Long Distance Travel Planning

My wife and I just returned from a long, out-of-town trip to a place I dislike and for reasons that were unpleasant. Nevertheless, it was a journey that had to be made.

This made me consider how my wife and I prepare for long trips in the car. We have a checklist with variations depending on destination and purpose. We also tend to over pack when we go away.

• Navigation. Even though GPS is prevalent and generally accessible, we always map out the route before we get on the road. This helps with any possible detours that may occur, or points of interest we'd like to see.
• Breaks. Over a decade ago I injured my back, and since then I can only take a limited amount of time in a car before I need to get up and walk around. These breaks help both in reducing leg cramps and in keeping us alert on the road.
• Fuel. On a long trip, we try not to let the car get below half a tank of gas before we stop to refill. This ensures we always have enough fuel to get to the next station, even if we have to skip a string of them due to extreme prices, too many customers, or lack of gasoline at the pumps. 
• Cash. While not accepted everywhere anymore, it's always a good idea to have a supply of cash on hand when traveling. If phone/data/wifi goes down credit cards may be useless, but cash still works.
• Hydration. Most people live their lives insufficiently hydrated. On a long drive it's too easy to either forget to drink enough or, even worse, drink too many caffeinated and/or sugary beverages which act as diuretics. One 16.9 oz bottle of water per person per 100 miles is probably a good baseline; I tend to drink more than that.
• Nutrition. While fast food restaurants cluster around highway exits, they can't always be counted upon to be open and even the better options aren't all that healthy. A bag of shelf-stable snacks, such as dried fruit, nuts, and pretzels as well as a cooler of cheese sticks, chocolates, etc. can help considerably.
• Biology. If we're eating and drinking, those fluids and solids eventually have to come out, so don't wait until the demand is urgent before finding a bathroom. Last year, when the government-mandated craziness was at a higher level, we went from Nashville to Knoxville. This was about two and a half hours of driving, and very few bathrooms were open to the public on that trip. Even with the calls to wash our hands for so many seconds repeated constantly, fast food restaurants weren't allowing patrons in to use their restrooms. As a man, I had the usual alternatives of "nearly any tree", but such was not the case for my wife. Fortunately, we were able to find options farther from the highway exits.
• Electronics. With cell phones, Kindles, tablets, and more part of our daily lives, it's important to be able to keep them charged. We have a selection of cables and adaptors in our cars to take care of all our devices.
• Defense: Depending on the destination we may just have sidearms, but if we're going to be away overnight I prefer to have at least one long gun with sufficient ammunition, as well as a cleaning kit and basic tools. Unfortunately, it's not always legal to bring firearms to certain destinations. While I'd prefer to stay away from those places, it's not always possible, and alternatives for defense that are legal in many jurisdictions are available.

All the things listed above are in addition to the normal supplies we keep in our cars at all times such as blankets, flashlights, rope/cord, etc.

Proper planning prevents poor performance. Travel safely.

Software vs. Paper Maps

A major part of my job for the last seven years has been driving a medium-heavy truck (10-25 tons) to rural destinations, and I have had to rely on maps and apps to get me through areas that I'm not familiar with. A good portion of the area I cover is where I grew up, so I know a lot of the roads, but things change over the years and my coverage area has spread to include the neighboring counties. 

No route survives the day without change, but I have to try.

• My home county is about 700 square miles in size, with dozens of rivers and streams, which means hundreds of bridges. Bridges have weight limits, something that doesn't affect you if driving a car but can close off a route for anything bigger. I have seen a few that are so limited that a loaded pickup would not be safe to drive across.
• We have a couple of railroads that pass through as well. Railroad crossings aren't much of a problem, but the underpasses can be old and low. During the flooding we experienced twice in the last 10 years, hundreds of truck and RV drivers found a 12' clearance underpass on a detour route for the Interstate highway. That route was blocked by a stuck vehicle at least twice a day in spite of the nine warning signs leading up to the underpass. The pile of AC units stripped off of the tops of RV's and campers kept the local scavengers busy hauling them to the scrapyards.
• We get ice and snow up here. Paved roads get cleared fairly fast and well, but gravel roads can be a challenge. Some of the hills are impassable for a few days after a good snowstorm, because it takes time to get plows out into the rural areas.
• About 30 years ago the smaller counties ran into financial difficulties, and one of the cost-saving measures they instituted was “abandoning” roads that did not have an occupied home on them. A lot of shortcuts that I once used to get from point A to point B are now “Class B maintenance” or “Minimum maintenance roads”, commonly called an MMR. Minimum maintenance means no gravel, and they're the last to get the ruts bladed out. These are true dirt roads in very hilly country that has a couple hundred feet of soil on top of the bedrock.
• Rural addresses have an E911 (Enhanced 911) house number plate on the road near the entrance. This is to help emergency responders find houses when needed, but it makes my life a bit easier.

