When our small town in Kansas was flooded on Halloween night in 1999 and 900 families lost their homes, a group by the name of International Disaster Emergency Service (IDES) came to the community after FEMA and the Red Cross and other organizations had left. IDES helped people of the community during the rebuilding phase to replace much needed appliances, vacuums and other essentials that seem to fall through the cracks for completing the long process to putting down roots in their own homes once again. Please consider what you can help with. If IDES receives more than is needed for this disaster, they will use it for the next one. However you decide to help--thank you!
Now, back to my story...
G-man and I headed out to Kansas to visit family, friends and to see our doctors at the end of October. We had several paperwork items and had to make Rocky and Tank legal. In case you missed the info about Rocky, you can meet him here...
After purchasing Rocky, we had to have something to pull him, so we purchased Tank--a 2008 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 with a Hemi. We needed the horsepower and wheel base when we went from Little Blue at 3,800 lb gross weight to Rocky at 7,800 lb gross weight. I have to admit that I really like the Hemi--perhaps not so much at the gas pump, but in the power department. :)
You know, I forgot to take a picture of the two together! How bad am I?????
As with most of our adventures, our maiden voyage was not without it's interesting times.
We were supposed to meet my niece and her 2 year old son in KC. They live in the southwest and just happened to be visiting relatives in KC. We were going to meet for lunch.
But, Gman was working until 11:00 so we couldn't get there in time.
Then, we decided that no problem, we would meet them for afternoon snack. Somewhere between 2:00 and 3:00.
Until we were flagged over by a car. One of the tires had gone flat on the camper. So, we called AAA (thankful that I decided to spring for the RV/Camper coverage this year!) and then limped slowly to the exit that was just about 1 mile ahead. We thought we would find a gas station where we could pull over and have plenty of room for the AAA truck to work.
Nope...
The exit contained, uh, NOTHING! A defunct old time gas station and what appeared to be a livestock sale barn--chained and padlocked. So, we sat on the exit ramp and waited.
My phone rang and the tow driver asked where we were located. I told him and he had driven past and was turning around.
My phone rang again. Tow driver again. Where are you? I told him.
WHICH highway are you on? I told him...
We went through several things only to discover that he was in Kansas and I was in Missouri! He was on the western side of Kansas---6 hours away.
Okay.
So, eventually, after about 3 hours, a local truck arrived and changed the tire to the spare--the spare was only 30 lbs of pressure--should have been 50 lbs--who really thinks to check the spare???? Okay--maybe you, but not me. I will now...
Anywho, he aired up the spare and we were off to meet my niece. We finally connected at 6:00. It was so good to see her and her son!
Then, on we went to Wichita, arriving at USI Campground about 11:00 p.m. We drove in, didn't worry about being level, plugged in the electricity, opened the slideouts and dropped into bed. Ahhhhhh....
Lovely!
Then we realized that the dogs had not been fed all day. Poor guys!
And then I realized that I forgot to pack the dog food! The dogs had NO FOOD!!!!!
And the store that I buy their food at was closed...
Then, I remembered that I always carry 72 hours kits in the vehicles for the Vehicle, People and Pets.
I headed out to the truck and got one of the vacuum sealed bags of food (enough for one day) from the dog's 72 hour kit and had happy dogs.
I just take enough food for 1 day for the dogs and put it in a Foodsaver bag, vacuum seal it, label it with names and date and throw it in the kit for the dogs. I usually do about 2 days worth out of each bag of food when I purchase it. That way I build up a stash without breaking the bank all at once.
I made a note to add a few vacuum sealed bags of food to the camper stash for the dogs too. Just in case...
Saved by the 72 hour kit! They're not just for natural disasters!
Do you have YOUR kit? With winter arriving shortly, please get one put together for your vehicle--just in case!
Need a list? You can find them all over blogland. A good place to begin would be the Red Cross which includes lists for home, work, car, pets and people with special needs. Then, add items as you think of them to personalize the kits to your needs. You can buy a kit or just start putting one together.
I found that Misty Marsh's blog is really good if you would like to follow her in a week by week plan to put a kit together. Week 1 starts here... She is on Week #3 right now, so just jump in and join along. It's easy and fast to get your items together. She has the week by week kit project going and then starts over when it is complete so that you can be sure that you have included everything that you need if you missed something.
I keep a 24 hour kit in my purse. You could begin with something similar to that and work up from there.
At the very least add some blankets, sand or kitty litter, shovel, power bars and snacks and bottles of water along with some first aid items to the car in case you skid off the road and need to wait for help. Anything is better than nothing!
Take care!
Have you used your 72 hour kit?
