classes, but it also will keep your child safely at home for a couple of extra years.