Those are the conditions I have to deal with, so I use my experience and several aids to plot a route every morning.

Online Maps

The more remote you go, the fewer modern conveniences you can rely on. We still have areas with no cell phone coverage, and I've been in a few steep areas where I lost GPS signals. 

There are a few other online mapping services, but Garmin, Apple, Mapquest, and Google Maps are the four that most people use. Garmin is a subscription service that I've never been fond of, as their devices age out too fast and they charge too much for updates.

I don't own any Apple devices so I have very limited experience with their app, but Apple maps was the butt of a lot of jokes when they first launched due to their horrible accuracy and routing. Idiots are still blindly following their GPS app instructions into lakes and rivers, so not everything has been fixed.

I've used Mapquest and Google Maps a lot over the years. My dispatcher uses Mapquest to try to get my deliveries in the same general area because he doesn't know my county very well; it's a good start, a general grouping of locations that need to be visited that day. Once I start driving I use Google maps on my phone to get detailed routing. Both services work well on Federal and State highways, but they fail on county roads. Once you leave the paved roads, their usefulness drops by at least 50% due to the following:

• MMR's are shown as actual roads on both, so unless you have a 4WD vehicle and like to get muddy, you'll have to find another route.
• Neither service acknowledges weight-limited bridges or low underpasses. I am training Google to show railroad crossings because I have to stop at all of them.
• Road construction outside of metropolitan areas won't show up.
• New roads and closed bridges can take a year to be added to their databanks. New houses can take longer.
• Street addresses are only about 80% accurate outside of towns.

Paper Maps

In order to fill in where the apps fail, I have maps: good, old-fashioned, paper maps. A trip to the county courthouse got me a map of all of the bridges (with their weight limits) for $5.00; the county address booklet showing every house and its E911 number was $20.00. 

If I'm hauling to fields instead of houses, I have a plat book that shows field boundaries and owners (another $20.00). We also have large laminated maps on the wall at the shop (up to $100.00 each) that are easier to use when planning a long route, since the plat book and E911 booklet are broken down by one township per page. 

I also have my personal collection of maps at home, mostly topographic maps of everything within 40 miles of home. There are plenty of places online where you can get maps; one of our authors covered some in this article. 

If you're planning on traveling outside your home territory, get paper maps and learn how to read them. They work when the power is out, and they don't require a GPS signal. Keep them updated at least every two years, as things do change, even out in the hinterlands.

We've covered map reading before; it's a dying art that require hands-on training to become really proficient. The age of electronics has tried to make paper maps obsolete, but batteries die and somebody else is in charge of the data you're receiving. Google and Apple have both been caught deleting data from peoples' devices over the years, so they are not 100% trustworthy.

If you're traveling locally, do so often. Keep yourself up to date on changes around you, as that evacuation route you planned five years ago may not be usable today.

Not being able to get there is as bad as getting lost.

Packing for a Trip

Back in the day I travelled for work a lot. When my one year anniversary at that job rolled around, they did the math and told me I’d been in the office less than four months. With that much travel, you pick up a few packing tricks. While it’s been a few years since I had that much work-related travel, my wife still considers me the car Tetris champion when we go on trips.

I have a tendency to overpack. It’s something I’ve worked on, but I still haven’t completely broken the habit. So what and how do I pack when I’m going away, either for a long weekend or week-long vacation?

My primary piece of luggage is a military style backpack by Red Rock that I picked up at a gun show at least ten years ago. As with so many of my preps, this exact pack no longer seems to be in production. However, the manufacturer still offers a verysimilar model. The only modifications I’ve made were to add a couple of carabiners to one side and one shoulder strap in case I need to attach something that doesn’t have MOLLE loops.

Speaking of MOLLE loops, this pack has a plethora of them on both the front and sides, therefore any accessory items so equipped can easily be added as necessary.

The author's backpack, front and rear

Since this pack has a number of compartments, I tend to divide the contents into groups. The larger, bottom front pocket contains my socks and a sleep mask. The socks are not combined or rolled, simply folded in half and layered. On shorter trips there may also be room for my underwear.

The smaller front pocket has a variety of tools and accessories, some of which you may remember from my post on pocket survival.

