by Ron Foster
Donald had been getting a bit more despondent doing all this prepping and not having anyone in his home to share life with. He was kind of getting burned out on prepping in general, as many folks do that had been living the lifestyle as long as he had been. Many a great YouTube channel had been just no longer added to as Preppers ran out of things to say or just quietly resumed
The Real Day Prepper Show
their lives after reaching their prepping point and moving on. Donald knew that his angst over prepping at the moment was a very short-term emotion for the day and he would most likely be excitedly explaining prepping to some bar stool buddy within a few hours, but for right now he was not going to think about it. The road ahead was just as bad as he thought it was going to be and paying attention to it and other drivers didn’t let his mind wander much as he carefully navigated his way to his destination.
9
Cat and Bubba
Bubba pulled in the RV Park just outside of Mississippi and looked for the main office. He could have kept on pushing the vehicle on to his next prepper interview location city but it was time for a rest and he had some video tape editing to do anyway. Harley, the bulldog, woke up from his nap in the back of the motor home sensing that a new opportunity to get out and water every bush in sight would soon be presenting itself. Cat scolded the hound to settle down for minute as he began pushing at her to hurry up and get somewhere to put him on his lead and let him out. They had thought about leaving him in the care of one of their friends because this was going to be such a long trip but considering his antics were often part of the show, they had decided to let the boisterous dog in on the adventure.
“You let the dog out and I will go rent us a space for the night.” Bubba said as he wearily opened his door and proceeded to the rental office.
Cat got Harley calm enough to get him out of the RV without pulling her arm off in the process and took him for a walk. About 15 minutes later Bubba came back and said they were set for the night.
“That took a little while, were they busy?” Cat inquired. “No, they had a lot of trouble with their credit card machine so I ended up just paying cash. They said their WIFI was on the fritz, too, at the moment so I got a small discount.” Bubba told her while wondering how the reception would be on his satellite dish if the local area was having problems.
“Well, Donald said we had some minor solar storms building up this week.” Cat said as they pulled into their parking place.
“Remind me to check space weather or Donald’s handle @SolarPrepper on Twitter for the latest news on anything developing. He hasn’t been tweeting as much as usual, I guess he is busy or is still getting his internet situation under control. You want to cook out tonight or are you ready for a sit-down meal at a restaurant?” Bubba offered.
“I want to go to that Denny’s we saw just up the road, no dishes to do and getting waited on sounds good to me tonight.” Cat replied smiling.
“Sounds good to me, we can walk up there if you want and stretch our legs some.” Bubba replied as he set about making camp.
“Ok, I will see to feeding Harley and then we can go grab us a bite.” Cat said as she set about filling a giant dog dish with chow. Cat and Bubba walked into the restaurant and were seated by the waitress. After looking over the menu and ordering, Bubba started watching the local news that was being broadcast on one of the restaurants many TVs.
“So that’s what is causing all the internet disturbances, I just caught the tail end of what that announcer was saying but he said NASA warned of radio interference due to increased solar activity. They announced they were supposed to have an update on the 10:00 news.” Bubba said, wondering if this latest solar flare had anything to do with the earthquake report in Mexico that was now being shown on the screen.
Cat’s attention was drawn to the TV screen and she asked Bubba if he thought the earthquake and solar flare were connected as many scientists had already started seeing a pattern in these kinds of events.
“I don’t really know, I have been discussing that subject in depth with Donald for some time. He says, in his opinion, that earthquakes and tsunamis seem to appear directly influenced by geomagnetic storms. I will try to hook up with Donald later this evening and get his take on things.” Bubba said as he relaxed back in his chair and waited on his dinner to come.
“I think he is right. We need to tell our next interviewee we are in around noon tomorrow. We still going to swing by the beach in Biloxi afterwards or do you think we need to start moving in Donald’s direction?” Cat asked as she watched the waitress carrying over their salads.
“David said he was going out of town for a few
days so I guess it wouldn’t do us any good to arrive early if he isn’t around. I wanted to see the place and maybe visit one of those casinos, so I guess we take a day for ourselves before setting out. I think we deserve a little break and we got those free stay coupons.” Bubba said in between bites of his salad and wishing the main course was already there.
“I was looking forward to seeing the beach but not during a solar storm.” Cat said half jokingly. “It will be fine, Sweetie, oh look, here comes our dinner.” Bubba said thrusting his half-eaten salad to the side and getting ready to pounce on the steak he had ordered.
Cat and Bubba went back to the RV park and after figuring out the internet was just too messed up to deal with, spent the night quietly talking under stars about their plans for the next few days.
