Jeanette,

Thank you for humoring me with my questions.

I still think the biggest survival challenge for your character will be the shock of a new enviroment and the change in people. This really shouldn't be downplayed. Think about the recent Katrina stories how civilized people quickly broke into chaos. Thievery happened very quickly.

In the "rebuilding" society, I would believe that the same would hold true. If the supply chain is still broken, I can believe a lot of mistrust would still exist 38 years after the fact. A classic battle of have / have nots would exist. What type of dangers are you envisioning on your quest? Feral cats / dogs? Rabies could certainly be raging unchecked in the wild with the abscence of vacines.

As a society, we depend on technology way too much. Not many people are comfortable in "the wilds". Blast, however, would revel in it as would most in this forum.

A good plot twist for you GM would be that maybe only one or two of your "planned" items are still in your room. The rest missing due to being needed by your family to survive. Maybe a book was missed. A knife in the back of a closet.

Are you sure your family would be welcoming at first appearence? A stranger (40 years removed) suddenly shows up. I can see some interesting plot decisions around that...

Will the trek be more urban or more woodland? As discussed here, that really makes a difference.

Medicinals and salt would actually become a commodity in this brave new world. Knowledge of plants and herbs would be valuable as well.

I'll ponder more on this later... It is a very intriuging prospect.