Contents of the smaller front pocket

1. Phone/tablet stand: I bought this after Erin showed me hers. (Stand, that is.) It’s useful for both cell phones and tablets.
2. Small wallet tool: this tool was discussed in my previous article.
3. Pocket Declaration of Independence and Constitution: A gift from the Cato Institute.
4. Spare Batteries, bulb, and reflector for flashlight: Batteries and incandescent bulbs are consumable items, and a flashlight is useless without them.
5. Victorinox Swiss Army Knife - Swiss Champ, bottle opener, and small multitool: The Swiss army knife is the same model from my pocket carry post. The bottle opener and small multitool were giveaways at trade shows.
6. Stopcock wrench and snowflake tool: The same ones from pocket carry.
7. Flashlight: I’m a particular fan of Surefire flashlights. While most of mine have had LED bulb upgrades, this one hasn’t yet.
8. USB wall wort and USB charging cable: Pretty generic. I do need to add a USB A to C cable for my new phone.

The middle compartment is where I put my toiletry kit. This is packed in a small 5.11 tool bag I got on sale at a gun shop. A few plastic bags for laundry and such, as well as a disposable poncho, are kept in the bottom of this compartment.

The main compartment is where the magic happens. The clamshell zipper makes this an exceptionally easy bag to pack. Depending on the duration of the trip and clothing requirements, it may be packed a few different ways.

Inside of the main pocket

One of the most important considerations when packing something that rides on your back is making sure the heaviest/bulkiest items go as close to your lower back as possible. (but see Editrix's Note, below.) In my case, that means footwear if I need to bring anything other than what’s on my feet. If not, or adjacent to the shoes if so, are pants which are layered so the folds don’t stack. T-shirts are rolled and placed near the top and down the sides, along with underwear if they don’t fit with the socks, similarly rolled.

Button-down shirts are either rolled like the t-shirts or folded and carefully placed on top of the other contents to help reduce wrinkles. This generally doesn’t work, but I still try. I also usually have a book or two in the mesh pocket of the main compartment.

If I were packing for an outdoor adventure, my process would be mostly the same, but clothing would be packed in large ziplock bags or vacuum sealed and some additional tools, such as a Mora knife and fire starters would be added. This backpack also has a pocket for a hydration bladder built in behind the main compartment.

Once everything is in place, the bag is zipped and the cinch straps are clipped and tightened. This can make for a relatively compact and balanced package: in the past I’ve packed an entire week’s worth of clothing and toiletries in this bag and still had it fit in the overhead compartment on an airliner. With attention to detail and careful folding, rolling, and packing, it’s possible to fit much more than expected in a relatively small bag. 

Editrix's Note: This is contrary to how I learned to pack a backpack. I was taught to keep the heaviest items in the middle of the pack, closest to my spine. 

https://www.storagevault.com/camping-pack-rucksack/

Geocaching as a Preparedness Skill

I recently  read an article which pointed out that 2020 is the 20th anniversary of the GPS game known as geocaching. This made me realize that my first geocaching find was almost 17 years ago, and that blew me away! Thinking about all of this made me realize there are some valuable skills that can be gleaned from a fun outdoors game.

The obvious first skill is proficiency with your GPS unit or the GPS on your phone. You'll learn to quickly and cleanly use its various features, as well as setting routes, waypoints, and the like. Land navigation is a valuable skill, and geocaching is a fun, cheap way to practice.

Secondly, geocaching teaches some gray man skills. Geocachers refer to non-geocachers as "muggles," and keeping caches secret from muggles is necessary to protect them. Geocachers quickly develop the ability to look for something in public without appearing to do anything interesting, and there are a lot of times in life when appearing entirely unremarkable is a valuable thing.

Also, sometimes cachers have to be quick on their feet. Very early in my caching life, I rolled up to a cache when a Jeep rolled up right behind me. I was quite active in a local caching forum at the time, and this Jeep had a vanity plate that I recognized as a user of the forum. Two people looking at a tree are fairly unremarkable, but five of us got a bit of attention. A couple kids at the playground near us started asking questions, and I don't remember who came up with it, but one of us declared us to be "tree scientists," and all of us immediately ran with it. The kids were satisfied, we found and logged the cache, and went on our way with a good laugh and a story.

One other, less obvious skill is the ability to set up, hide, and recover a cache. If your bug-out plans include a specific location like family property or something, caching durable supplies there can prove useful, and knowing how to protect your cache from the elements and the curious ensure that it will be there when you need it. Learning how to place it and mark the location means that you can find it when you come back to retrieve the contents. That's the entire heart and soul of geocaching, and it's a useful skill from time to time.

If all of this sounds interesting, Geocaching.com has all of the information you need to get started. I started out using a Garmin GPS, and it has certain advantages, but with modern cell phones you already have everything you need to find your first geocache sitting in your pocket. You'll get outside and get sunshine and exercise at the very least, and you may acquire a few handy skills in the process.

Lokidude

Discreetly Flying with Guns

Let’s get there prudently so we can be safe while we’re there.




Godspeed to you all.