They got up the next morning and headed to Hattiesburg, MS. to do their next interview. This next one sounded like fun and not just your typical discuss preps or threats discussions. The guy had set up a biosphere to grow year round food and Donald had told him to take some notes so maybe he could do the same on his property. This was about the longest trip he and Cat had been on except for that long ordeal of a trip Donald had helped him arrange to go visit Bruce Hemming at Buckshots Camp in South Dakota. Cat and he had learned the fine art of survival trapping from Buckshot and that interview had been one of Real Day Preppers Shows most followed and talked about shows. Bruce, AKA Buckshot, was a master at the art of snaring and ran a regular school up there but had invited Bubba and Cat to attend it for free if they would relate the experience to their large base of viewers. Bubba had been sure to buy a few dozen modern commercial snares that Buckshot handmakes in his kitchen and added them to his preps and bug home location.
Most preppers look for and stock a bug out location if able. However, since Bubba was on the road so much, he was already basicaly bugged out and had outfitted his old motor home accordingly and was towing a trailer full of food and emergency supplies. Bubba knew that if faced with a long-term survival situation though, he needed a firmer footing and had plans and a location to bug home to if he needed it as a safe haven to ride out a disastarous national collapse type event..
Bubba and Donald had talked about how it’s odd we Preppers were all doing preps for various reasons, but its something we do for ourselves because we see something foreboding or some type of calamity in the future, none of us is sure what, not the headlines in paper making us aware to do it. Just something it seemed for each individual to be called to do and start down the trail to prepperdom and self-reliance.
They had guessed that every prepper must ask themselves the same question, why are we all here in these forums and watching various types of social media that other Preppers use to share information? How is it we all manage to have formed up and start talking about so many different scenarios together?
Bubba didn’t know the answer to this mystery, but he was sure glad he had a network full of like-minded people he could call upon if he got caught somewhere and couldn’t get back to his bug home place immediately.
10
The Morning After
Donald woke up bleary eyed and slightly hung-over from his little party the night before. He had started wondering why he had thought this trip was going to be such a great idea in the first place. Everythin
g had changed on the beach now it seemed and it wasn’t giving him the joy he thought he might feel at the beginning of this trip. He half heartedly thought about returning home early, but he had already paid the hotel charges for three days and decided to go explore the other end of the beach today and see if any fond memories or places were still around he could visit.
Friggin’ cable was out on his TV it appeared, so he didn’t even get his morning dose of news headlines today. Oh well, probably just as well, he was supposed to be on vacation and not worrying about that crap at the moment. He had forgotten to bring any coffee with him so he wandered outside to his truck and dug around in his get home bag until he found some individual foil packs of instant and just ran some hot water out of the spigot to make himself a quick cup.
Yuck! This stuff tasted awful. He had forgotten just how bad Florida water was on the beach. He forced himself to drink it anyway and did a bit of self-reflecting on which direction life was taking him these days and possibly what he could do to improve upon it. He finally realized that the answers to all these questions were not something he felt like undertaking today and took off in his truck to get to the far end of the beach and work his way slowly back to the hotel. He almost stopped at the old beach bar next to the hotel he was staying at because he knew they had coffee available this early in the morning. But he knew that would lead to a breakfast of beer and he was going to pace himself today better and behave for a while.
He drove all the way down to where one of his favorite hang out spots at the Marina was called the “Treasure Ship” and found it had been torn down. This was too much for his psyche to start the day out with! No! That was a wonderful landmark. What had once been a big seafood restaurant and dockside bar designed to look like a Spanish galleon was no more than an empty lot with a few docks. He had heard that sometime during the past year it had sustained some damage from a fire, but it was such a landmark and crowd attractor surely they would have rebuilt it.
“ Well, I guess I will end up in a bar this morning anyway despite my best intentions not to go sit in one, there isn’t anything else out this way and I want to find out what happened to the Treasure Ship. That being the case, I guess I am destined to do a repeat of yesterday.” Don thought as he pulled into the parking lot of an old working mans beach bar and joined the few morning patrons already saddled up to the bar and a few drinks ahead of him.
Donald placed his order for a Budweiser and looked up to see the TV screen all scratchy and fuzzy. The Barmaid told him the TV had been out since about 11:30 last night and seemed to be a beach wide outage. The scoop on the Restaurant was that it had been torn down 6 months ago, one of the patrons told him as he settled in to gossip and bar chat. The owner was up in age it appears and had just taken the insurance money and razed the place to the ground after really not that major of a fire and put its lot up for sale and retired. Donald hung around for another beer in the now gloomily depressing place and then wandered back out to his truck and considered his next move for the day.
There was another very old wooden Florida bar just across the street that everyone used to put their military unit patches up on the wall in and he decided he would go visit his old unit patches. He knew this wasn’t the greatest thing in the world to be doing this fine day, because that would lead to swapping war stories with someone and more beer drinking. He half heartedly promised himself he would leave after just one or two beers and find something less self destructive to do today as he entered the place. He went inside and found only one other customer around and ordered a draft. He listened to the conversation the bartender and he were having about ham radio signals being so messed up last few days with great interest before joining in the conversation. He knew there was some solar activity predicted this week but it was supposed to be just an M class solar flare at the worst, he told them, and then asked if they had heard anything more or expected with the space weather. The bartender said that before the cable went out that NASA said we had an X1 flare headed our way that they were watching closely but that’s about all that he knew. Donald finished his beer and then started back to the other end of the beach and his hotel room to grab his laptop and check space weather out for himself before going somewhere for an early lunch later after he found out what he could.
