As much as I like to think that my Jeep is unstoppable, the reality is that there's no such thing. I might be able to drive through 3 feet of snow, but I can't drive through a jackknifed tractor trailer. 4WD and aggressive tires might get me up an icy hill, but not an exit ramp clogged with other stuck vehicles. My shovel and winch might get me out of a snowdrift, but not an avalanche.

Civilization seems to have come at the price of self sufficiency for most. Sometimes it seems our government encourages that behavior, but I won't go on that rant. To some extent I can forgive the suburbanite who gets stuck overnight on a highway going home from work or visiting relatives. But in places where there's enough open land to not see any traffic for hours, let alone days, its hard for me to fathom a lack of emergency preparations. And I'm completely baffled that someone knowingly unprepared would put themselves in such a situation.

I imagine in the past this was common knowledge, passed from one generation to the next. In our transition from creators of work to consumers, that knowledge transfer and the knowledge itself seems to have largely disappeared. Maybe its another responsibility that we need to hand off to the education system? As part of driver's ed, maybe teach students the importance of keeping some basic survival items in their vehicle?

My kids went through driver's ed not so long ago. They don't even show kids how to check their oil, and forget about changing a tire. If it weren't for cell phones and AAA I don't know what most of today's young drivers would do if they got a flat tire. (Fortunately, all my kids, daughter included, have practiced changing tires and basic vehicle maintenance/repairs.)

And another part of me is slightly jealous that there's no places near me with that much open land.