Minimalist EDC for Air for Ocean Travel

A little is all you really need, and you’d be surprised what you can carry aboard a plane or a ship!




Godspeed to you all.

Getting Home by Rail

"Getting home or bugging out to a safe(r) spot" is one of the more common topics for prepper articles. Travel after a disaster or emergency has different challenges than a daily commute, so we try to look ahead and plan around those challenges: roads jammed with traffic after a hurricane; bridges closed or damaged by floods, earthquakes, or fire; civil disturbances that make travel through an area unwise; they, and a host of other conditions, could make you consider getting off the paved roads and finding another route to your destination. One option to explore is the railroads.

My father retired from one of the major US railroads after 30 years, so I was raised with an awareness of railroads and routes. I'm also old enough to remember going to the centennial celebration of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1969 held in the town where the eastern section began. Railroads have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

Since the creation of Amtrak by Congress in 1970 ended private passenger rail service, the quantity and quality of passenger service has declined, and with the increase in Over The Road (OTR) trucking in the same time-frame, even the freight services are dying off. The total miles of rails have been shrinking for decades, but there are still a lot in place and many of the abandoned lines have been repurposed as biking/hiking trails. The most recent number I could find was from 2014 when we had about 137,000 miles of active track in the USA.

Can I get there from here?

• There are a few online resources for rail maps, the best I've found so far are OpenRailwayMap and RailMapOnline. The first is an interactive map of the entire USA, while the second covers the western part of the US and most of Britain and Europe. Google of course will show rail lines on their maps, but the routes may be a bit hard to pick out from all of the clutter.
• Abandoned tracks that have been converted to trails can be found at RailsToTrails.us and RailsToTrails.org (those are two different sites despite the similar names). 
• For local travel, keep an eye on your area's tracks and bridges. Things do change over time, and the railroads don't advertise those changes.

Why follow the rails?

• Railroads maintain their own tracks and right-of-way (ROW), so well-traveled routes will be kept clear even if the local infrastructure is overwhelmed by a disaster. After the last few floods around me, the railroads were always able to open their lines before the roads were cleared.
• Rails are easy to follow, even in the dark. Those two steel rails are pretty obvious once you get close to them. The ROW is usually covered with coarse rock and sprayed with a blend of chemicals that prevents any weeds from growing for a year, so they'll be easy to walk along.
• Many tracks have a maintenance road that runs parallel to the rails. They're usually rough gravel roads, but they are smoother than the tracks and ties.
• Railroads build their own bridges. If you have waterways to cross in your journey, knowing where an alternate bridge is may be helpful. Rail bridges are also built to handle a lot more weight than most normal traffic bridges and are usually better constructed. 

What are the downsides?

• Tracks and their ROW are private property. Legally, walking alongside the tracks is trespassing, and so state and federal laws apply. Did you know that the railroads have their own police forces?
• Walking on the rails can be very dangerous. Trains don't stop quickly, and by the time the engineer sees a person on the tracks all he can do is call for an ambulance. I have a cousin who used to drive trains, and some of the things he saw still give him nightmares.
• The coarse rock used around rails is not easy to walk on, so wear good boots with ankle support and watch your step. Bicycles and motorcycles with soft tires will do okay; four-wheeled vehicles may have to move slowly and watch for narrow spots in the ROW.
• Don't be that guy and try to use a compass to figure out which way the tracks are running while standing on them. Those long steel tracks will definitely screw up a compass, so walk several yards away before trying to read one.
• Tracks are often elevated above the local terrain, so walking along them will not be very stealthy. If you're trying to sneak, stay off the tracks and use the ROW.

As an alternate route after TSHTF, keep railroads in mind. Be safe and respect the danger of traveling where trains have the “right of weight”.

Product Review: the Klymit Cush

Not actually Erin.

Picture by KJ Photography

& is used with permission.

I'm a big fan of Klymit products. They make excellent air mattresses that are both sturdy and affordable; their Static V has earned a place in my bug out bag.

The Klymit Cush ($9 with Prime shipping from Amazon) is an interesting product in that it's a pillow, but not traditionally shaped like one. You can use it for your head -- in fact, the circular indentations are for your ears so that the pillow can be placed inside a mummy sleeping bad, although based on my own (not small) head measurements it's about 8 inches too long for that -- but what I've found is that it's perfect for a seat cushion.

https://amzn.to/2KMCSDs

Please allow me my vanity in not telling you how much I weigh; suffice it to say that I weigh more than 150 lbs and not once have I worried that the Cush will burst under my weight. Mind you, I sit down on it gently; flopping onto it might be too much for the poor thing! But I have been using the Cush for over a month now, and not once have I feared that it would rupture under me. When I fold it double the "ear holes" are perfectly aligned for my ischium, which are the bones of the pelvis that are covered by the buttocks -- the "sit bones", if you will.

