My uncle is a desert-dweller, and he’s like a lot of people from hotter parts of the country who tend to have a basic understanding of certain precautions to take while driving. Always have a full tank of gas, keep some extra food and water in the trunk, and make sure there’s a full container of coolant on hand as well. Consequently, he has a decent box of emergency road supplies on hand despite the fact that he’s not at all a survivalist or prepper.
Good Kit, Wrong Conditions
However, one thing that I noticed was that the supplies he had on hand weren’t really suitable for the trip that we were taking at the time. He had a few bottles of water, a couple of packages of snacks, a blanket, some matches, a few flares and some gloves. This was in addition to a basic vehicle survival kit that included some tools and a first aid kit as well. However, none of these supplies would have helped us if we broke down and became stranded for any length of time.
He didn’t have a survival knife, a tarp for shelter, any kind of backpack or a water filter. He had about 4 small bottles of water, which is not nearly enough for two people in the desert, and there was no food to speak of either. Consequently, we could have easily found ourselves up the creek without a paddle if we faced an unexpected problem on the road.
We started to talk about this during the drive, and he said that he forgot to add some more stuff before he picked me up. Both of us were also in a hurry and a little bit lazy, so we decided not to stop and shop before heading out as well. In hindsight, we made a serious mistake by not being prepared, and it happened because we weren’t making it a priority at the time. While nothing went wrong on the trip, we inadvertently placed ourselves at risk simply by being over-confident.
Don’t be Lazy
The funny thing is that it would have taken about 10 minutes to stock up and have everything we need on-hand if an unexpected problem came our way. On the other hand, not being prepared could have caused us hours of more work, more inconvenience, more discomfort, or worse. All it takes is a brief moment of laziness or indifference to set the stage for experiencing all kinds of unnecessary headaches, and we were more than willing to accept that at the time.
The moral of this story is to take advantage of every opportunity to be prepared for the conditions that you expect to encounter on the road. It doesn’t take a lot of time, money or equipment to adapt to the trip at hand, and you’ll be glad that you did if things go wrong.
Don’t make the same mistake that we did before driving off into the desert. Think about your vehicle survival kit every time that you get behind the wheel, and never pass up an opportunity to make it more suitable for the trip you’re taking.
