by Ron Foster
By Lori and Sam doing a bit of guerilla or “Bug Out Gardening” as this author calls it, they would be proactive and prescribe to the old adage about “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. Some areas they knew of had small islands with fresh water, resident deer, volunteer fruit trees, and edible wild plants. Exploring around now would help them in the future. Their hobby of prepping now could be conceived as recreation, and put them far ahead of the learning curve and see where they needed to fill in some gaps or learn some skills while they still had the resources and energy.
Sam had many other answers to her objections or questions but it didn’t take long for them to start agreeing on the purchase and adjusting budgets and expenses to acquire the boat and purchase a motor. Sam got Lori laughing with one of his more off the wall reasons for buying the boat when he told her that “Everyone knew zombies don’t swim!” And just like that it was time for them to smile at each other and settle in and wait impatiently for the exciting day that it would arrive in all its glory. Some of that time waiting was well used reading the owner’s manual which went into depth about how to put it together when it came in but it looked simple as pie and turned out to be not that big of a chore after all. Quite easy as a matter of fact. The hardest part was figuring out how to lay it down once it arrived on the pallet. That took some pondering because they didn’t have any extra help and the Pod contained the axle and trailer plus the wheels etc. making it heavy. After the forklift operator at the warehouse that it came in at figured that part out, Sam and Lori dove in and put it together in reasonably short order with no glitches. Everything comes packed inside the boat, the trailer the wheels everything! It’s incredible and its appearance and Sam’s explanation of what it was caused quite a stir as various people peeked at Sam and Lori putting together this green square “THING” in the parking lot! Is that “whatchamacallit” really a boat? Was but one of the questions asked of Sam and Lori that made them smile and have to stop and explain some more. Wasn’t long at all though before Sam and Lori had it all hitched up to their van and were waving goodbye to their amazed onlookers and heading for home all the while wearing huge grins and chattering about what adventures their new Tetra Pod Boat would carry them on!
After they got their boat and trailer all put together and driven home, the first task that came to mind for them was considering using it as just a recreational camping trailer for a trip that they were planning in the National Forest at the end of the month. Considering that they were going to a Prepper Meet camping function though got them on the subject of survival trailers. Sam felt that a bug out trailer should be a place where you can store the bigger items that you'll need to take to your base camp in the case of an apocalyptic event. These will be items like bottled water, stoves and tents that you don't want to leave out at your bug out location pre-positioned for fear of them being stolen or damaged by the elements. Sam liked that now his bug out survival trailer could be loaded with the larger items as well as more food that would help his and Lori’s initial survival chances immensely. It would also serve the same duty as a boat. You can carry so much more stuff and comfort items if all you have to do is bring it from the bank to the boat and vice versa instead of trying to lug it all by hand through the woods.
Lori had pointed out that they usually had a decent supply of canned and dry food and needed to consider bigger cooking and eating utensils like cast iron Dutch ovens and spatulas and griddles etc that should be taken if they were bugging out long-term and they had the room to carry it. If they broke down or got hopelessly stuck in traffic they could bug out bag it to their retreat and still have half their gear and supplies and just leave the rest in the trailer.
They both agreed that this Tetra Pod boat purchase was one of the greatest things they had ever done to expand their horizons as well as greatly increase their preparedness levels. They could now go places on the river and lakes that were free to camp, they could get off the landlocked river banks and public piers and fish in better waters, lots and lots of new exciting possibilities awaited them.
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3
OUT THE DOOR AND ON THE ROAD
“Well that’s about got it all sweetie, I guess we are finished here, time now for us to go head on out and get on the road.” Sam said thinking they should have done something a bit more memorable than last night’s little whiskey party to mark the event of walking away from their home for good like just the act of leaving this place forever wasn’t sad or memorable enough.
“Bug out!” Lori declared pointing like a wagon master with a smile.
“Road Trip!” Sam answered back with a smile because they were confident and had already come close in their dry run camping and boating trips to actually have done this for real so many times before that they had no worries.
“Are we going to lock the door?” Lori asked keys in hand.
“Nah Baby, I say we just leave it unlocked. I guess whoever wants it can have it, maybe it will help someone to live another day.” Sam said.
“You mean we are just going to leave and not tell anyone that we are gone and probably not coming back?” Lori asked because it didn’t seem right at all to her to just up and disappear the way they were planning.
“Folks around here ain’t been the best of friends to us as you well know. Early on in this disaster I would have gone out of my way and made it a special point to distribute some of that extra gear out, now I don’t want them knowing that I am leaving for good with what food I got left if you know what I mean.” Sam said arching one eyebrow cautiously waiting on Lori to catch his grim meaning.
“I hate that, it really makes me feel bad not to distribute some of what we could leave them because they were our friends once.” Lori said getting misty eyed thinking about the good times with some of them that been had upon rare occasions.