It makes an idea portable seat cushion for long plane trip. It inflates quickly with only a few breaths, deflates just as quickly, and rolls up into a package 9.5" L x 2" W x 0.5" H. It actually arrived in a rectangular stuff sack measuring 6.5" L x 4.5" W x I don't recall how thick but less than an inch, so if you needed it smaller and had the patience to fold it up you could get it to where it's just slightly larger than your cellphone. Because it's mostly air, when deflated it weighs less than 3 ounces.

My Rating: 4.5 Stars
I didn't give it 5 stars because it's too big to do what it's meant to do, which is be a pillow inside a mummy bag. That said, it's great at doing everything else, and its longer size means you can fold it up for extra thickness, or wrap the ends up to cradle your hips.

It's inexpensive, it's sturdy, it's comfortable, and it deploys and stows quickly. It definitely has a place in your preps, either in your car, your camping gear, or your get home back. If you travel a lot, you definitely need one.


Dear FTC: I paid for this item with my own money. Go away. 

Also, call your mother. 

Minimal Air Travel Does Not Mean Unprepared!

Knowledge is Power. Not only are you smarter and safer, but thriftier as well!





Godspeed to you all.

Prairie Landmarks

A while back I sent a picture of my normal work environment to one of my friends who lives in the Rockies. His first reaction was “How do you navigate without landmarks?” Living near the Missouri river, we have flat plains where the riverbed once was centuries ago, with low hills on either side. Those flat plains are fertile cropland and can stretch up to 30 miles between the hills, making for a landscape almost as flat as a calm ocean. When you factor in the curvature of the Earth, it is easy to find yourself in a sea of green with very few prominent landmarks to orient yourself by. Add in 10 foot tall corn fields on both sides of a road and getting lost can be an issue. Bugging out or just traveling through this terrain wouldn't seem like much of a hassle, but without knowing the landmarks it could be a challenge.

Roads

Roads are sometimes laid out in a square grid, but with the reduction in funding for maintenance over the last 40 years many of the roads have been abandoned or dropped to Minimum Maintenance Road (MMR) status. MMR means they get no gravel and the ruts will get scraped out as the maintenance crews have spare time. The only thing that will save a road from being reclassified as MMR is an occupied house on the road, and even then the county will only maintain the road up to the house if it is the only one. Many of the well-placed MMRs around here are known as good places for kids to party, but it's been that way for decades.

Railroads

We have a few major railroad lines that cut through the county. Constant maintenance and rail traffic makes them a dependable route of travel, if not always the safest. Many of the smaller companies have gone bankrupt and the lines abandoned, creating “dead” rail that connect small towns. Some of these dead lines have been repurposed as biking/hiking trails and depending on the funding available may be paved and well-maintained. Bridges seem to be the most costly feature to maintain, but even an old rail bridge will hold more foot traffic than you can physically fit on it. Several groups are combining their efforts to make an interconnected system of paved bike trails stretching more than 100 miles through the hills, which will create an easy path for foot traffic out of the cities.

Waterways

I'm lucky in that I live in an area with abundant water. It's hard to go more than a mile in any direction without finding some form of river, stream, drainage ditch, or well in my home county. Waterways and bridges are common landmarks for giving directions and easy to find.

Traveling along a waterway is usually easy because of the use of levees for flood control. Levees tend to be wide enough to drive on, but you may encounter fences and gates placed to keep normal traffic off of them. Unless there is levee maintenance in progress, the tops of the levees don't get mowed so expect tall grass and limited visibility near the edges. We lose a drunk every couple of years when they try driving on a levee and get too close to an edge.

Silos

The only real landmarks that we have out here in farm country that can be seen for any distance is the grain silos. Originally placed along the railroad lines as a way to store grain for future shipment, every small town used to have an “elevator” or Co-op with silos that stand between 50 and 120 feet tall. Most of the wooden ones have been torn down recently, but the concrete and steel silos can still be found scattered throughout the Midwest. On the flatlands they're spaced out about 10 miles apart, so if you're standing at one you can usually see the nest one up the line on the horizon. When the small towns and elevators were originally placed close to a century ago, 10 miles was about all the further anyone wanted to haul their crop. About 20 years ago the railroads stopped picking up grain from the small towns around here, it wasn't cost-effective for them, so a lot of grain companies and Co-ops have gone out of business.

Several large farming families have built their own elevators. I've got a couple of private facilities nearby that have more capacity than our smallest elevator, but they tend to build larger diameter and shorter silos. These operations tend to be close to major roads, whereas you'll see small clusters of much smaller grain bins out in the fields. Small is relative when talking about bulk storage- a bin that can “only” hold 10-20 semi-trailer loads of corn is small. You have to get into the 300-500 truck capacity range before they're considered large. For perspective, a standard semi-trailer holds close to 1000 bushels (55,000 pounds) of grain.