“ More than likely I bet the internet is not going to work at that old hotel either today.” Donald thought while pondering where a suitable WiFi location might be.
“ I think I will go gas up my truck first so I don’t have that chore to do on my way out of town day after tomorrow.” he told himself and pulled into the next gas station open.
Donald filled his tank and then grabbed a six-pack of bottled water to carry back to the hotel room with him as well as a small jar of extremely overpriced coffee. The lights in the store flickered once or twice while he was in there and the cashier complained it was all the cable people working on the lines causing the flickers. Donald hoped that was all it was messing with the electricity and hurried back to his truck and towards his hotel to get his laptop and do some web searches. On the way back he had to keep reminding himself that most likely nothing more was going on out here other than a regular glitch in technology systems. However, he wanted to be sure and wanted some confirmation. It would be just his luck about now to be stuck in Florida and a major coronal mass ejection or CME occurred or was about to. Well, this might just give him an excuse to cut his trip short and head on back anyway a bit early. He really wasn’t into chasing nostalgic times in Florida anymore and this vacation was turning into more unwanted stress and a lot less relaxation so far.
“ What if the big one was actually already headed his way? What should he do?” Donald thought as his mind switched over from beach bum to Solar Prepper mode. Well, first thing was to calm down and not sweat the unknown or mentally make up shit about things he knew nothing about yet... Next was to try to get some hard data on the likelihood of a solar storm event occurring and plan from there. His mind raced over a basic drill of what to do if he actually got a real government sponsored forecasted warning and he figured at the very least he would disconnect his battery cables if he didn’t have time to bug home right then. Home! Hell, he would need to get word back to Janice. He resisted the temptation to see if that stupid trac phone cell phone of his had a signal to make the call. Half the time he had trouble with it anyway finding one” Donald thought.
Donald pulled into his hotel and hurriedly started uncasing his laptop while noticing the cable was still out. He got it turned on and sure enough, couldn’t get a connection. He pulled his cell phone out and luckily had a single bar signal and immediately called Janice back in Alabama.
“Hey Janice, checking in with you..” He began before she cut him off. “Where have you been? I tried calling you last night and a few times today! You told me you would be good about checking in somewhat regular. Anyway have you seen the NEWS about that geomagnetic storm they said was heading our way? Why haven’t you called me sooner?” A somewhat irate but shaken and concerned Janice unloaded on him all at once.
“You can fuss at me later; first tell me what you know about this solar storm.” Donald finally managed to get out.
“They said it was an X2 class and could possibly cause some disruptions to the grid and communications like GPS. NOW where have you been?” Janice said gearing back up before Donald could choke out a question or an answer.
“I am sorry; I got sort of sidetracked playing yesterday. Can you get on the internet for me?” Donald said in what he hoped was a humble enough response.
“I don’t know if I can or not. The cable has been messing up most of the night and this morning. What do you need?” Janice said, put out with him still but willing to help out if she could.
“I need to try and get more info on this Solar Storm; an X2 can turn a lot nastier under certain conditions.” Don replied
“Didn’t you bring your lap top with you? The hotel that you said you were going to stay in has a
signal if you are on the right side of it the manager said last time we stayed.” Janice whined.
“I can’t seem to get any connection; I will try it out by the pool before I go hunting a hot spot though, as a thought. Look, I might come home early depending on the news I hear and I am not having much fun anyway.” Donald told her.
“I am sorry you’re not having any fun. You think this solar storm is something we should be worried about?” Janice asked carefully.
“Probably not, just one of the many storms like we had most of this year off and on as the Sun heads for solar maximum in 2013 but I will check it out and give you a call back.” Don said wishing he could hurry up and get off the phone and go find himself a decent internet connection somewhere.
“Well, I got to go into work in one hour, so just leave me a message if you need to and stay safe yourself.” Janice said sensing his impatience to get off the line.
“Will do, you take care and I hope you have a good day at work.” Donald said hanging up his cell phone and then hurrying outside with his laptop to see if he could maybe pick up something. He tried his laptop out by the pool and didn’t get anything but a very weak signal so he went on back to his room to think over his next move. He finally decided to go ahead and load up his truck now in case he decided to leave later on today and it only took him a minute to grab a single bag and his laptop carry case and head out. There was a Waffle House he thought might have internet about 5 miles up the road so he decided that would be his first destination and then he jumped a mile as a power pole transformer blew out about a block away.
“Coincidence? Damn, he sure the hell hoped so!” Donald thought as he gingerly tried to start the truck and was rewarded with it turning over just like it always did.
Donald pulled out of the hotel’s courtyard parking lot and out onto the access road to get over to front beach road and noticed the strong smell of ozone in the air. He was pulling onto Front Beach when he noticed the power lines on the sides of the road had started smoking in some places around the conductors.