“In a way I guess we could sort of say that they still are our friends to some extent and in some ways but not so much in others if we are going to err on the side of caution. You know Lori hard times and famine changes folks. Changes them for the worse as we both know already and that’s something we need to take into account. Let’s just put our not stopping down to us being smart and cautious and say that I don’t want to be driving up to nobody’s house fully loaded up with whatever we could pack and say flat out that as of now I am leaving and not ever coming back. I don’t want to remove any false hopes they might still have of us maybe helping them in the future or offer an unnecessary temptation to rob or beg us for more food while we’re sitting there parked in their yard. Gives me a pretty uncomfortable feeling you might say. Thing is as far as I am concerned regarding them we never have been all that close with folks around here anyway. Besides we have already helped all those that we could or wanted to be charitable with the best we can.” Sam said pulling the door closed and pointing towards the road and saying “let’s do it!” trying to get Lori to just leave out of here and not slow down.
“We still got lots of usable survival stuff we ain’t using and I can’t see the nasty neighbors getting it over our good ones coming down here to collect it down the road.” Lori said leaning against Sam’s van and talking through the open window.
“I guess we need to have us a seat at the picnic table one more time and talk some.” Sam said as he exited his vehicle.
4
THE PATH TO ANYWHERE, EVERYWHERE AND NOWHERE
There are lessons to be learned, and memories to be made, everywhere.
They didn’t really have all that far to travel for the first leg of their journey. They knew pretty much driving 60 miles or so in any direction would put them near a place to launch the boat to get on some kind of body of water that would eventually lead them to the Gulf of Mexico. Lori and he had gotten involved in long discussions with Sam on which river to take, what dangers they would incur, what they would do if they found the roads blocked etc. The biggest threat that they had to deal with was that they did not know what exactly was going on
with the Nuclear Plant down the road around Dothan just before the Florida line. The news had been quiet about this facility so they assumed the powers that be had gotten it shut down ok hopefully, on the other hand they couldn’t be sure. Even if the plant was shut down ok, there was still that possibly terrible spent fuel rod problem. Remember Fukushima? While modern civilization will rapidly deteriorate into chaos, the worst of it may be just beginning. What happens to the world’s 440 nuclear power reactors (about 700 if you count all research reactors). Will they all get shutdown ok? Somehow I don’t think so. Sam and Lori had a discussion on about what he thought the fallout from the Alabama reactor might be and it was worrisome that they would be considered down river from it somewhat in the area of Florida they chose as their Bug Out location. However, Sam assured her that he considered the area within survivable radiation limits, besides they didn’t plan on making it beyond another 10 or maybe 15 yrs longer anyway because of their age he had joked.
That was the least of their worries they needed to be concerned with Sam had said, it was making it through the first winter after they bugged out that he was most concerned with. That’s another reason he had pushed to get the boat. Outside living is just that, outside in the cold. He had explained wryly that he didn’t care that they lived in Alabama, it still got bitter cold here and that boat could follow the Sun to warmer climates. That was a better strategy at the moment instead of him trying to cut trees and be trying to feed a wood stove all winter, even the birds fly South he had argued. Yes it gets cold in NW Florida but it takes a lot less wood to burn in order to get comfortable.
Sam believed the key to their success in this endeavor was to determine their “trigger event”. Determine clearly and precisely what actions or events prior to any SHTF event would prompt them to go for broke and implement their evacuation plan. Surviving long-term on a small boat has some advantages over land survival, but it also comes with some caveats of its own. He only hoped he had thought out all his contingency plans for most of them far enough.
One of his odder ways of planning for such an event was one of his prepper house decorations that mostly sat around as a conversation piece. It was an old yellow Civil Defense radiation meter that mostly sat collecting dust on a bookshelf and set him up for jokes from his non-prepper friends.
But right now this minute it was a very neat and handy thing he was very glad to have! He wasn’t sure if it was still calibrated or not to work accurately or not directly but all he wanted to know was if there were any higher levels of radiation present in the area he was going to and that would tell him a whole lot about what may or may not be going on with that nuclear plant that worried him far upriver.
At the moment, that was the only fatal flaw he saw in his plans to take that particular route to Florida. He might have even tried driving the highway some down that way but he didn’t want to risk getting so close to the facility.
Depending on how high of a level of radiation it indicated when they hit the water even if it was off a small bit would tell them if traveling on this particular river was wise or not. It could also tell him about how safe the conditions might be 150 miles downriver from that point if the reading came back low but present. If need be if it wasn’t in safe limits, they could just turn around and head for the Alabama River and go the Mobile-Pensacola route if the yellow box started chattering a high reading he would redirect . But he had to avoid some of the bigger cities as well as a few locks or dams on the river in other directions.