Even though we don't have mountain peaks to navigate by, we still have local landmarks. Knowing your local area is key to being able to travel safely through it, so get out and explore a bit. Dust off the paper maps and see how much has changed since it was printed, making notes for yourself as you go.

Prudent Prepping: Travel Tips and the $150 Leek

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping.

I'm traveling soon, and there are a few things that I need to resolve now instead of waiting until the last minute... like I've done the previous three trips.

Pack It Early
Get everything sorted, organized and laid out, even if it's not going into the suitcase this minute. It's good advice, so what spell is on me that prevents me from getting the necessary things into the bag? There's no magic involved here, I just seem to leave something home. The things I've regularly left are: tooth brush, tooth paste, razor, cord for the electric razor (when I used one), hair brush, floss, shampoo and flip flops. Not everything on this list was left out all at once; just random items in groups of three or less. Putting everything out where it can be seen seems to help, but not always.

Clean It Out?
I'm taking my sling bag with me, a Rush Moab 6 (talked about here and other places). By putting the whole bag sinside my suitcase, I won't have to worry that something odd setting off a TSA scanner, which means I can carry a real knife and a Leatherman multi-tool around with me.

... except into the building where I'm being trained. Yes, even in a gun friendly state there are restrictions in place for convention centers and other public places. What I'm really having a hard time compromising on is not having a pocket knife with me where it belongs: in my pocket.

The $150 Pocket Knife
I know this looks like your normal, everyday Kershaw Leek -- but it isn't! This is my EDC knife even if I can't carry it clipped to my pocket, since it technically violates my employer's "No Weapons" policy, so it sits in the bottom of my front pocket. Which still violates policy, but at least it isn't obvious.

My personal knife

From the Amazon page for the Leek:

• Versatile 3.5 in. blade made with 14C28N Sandvik Steel, one of the highest performing knife steels in the world, for increased hardness, corrosion resistance and edge retention
• 410 stainless steel alloy handle provides resistance to corrosion and extra strength and hardness
• Frame lock gives the knife a slim sleek style while holding the blade open during use; Tip Lock keeps blade closed during carry
• SpeedSafe Assisted Opening allows opening with minimal effort and maximal functionality; simple pocket carry and tactical engagement with strong or weak hand
• Blade Length: 3 in.; Closed Length: 4 in.; Open Length: 7 in.; Weight: 3 oz.

After the events in this post I've mailed it back to myself twice more, which has pushed the total price of my knife to over $150. I know the controversy with safeties on knives, and how many people don't like them, but since this is in my pocket I don't want the knife to accidentally deploy. Yes, it has happened somehow, and that's a very uncomfortable feeling.

I really like the Stainless Steel version because it has been in my pants for over ten years and doesn't show wear. The listed steel is good for holding an edge, but not necessarily easy to sharpen if it gets dull. My Leek will be going into the sling bag as I leave for the airport from work, and then into the suitcase.

Honest!

The Takeaway

• Planning for a trip is the same as planning to Bug Out: everything needs to be planned and already on a list.

The Recap

• Nothing was purchased but I really like the Kershaw Leek: $44.25 from Amazon with Prime shipping. 

***

Just a reminder: if you plan on buying anything through Amazon, please consider using our referral link. When you do, a portion of the sale comes back here to help keep this site running!

If you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them so we all can learn. And remember, Some Is Always Better Than None!

NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.

Gross Weight

I upgraded my truck very recently. In my world, trucks are for hauling and towing, and the new truck expands my ability to do just that. How much hauling you can do is determined by your Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, or GVWR, while your towing limits are declared as your Maximum Trailer Weight, sometimes referred to simply as "towing capacity." GVWR will be located on a sticker on the driver's door frame, while max towing is usually listed on the rear bumper near the hitch. Both are also listed in your vehicle owner's manual.

GVWR is a measure of how much weight your vehicle can safely maneuver or stop within a particular distance at normal speeds.Without getting deep into engineering or math, it is based on your suspension and brakes and other components. It is the maximum that your vehicle can weigh, including passengers and cargo. If it rides on your vehicle's wheels and tires, it is included in that number.

Maximum tow rating is based on a lot of the same factors as GVWR, with a few others added in. In addition to the GVWR considerations, it is also limited by your hitch type, size, and hardware. You'll often notice two numbers listed as a max tow rating: the lower number is when a trailer is hitched only to a traditional ball on your vehicle, and the second, larger number is when a weight-distributing type hitch is used. These hitches use some variety of mechanical linkage to hold the the truck and trailer on a plane, so that the weight of the trailer is distributed forward on the truck.

