Too much BOB junk

By Joseph Parish

Ahhh, here we have the sweet life of a survivalist. Every now and then I decide to get away from it all and jump in the bug out van and merely travel a short distance from civilization. It tends to opens up ones sense of survival and produces some clear thinking. I made this exact decision just the other day. I packed up the laptop computer so that I could still do a bit of writing and headed for parts of Delaware that are relatively unknown. I took my cell phone in the event of an emergency and off I went.

I got to my intended location and although it was extremely cool outside I decided to do a little bit of fishing. I quickly hooked some bait on a line and tossed it into the lake. In time I had a few nibbles but no actual catches. Since no fish were actually caught it was a good thing that I brought a supply of emergency food with me. This confirmed my food reserves and so I opened the back of the van to cook my lunch. Since I always keep Ramón noodles and water in my BOB I was all ready.  I ate my lunch and then cleaned up the van from my earlier activities.

As with any survival activities that I complete I learned what a few of my weaknesses actually were. In this case I quickly realized that I needed a few extra items added to my BOB for emergencies. I learned that I needed a better way to prepare my meals when roughing it in the wild, perhaps a solar charger for the laptop so I do not have to run the van and inverter so often as well as a more effective means of organizing my bug out bag items. I needed to develop a more resourceful method of finding what I needed when I needed it.

On the other hand I also made mental note of the fact that a lot of the items which were contained in the bug out bag were not really needed. Let’s face it I am simply too old to be uncomfortable when bugging out. The problem is I really do like my creature comforts. However, I concluded that many of us often accumulate so much added junk to our bags that we have totally forgotten about our basic needs. This tends to make our survival life a bit more complicated then it really needs to be. It never hurts for us to get back on the basic track and think our goals through completely and reevaluate our supplies accordingly. As I looked at some of my current supplies I realized that my portable cooking grill was really unnecessary and only consumed valuable storage space. With it you needed charcoal and lighter fluid which meant more wasted space. It wasn’t that I had no means of cooking for I am a firm 12 volt fan. I have a 12v toaster, a 12v coffee pot and as well as several other useful appliances which run from my cigarette lighter. This BBQ grill was plainly not a good idea at all and therefore it was quickly eliminated. Since I had a conversion van the folding cot was also not necessary. The rear of the van quickly becomes a comfortable bed. I finally ended up spending the remainder of the day re-considering what items were needed and what could be parted with.

My earlier contentions were that in an emergency I would merely have to tell the family let’s go and not have to worry about loading or stopping for anything else along the way. Everything would be comfortably stored in the van.

I think there comes a time when we all merely need to take a day off and sit with nature as we evaluate not only our planned goals but the various tools that we have stored to accomplish them.

Copyright @ 2009 Joseph Parish