They had previously scouted out several state as well as private boat landings as well as some natural lay of the land undeveloped boat put in points on the Choctawhatchee River in their recreational outings and practice bug out forays. Their ultimate destination though was getting on down to the bay in Florida.
Choctawhatchee Bay is the perfect place to spend a day kayaking, jet or water skiing, or just enjoying a carefree day on the bay watching as dolphins swim by. Nestled between the cities of Fort Walton Beach, Destin, Niceville, and Freeport in the northwestern panhandle of Florida, Choctawhatchee Bay is a boater’s delight. Encompassing Okaloosa and Walton counties, Choctawhatchee Bay has a surface area of over 129 square miles, is more than 27 miles long, and ranges between one and six miles across. Water depths range anywhere from wading depth to 43 feet. The Bay’s only access to the Gulf of Mexico is through Destin’s East Pass, or a 40-mile trip through the Santa Rosa Sound to Pensacola Bay.
They knew from their research and firsthand experience, as well as talking to several people who had advised them that they needed to avoid it’s headwaters that contained a small set of rapids as well as some areas further south that were somewhat swamp choked until the river widened out on its way to Florida and the bay.
Their bug out route going to a river landing consisted of them utilizing any of three or four identified county back road routes that had only a few crossings of major highways to contend with should they be found to be blocked or impassable. Unlike the river, the obstacles that might confront them on the road these days were unknown. They could get on the river in some of the shallower areas but Sam had pointed out that sometimes floating through the flood prone areas, even in the better ones that they needed to be aware that a tree or a log jam could block their passage and cause them unbelievable problems trying to circumnavigate it.
The Tetra-POD boat unlike a canoe would be harder in some areas to portage around an obstacle because of its weight. Either one would be a pain to load and unload of cargo and gear. However, as Lori pointed out, they didn’t have to worry about hauling an almost twelve foot boat that weighed around 210 pounds around with them as a single unit because with a few taps of a hammer on the hinge pins it could also be divided into two component half units that would be much more maneuverable and lighter in tight areas. Sam had threatened to sail one of the pod units as a singular boat just to see what it would be like but hadn’t gotten around to trying it yet. Seemed feasible, only difference being one side had a transom for the motor and the other was more sled shaped at the nose.
Sam said that she was right about being able to divide the boat in half and take the top part off if you were using it in dump trailer mode for example. But he had no thoughts whatsoever of being on any part of that river that you would have to consider where to portage on. The terrain on that river went from A to Z, nasty to good, from cypress logs and high bluffs to log jams in shallow water to contend with and it was hard enough sometimes to find a good sandbar area to pull off for camping in for the night.
You can go for miles and miles down that river not seeing nothing but forest and no landing places anywhere. When going off in the middle of nowhere and desolation like that they soon found it necessary and very wise to get them some good aquatic maps of the areas after the first time they tried camping the river and didn’t know how far anything was let alone where any facilities the occasional State Park or private landing might offer if they just went a little further in their journey.
The small county road leading out from their house to the highway wasn’t all that long but they had not gone down it in more than a month and didn’t know the conditions of traveling it, even for a short distance. They had no idea what was going on just two miles away from them in any direction except when they heard gunfire or the occasional chainsaw. That was a lot of houses close to the road to pass and a lot of desperate people. Sam reminded Lori that even during regular times you had to be careful to watch out for some rather odd folks out walking that road. There had been more than one meth head noted once in awhile also as that infernal zombie creating crap began invading their quite rural area.
Sam and Lori agreed that the people living along the road that would recognize their vans driving by would be speculating on what was going on big time. Not much moved these days that wasn’t noticed and judged in some way. Sam and Lori did not have to go to town to search for supplies, others did until it became too futile or too dangerous to consider as there was simply no f
ood or drink anywhere to be had by any means. At first Sam and Lori thought about playing the game and going to the city like all the rest occasionally for appearance sakes. They had stocked up with what they could get with what cash they had on hand at the time which was only eighty dollars when the poo hit the fan early on. They knew their local gas station would be doing cash and carry for food but they would be out in an hour almost what with the trailer park crowd living in back of it. The town only had two grocery stores and it only took a couple days to empty. No Sam and Lori stayed home as people futilely sought out drug stores, convenience stores, anywhere known to have a candy bar or drink machine etc as the looting started up at the same time for non essentials and drove most people back avoiding the frenzied melee.
Sam wasn’t worried about what the town proper looked like these days but instead was anxious about if one of the neighbors up on the far end had cut down a tree across the road like they were speculating on earlier to block highway traffic from entering the community. Between the unchecked fires, desperate people traveling out of the cities, cars running out of gas and breaking down etc., a security measure such as this had benefits for Sam but on the other hand he had told them not to get crazy and make something that was not easily removable in case they had to get out avoiding fires or something. If they had lain a tree down across the road that was a minor problem, unless they had done it in a place that caused major problems backing up a trailer to go an alternate route.