For comparison, lets look at my two trucks side by side. My outgoing truck is a 2005 Ford F150 with a GVWR of 7600 pounds and tow ratings of 5000 and 9900 pounds. Its replacement is a 2001 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD diesel with a GVWR of 9200 pounds and the tow ratings are 5000 and 12000 pounds.

While the GVWR on the Chevy is 1600 pounds higher than the Ford, it is also a much stouter truck. I will probably only get an additional 800-1000 pounds of cargo once the added weight of the truck itself is accounted for. The lower max tow rating is the same for both trucks, because the limitation there is the hitch hardware itself. The weight-distributing rating went up 2100 pounds because the suspension and other components of the truck are far stronger.

The maximum weight of any trailer I'm likely to pull regularly is about 6800 pounds. When we were shopping for our camper, I was looking at trailers that maxed out at 7500 pounds or less. While the Ford is rated for more, I like to maintain a buffer between actual weight and max rating to give me a little bit of added safety. As the cost for failure when towing can be catastrophic, I recommend taking any bits of added safety you can get. Also, I live and drive in steep, mountainous terrain, and being under weight rating helps out both climbing and descending hills.

If the load you want to move is over the rating of your rig, don't risk it; instead consider making multiple trips. If that isn't an option, places like Home Depot and U-haul rent trucks that are properly set up and maintained to tow moderate trailers, and they'll rent you one for a very reasonable price.

Now you know what to look for when you're considering towing a load. Know your weights and ratings, and don't exceed them, and give yourself as much room as you reasonably can, both on the road and the load.

Lokidude

Floods and Roads

Last week was a mess. The rapid rise in temperatures coupled with abundant snow, three inches of rain, and still-frozen ground led to widespread flash flooding over most of the upper Midwest. Iowa and Nebraska got hit hard and fast, with rivers and streams rising out of their banks and levees breaking from the pressure of the surge of water. I had a nice policeman knock on my door and tell me that I was in the area under mandatory evacuation, even though my house is higher than the 500 and 1000 year flood plains. They aren't forcing anyone out of their houses (so I'm staying put), but they are going around and shutting off water, electricity, and gas service to any house in jeopardy of being flooded.

I've been through floods here in 1993 and 2011, and those were both slow, drawn-out rises in the Missouri River that caused tributaries to back up and flood low areas. This year the water didn't have time to get to the Missouri; the tributaries couldn't couldn't handle the sudden melt/rain. After the wet fall we had last year the ground is saturated, and the exceptionally cold winter pushed the frost line down below three feet. That means that we have solid ice at least three feet deep where dirt should be, and ice doesn't absorb water like dirt does. Even when the ground thaws, it's still saturated from last year, and most new water will run off. There is still substantial snow on the ground upstream of us that has to melt, so our rivers are going to stay full for a long time.

Fatalities have been mercifully low in Iowa and Nebraska, though a handful of people have paid the price for driving around barricades or trying to drive through a river running across a road. The main issues for us range in scale from "There is water in basements that have never been wet before" to "Entire towns are underwater." Grain bins full of corn and soybeans are sitting in several feet of water, and several small cities have been turned into islands with no possibility of ground traffic in or out. The flooding is still underway, so we don't have a good accounting of the amount of livestock killed and equipment lost, but it's going to be a rough spring for area farmers.

Right now the biggest problem is the old "You can't get there from here" joke; roads are under water, bridges have been washed away, and debris is everywhere. I live on the edge of a small town that sits on the intersection of two highways, one running north/south, the other east/west. We have one additional route out of town in each direction, both of them gravel roads. By the second day, all but one of those routes were under water, and all of the routes cross rivers or large streams/creeks.

Information is vital in situations like this. The Federal Highway Administration has a website with a nice map of the states where you can click on each state and get redirected to a page that will take you to the state's page (after sending you to a page to remind you that you're leaving the federal site). I've trimmed out the extra steps and have compiled a list of each state and their road conditions, with a bit of commentary on each. Some of the links were broken, which is to be expected with internet sites constantly evolving; add to that the fact that we're talking about government sites, and I'm surprised there weren't more broken links. I can't promise that they will all work forever, but they worked when I found them.

