Back from vacation, spent a week on Long Beach Island. The water was warm, the jellyfish abundant, and the beach largely gone from erosion - but it was all good.

As usual, I tend to think of these vacations as mini-drills (in my mind only, I don't subject the family to my Walter Mitty mind) and once again, I find that in a real evacuation situation, for each kid you have add a zero to the degree of difficulty. Suffice it to say we packed until the minivan was approaching neutron star density, and we STILL ended up driving off-island to a Target store to buy a boatload of supplies that were left behind accidentally.

But all in all it was loads of fun and we had a great time.

Dog: some food, water, bowls, brush, collar, leash, Goodwill comforter (bed), dose of Advantage before leaving. Picking bugs out of her teeth upon arrival. Easy, simple, cheap.

I'm glad you had a good time... Walter.

Sue

I use those kind of vacations as drills too. if some of the things I have to buy during our stay are small and inexpensive enough I'll buy an extra and store in the truck if I can find a place to put it. I learned one trip that things cost more, the only place near where we were staying was a walmart and despite their always advertising low prices baby formula cost twice the normal price that we pay at any other store.

Yep, I look at family vacations/car trips as mock bugout drills, too...

I'm bugging in!!
-Blast

Couple of weeks ago, 4 of us (3 adults, one child, age 8) went on a weekend 1500 mile round trip up north. I have made many of these trips to the same place however I still keep a checklist.

We didn't forget or run out of anything...but used more water (15 Lt total) then I thoght we would. The bonus items carried (as always) were baby wipes (no babies with us) and disinfecting wipes for those roadside rest areas with questionable sanitary practices in the washrooms.

I recommend Burning Man as a dry run. :->

There are no stores for forgotten supplies, you have only what you bring with you. Run out of water? Oops. Want something to sleep in? Bring it. Want food? Bring it. They do provide portapotties and a central shade/"cafe" where you can buy coffee and tea, and you can buy ice. That's it.

http://www.burningman.com/

It's the perfect bug-out/shelter-in-place test.

Were going on a week vacation starting Monday. Have a room booked for Tuesday-Thursday and were stopping and spending the night somewhere in between Monday and Friday nights. This will help simulate a house burned down/flooded/etc scenario where we are forced to leave and have to find a place with no pre-planning. Have my handheld Garmin with their POI database where you can search for places nearby, my droid with its internet connection and localized google searching, paper maps, etc.

I may have to bug out for 3-4 days if the England football team make it to the World Cup Final and evacuate from the tsunami of extremely ill informed irritating football commentary. The situation is already now getting desperate, you will find me somewhere in this photograph cut of from the rest of the world with no communications to the outside world as I watch the 1967 England(66 World Champions) Scotland game on a portable DVD player out there somewhere in the wilderness. Lord help us if they win, I couldn't take another 40-50 years as there is absolutely no chance of a 67 repeat.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtC1pByt-os

I try to avoid the football/basketball/baseball/etc sports stuff anyway.
Were going to be in Hershey PA Tuesday, going to go into Hershey Chocolate World, Hershey park looks geared toward older kids than mine so we'll skip it. We'll be staying around Lancaster PA. In the Amish area of Ohio there is a store called Lahman's where they have a lot of things like oil lamps and hand tools, I'm wondering if there is any near the Lancaster PA area.

Hoot Mon! Be that Nessie,down in the loch? After the USA v Ghana match,The end result is just a bad case of Ghanaria,:( !