absolutely no good for walking any distance, but at least I should be able to walk around outside to get my bearings, and make a fire for cooking and melting snow.
In my car survival kit, I do have one lighter, one book of paper matches, and about a half dozen wooden matches. At first, I was concerned because the lighter didn’t work, but that was only because it was so cold. I put the lighter in my pocket, and with it warmed up, it does seem to be working. I put the matches in the glove compartment to keep them dry in case the lighter fails, but I should be able to light a fire with no difficulty.
I don’t have any kind of stove with me, but I have thousands of pieces of paper in the car, all flyers from the trade show I was heading home from. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is any safe way to burn them in the car, so I will have to do my cooking outside. I think I’ll be able to start a few pieces of paper on fire, and then keep feeding in little “logs” made up or rolled-up sheets of paper. I will need a place to confine the fire, and after looking around the car, I decided my best choice would be the scissor jack. If I open it up halfway, there will be a place to put the fire that’s protected from the wind, but with enough airflow to keep it going. That will also serve as a grill, and I can set the coffee can or one of the soda cans on top of that.
I can cook most of my food just by boiling water in the coffee can and adding it to the container. I do have a few soup cans which were designed for a microwave. I can put the contents of those in an empty soda can, and cook that directly over the fire.
Looking around the car, I’ve identified a few more items that might be helpful. The tool box is pretty minimal, but at least it has a pair of pliers I can use to lift a pot off the “stove”. There’s a vinyl banner from the trade show, which might be useful as a wind break or tarp. The less useful items include a few hundred balloons with my company’s name, along with a tank full of helium and a few hundred feet of string.
The wind now is mostly calm, and there’s only a light snowfall, so I think I’ll head out now to assess the situation and try to cook some lunch.
Saturday afternoon, 3:30.
I’ve been outside now and had some lunch. The situation isn’t exactly good, but I’m fortunate to have enough food and warm clothing to last me a few days, since I think I’ll be here that long.
As far as I can tell, I left the county road, probably at that curve on the map. So I estimate that I’m one or two miles east of that point. I’m near the bottom of a hill, and I walked about 50 feet ahead of the car, with a small bridge crossing either a creek or ditch—I can’t really tell which it is. The bridge appears to be just some solid beams over the ditch, and it doesn’t really look like anything one would see on even a small county highway. So I’m probably on private property, and from the looks of it, not many people come down here in winter. I can only see about a hundred yards down the road in each direction, since I’m at the bottom of this little valley. The land beside the road is wooded. Unfortunately, any dead wood is buried under a few feet of snow, so my only source of fuel is probably going to be the paper I was lucky enough to have in the car with me.
The snow is so deep that it is extremely difficult to move around. When I started down this road, there were no more than a couple of inches on the ground. But now, it seems to be three feet deep most places, with some drifts even higher than that. At first, I was tempted to walk a hundred yards back down the road to see what I could see from the top of the hill, but even that long a walk would be very difficult, and without proper boots, dangerous.
My “boots” made of old blankets and plastic bags worked reasonably well, and my feet stayed mostly warm and dry. So they’ll be good enough for moving around the car, but not for any serious walking.
I did manage to build my “stove”, by digging away some snow, packing down what remained, and placing one of the floor mats from the car over that. I placed the jack on top, on its side, and built a fire inside the enclosure. I was able to place the coffee can on top of that, and used it to melt snow and bring it almost to a boil. It was a long process, and it took almost an hour. I had to attend it almost constantly. The paper logs worked well, but I did have to keep feeding them in almost constantly. And I had to keep adding fresh snow to the pot as it melted. But after about an hour, it was nearly boiling, and I transferred the hot water to my thermos and my coffee cup. I added more snow to the pot, fueled up the fire, and let some more snow melt as the fire burned itself out.
For lunch, I used the water to make some ramen noodles and a cup of instant coffee, which I ate with some crackers, cookies, and a half can of soda. It doesn’t sound like a gourmet dinner, but it did taste good to get some hot food into me.
As I walked around outside, I did try the cell phone in a few places, and there doesn’t seem to be any signal out here. It will be a while before anyone starts looking for me, and unfortunately, they’re not going to have many clues about where to look.
I probably would have avoided this whole mess if I had stuck with the interstate, but it turns out that’s not a guarantee. According to the radio, several dozen people have been stranded on the highway, and the National Guard is getting ready to go look for them. Most of those people do have cell phone contact, but apparently most of them were less prepared than I was when it comes to food. So in a way, I guess I’m better than most.
The interstate will be closed until at least tomorrow morning, and it might be a few more days until all roads are plowed. And since this isn’t even a “road”, I might be here for a while.
Well, I need to make another fire and melt more water before it gets dark, so that I’ll have some hot water for dinner and then for breakfast in the morning.
Saturday evening, 7:30.
I made another fire and cooked dinner. In addition to a package of microwave macaroni and cheese, which I made by boiling water, I made a can of soup. The soup I have is packaged in a plastic container, which I can’t put over the fire. I put about half of it into an empty soda can and heated that to almost a boil. I then mixed that with the rest of the cold soup. I finished the can of soda from lunch, and had another cup of instant coffee. I refilled the thermos, and it should be warm tomorrow morning for another cup of coffee.
When I was out, I did check the car exhaust to make sure it wasn’t blocked. The car had bottomed out on the snow, but the heat of the exhaust system kept the snow away from the exhaust pipe, mostly. I did do my best to “shovel” some snow away, but without an actual shovel, I didn’t make a lot of headway.
Even so, I’m reluctant to run the engine at night. I’ll run it for a few minutes before bed, to make sure the battery is fully charged. Fortunately, my sleeping bag has been keeping me reasonably comfortable. I have the passenger seat folded down to make a reasonably good bed, and it’s not too bad sleeping. Unlike last night, I suspect I’ll sleep well tonight.
Sunday morning, 6:00.
I slept reasonably well last night. After dinner, there wasn’t much to do besides sleep, and I went to bed at around 8:00. The outside temperature is 15 degrees this morning. I’ll get up in a little while and make another fire, but in the meantime, I made myself a cup of coffee from last night’s hot water, and had some crackers and cookies. Even eating somewhat normally, I have enough food for about four more days. Today, I’ll need to think about whether I should start rationing it. Nobody’s going to notice me missing until Tuesday, and who knows how long it will take them to start looking for me.
Also, I’ll need to go out pretty soon and take advantage of the little “latrine” I made last night. It’s really nothing more than a designated spot away from my cooking area, which I cover up with snow after using.
According to the radio, the interstate is now open, but it is still in poor condition. Most other highways haven’t even been plowed. There’s only been another inch of
snow overnight, but the closest radio station is reporting that they had a total of three feet of snow, so it will take some time to clear it.
Sunday morning, 10:00.
I’m back from heating up some more hot water, and I made myself a cup of hot chocolate, which I’ll wash down with another cup of coffee. I’m sure glad I had a can of instant coffee in the car, and I’m sure I have enough for one or two cups every day for as long as I’m here.
What little wind is left seems to be mostly coming from the west. I took the banner that I had and set it up as a little tarp angling down from the back of the car to the ground. I put my “stove” just outside of it, so in case it starts to snow again, I can work underneath the tarp and stay mostly dry. I set it up so that I can get out the hatchback of the car, so I don’t even need to walk around the car. However, for the time being, it’s just as easy to use the normal driver side door.
As I walked around, I kept testing the cell phone again, but no matter where I held it, there’s no signal. I thought about walking up the hill to try it from that higher location, but decided against it. It could be fatal for me to get stranded away from the car, and I just don’t want to risk it. Taking
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