• Alabama
  An interactive map with live updates, pretty standard.
• Alaska
  There may not be a lot of roads in Alaska, but here's a live map of the current conditions. It has an email alert sign-up pop up that needs to be dismissed before you get to the map.
• Arizona
  Another interactive map, this one has an annoying route planner covering the left quarter of the map until you dismiss it.
• Arkansas
  Standard map with color-coded travel conditions.
• California
  CA can't be normal, so this one is a confusing mess of a map requiring you to select an area to get any information. Even the 511 information is broken up into regions.
• Colorado
  Not a simple map to navigate like most states have, but rather several pages with much more information. Colorado does have some rather unique travel hazards.
• Connecticut
  Nice clean map of the roads and conditions.
• Delaware
  The link on the FHA page was broken, so I dug around and found the DelDOT page. Nice clean map with standard features.
• Florida
  A typical interactive map with the route planner that covers part of the screen.
• Georgia
  Different color scheme than most travel maps; you'll need to use the pull-downs on the left to select which data you want displayed. My first visit had some pop-up windows for email alerts.
• Hawaii
  No single map, but a link to the roadwork for each island. Weather related road closure doesn't seem to be an issue for some reason.
• Idaho
  Full-service road conditions. You'll need to select what type or level of information you want to get to the maps.
• Illinois
  Another state with plenty of options to choose from for what information you need.
• Indiana
  One of two choices from IN, this one is the simpler of the two. Common road condition map, even if it does start zoomed out too far. The hazard indicators covered the entire state until I zoomed in enough to get some scale.
• Iowa
  Interactive map with various options for internet speed and level of detail. Phone app available.
• Kansas
  Oddly structured site with somewhat confusing layout. The link from the FHA site was broken, but I found the KS page.
• Kentucky
  Probably the most annoying of all the state pages with splash screens to close, pop-ups to ignore, and then finally you get to a standard interactive map. Typical of my experiences with this state.
• Louisiana
  Simple, basic, interactive map with the information you need.
• Maine
  Part of the “New England 511”, a regional map with Vermont and New Hampshire.
• Maryland
  Redirects from the md511.org linked on the FHA site to a newer site with more information choices.
• Massachusetts
  Standard interactive map with route planner.
• Michigan
  I almost missed this one because the hyperlink was hard to see. Standard interactive map.
• Minnesota
  Another example of a DOT that gives you options. Pick the type of internet connection and the level of information you need to get to a decent map.
• Mississippi
  Choose between viewing the map or downloading the app; either will give you the road conditions.
• Missouri
  A simple travelers map with plenty of information and a ticker scrolling important information along the bottom.
• Montana
  Several options available, this is the cleanest map of the bunch.
• Nebraska
  Choose your level of information and get to a good map. Common format among the sites for states with lots of truck traffic.
• Nevada
  It took a few clicks to find the road conditions map, but it is there.
• New Hampshire
  Part of a regional map with Maine and Vermont. Map updates very frequently.
• New Jersey
  A standard 511 map that shows all of the routes out of NJ.
• New Mexico
  Nice, clean map with road conditions.
• New York
  A good map for the 95% of the state that isn't NYC.
• North Carolina
  This one took a bit of clicking around to find the map. Good map, but the alerts take up a lot of the screen.
• North Dakota
  Having traveled ND quite a bit in my younger days, this is one that needs to be bookmarked. There are long stretches between towns and the terrain is perfect for blizzards and floods.
• Ohio
  Interactive map with the option to download their travel app.
• Oklahoma
  All of the links I could find were broken; OK needs to upgrade their IT staff and servers. I finally found a way to their site through www.safetravel.com
• Oregon
  The default settings make the map a bit busy, so uncheck the boxes for information you don't need to make it more legible.
• Pennsylvania
  Another map with an options bar on the left that takes up too much screen.
• Rhode Island
  A landing page with options. Most of the information is segregated by region.
• South Carolina
  A nice landing page with options that include a map of traffic and road conditions.
• South Dakota
  No official state map, but a link to a commercial (?) site with the information you'll need.
• Tennessee
  A few clicks to get there from the FHA site, but TN does have a map of traffic and road conditions.
• Texas
  A busy map, which isn't surprising. Location pop-up before you get to the map.
• Utah
  Fair map, but with auto-playing traffic cams.
• Vermont
  Part of a regional map along with Maine and New Hampshire. Basic map with constant updates.
• Virginia
  Clean, simple, easy to navigate.
• Washington
  After being sent to a confusing landing page, I finally found the map. I did learn that WA is no longer printing paper highway maps.
• West Virginia
  Busy map until you uncheck some of the default information boxes.
• Wisconsin
  A good, simple map once you close the panel of alerts on the left.
• Wyoming
  A simple landing page, and the map is easy to find.
  

All told, the Federal Highway Administration is a fair source of information. I also ran across SafeTravelUSA and saw a lot of mentions of Waze, which is a community-driven travel app for your smart phone. Crowd-sourced information may be a good way to avoid a traffic jam in good weather, but I'm not sure how effective it would be in a serious storm or disaster. Maybe one of the more tech-savvy folks out there would like to look into Waze for us?