I honestly no one has one of these situations, that you all prepare to some degree BEFORE you have to be shocked into it.
I think I have made mention of my own experience in another post but can not seem to find it. So for those who are new I'll recant it.
I dont remember the exact day but it was sometime during the end of April. We were getting ready to move from Ft. Campbell, KY to Ft. Lewis, WA. It was Jared, Guy, Meghan, Rylan and Me. In the Jetta and a moving truck.
Not knowing much about travel really and how to map out a good route, we just went with what the GPS said. Meghan and I had take the same route when driving over from WA the first time and we felt fine with it. We even planned to stop and see some interesting stuff along the way!
Well we failed to take weather in to account.
Everything was going fine and we had made it to Rapid City, SD to stop for the night, planning to make the slightly out of the way trip to Mt. Rushmore in the morning.
I-90 got closed and we ended up taking SR 212, after getting the ok from a police department in Bell Fourche, SD.
Well....We got stuck out there. In the middle of no where, no towns and just a little cell service.
The Jetta was the first to get stuck, Jared and Guy had Rylan with them. They drifted of into the side of the road and couldnt get the car out.
Meghan and I turned the moving truck around to go back to them. We were going to all attempt to squeeze into the moving truck to try and get back to the town. Some guys in nice big trucks stopped and said they had room for 1 person. Jared wasn't sending me or Meghan with strange men and he wasn't leaving us out there by ourselves. So we sent Guy!
We managed to fit in the moving truck, then realized it was NOT going anywhere either!!
We rounded up everything and trudged back to the car. In a BLIZZARD!!
We made phone calls to the town but they for some reason had NO idea where we were, even though I told them exactly where we were(found out later I was about a mile off).
Here is where the preparedness comes in.
We got pretty lucky with what we had.
I have this quilt that I have had since I was like 8. It goes everywhere with me and its the only thing I sleep with. Well I insisted that Rylan have it in the Jetta with him before we set out on our trip.
Meghans mom had sent us a few small first aide kits. I had a Tupperware ware container filled with random things for our trip including the kits.
Jared and I always over buy when we stop at gas stations on trips. I buy more water than needed and food for "later". I ALWAYS over pack the diaper bag too. I had enough diapers and wipes to last 3-4 days and a big container of formula, and a bottle of baby juice(he was 18months).
Jared had bought 2 big packs of these jerky/pepperoni bites.
Being in the Army Jared seems to have random gear of sorts scattered everywhere. There were gloves in the car, plastic magazines(for guns) and a pair of safety glasses. All of which came in handy when he had to dig out the exhaust during the blizzard.
That night got pretty cold but with the blanket and body heat of the 4 of us squished in the back of the Jetta, we made due. We even had one of those silver fire blankets that we put up to try and keep our heat in the back of the car.
At one point during the next day, the driver side window fell down in the door. This window was directly facing the wind. We used the fire blanket and Rylans dinosaurs to fill the whole.
Luckily after almost 24hrs the Sharif from Sundance WY and 2 plow trucks found us and a few other people, and took us back to Bell Fourche.
The point is that, we had no idea how long we were going to be out there. They did not know when the storm was supposed to stop or when they could come get us. While we were lucky in what we had, we could have been way more prepared!
Now with 2 kids an one on the way, I feel its even more important to think about situations like this and plan the best we can.
I think I have made mention of my own experience in another post but can not seem to find it. So for those who are new I'll recant it.
I dont remember the exact day but it was sometime during the end of April. We were getting ready to move from Ft. Campbell, KY to Ft. Lewis, WA. It was Jared, Guy, Meghan, Rylan and Me. In the Jetta and a moving truck.
Not knowing much about travel really and how to map out a good route, we just went with what the GPS said. Meghan and I had take the same route when driving over from WA the first time and we felt fine with it. We even planned to stop and see some interesting stuff along the way!
Well we failed to take weather in to account.
Everything was going fine and we had made it to Rapid City, SD to stop for the night, planning to make the slightly out of the way trip to Mt. Rushmore in the morning.
I-90 got closed and we ended up taking SR 212, after getting the ok from a police department in Bell Fourche, SD.
Well....We got stuck out there. In the middle of no where, no towns and just a little cell service.
The Jetta was the first to get stuck, Jared and Guy had Rylan with them. They drifted of into the side of the road and couldnt get the car out.
Meghan and I turned the moving truck around to go back to them. We were going to all attempt to squeeze into the moving truck to try and get back to the town. Some guys in nice big trucks stopped and said they had room for 1 person. Jared wasn't sending me or Meghan with strange men and he wasn't leaving us out there by ourselves. So we sent Guy!
We managed to fit in the moving truck, then realized it was NOT going anywhere either!!
We rounded up everything and trudged back to the car. In a BLIZZARD!!
We made phone calls to the town but they for some reason had NO idea where we were, even though I told them exactly where we were(found out later I was about a mile off).
Here is where the preparedness comes in.
We got pretty lucky with what we had.
I have this quilt that I have had since I was like 8. It goes everywhere with me and its the only thing I sleep with. Well I insisted that Rylan have it in the Jetta with him before we set out on our trip.
Meghans mom had sent us a few small first aide kits. I had a Tupperware ware container filled with random things for our trip including the kits.
Jared and I always over buy when we stop at gas stations on trips. I buy more water than needed and food for "later". I ALWAYS over pack the diaper bag too. I had enough diapers and wipes to last 3-4 days and a big container of formula, and a bottle of baby juice(he was 18months).
Jared had bought 2 big packs of these jerky/pepperoni bites.
Being in the Army Jared seems to have random gear of sorts scattered everywhere. There were gloves in the car, plastic magazines(for guns) and a pair of safety glasses. All of which came in handy when he had to dig out the exhaust during the blizzard.
That night got pretty cold but with the blanket and body heat of the 4 of us squished in the back of the Jetta, we made due. We even had one of those silver fire blankets that we put up to try and keep our heat in the back of the car.
At one point during the next day, the driver side window fell down in the door. This window was directly facing the wind. We used the fire blanket and Rylans dinosaurs to fill the whole.
Luckily after almost 24hrs the Sharif from Sundance WY and 2 plow trucks found us and a few other people, and took us back to Bell Fourche.
The point is that, we had no idea how long we were going to be out there. They did not know when the storm was supposed to stop or when they could come get us. While we were lucky in what we had, we could have been way more prepared!
Now with 2 kids an one on the way, I feel its even more important to think about situations like this and plan the best we can.
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