125,000 Mile Journey to Preparedness

Years prior to 2008, I was a daily shopper – never thinking past the next day. My routine was much like many other people I knew – I would get up, go to work, and stop on the way home to “pick up what’s for dinner!”  I would get aggravated if the grocery store didn’t have what I wanted and I recall thinking once, “I have the money and still can’t get what I want – stupid store!”  

In the fall of 2008 my life changed greatly, but I didn’t readily see it. I met, fell in love with, and married a gentleman who was an over-the-road truck driver. Jointly, we made the decision for me to join him on the road instead of going back to work right away. I did join him, and for the following 12 months we lived in the cab of an 18-wheeler, for weeks at a time (up to 9). In retrospect, it was this juncture my own preparedness journey started, but I still didn’t readily recognize it, but ultimately learned many lessons from it!

September 8, 2008, I climbed up into the red cab, looked around, and wondered exactly how we thought this was going to work! I had been in the truck on three previous occasions, but obviously I had not taken good inventory on space or equipment. After all, this was a 10’ x 10’ space that was getting ready to be home to two full grown adults! The truck was a combination of work space and living space all rolled into one!

The first thing we had to do was work on optimizing our space. There were a lot of clothes that had to be stored because we were going to be traveling across all 48 states – we may be in Florida one day and two days later in Ohio, so we had to make space for the necessary clothing that included jackets, boots, shorts, and flip-flops!

Storage was such a premium; I pulled out all the tricks of my organization skills! Clothes were stored in plastic tubs under the bunk, personal items and the “medicine cabinet” was stored in smaller plastic tubs tucked nicely in the small closet area. Remember, this was a moving vehicle, so things had to be secure.

The food was stored on a shelf that took the place of the top bunk, along with the microwave, and a make-shift shelf addition that held the small dorm size refrigerator! Like I said, I had to use all my organizational skills. No clutter was allowed!

Looking forward and remembering back – Step 1 of preparedness – DECLUTTER! ORGANIZE! PLAN!

But, I never had a clue how the trucking industry would move us toward preparedness.

After settling into our small compartment that we called home, the next thing I had to figure out was how to cook with only a small slow cooker and microwave all the while using an inverter!

If you’ve never had to use an inverter, basically the energy comes from the battery and the inverter changes the charge so you can plug appliances into it. What I didn’t realize was there was a limit! Once, coming out of Mississippi, I had the coffee pot on, the slow cooker going, and the microwave on. Yes, at times I had to cook while traveling! As I took my seat back upfront, I started smelling something, “Honey, I smell something like wires burning?”

Next thing I know, as I get into the back, I see smoke! “Honey, there’s smoke coming out from where the inverter is!” Instinctively my husband took the truck to the shoulder and jumped to my rescue! After all, where there’s smoke, there may be fire and we were – in a fiberglass home!

I had totally overloaded the inverter and the wires were smoldering; however, I did learn to cook some pretty cool meals and use the heck out of paper plates!

Looking forward and remembering back – Step 2 of preparedness – LEARN YOUR EQUIPMENT AND LIMITATIONS!

It actually took us a couple of weeks to get accustomed to being together 24/7. Although the scenery was nice (I snapped almost 4,000 pictures), we had to figure out a way to “get-a-way from each other” occasionally. Everyone needs their own time, right? When’s the last time you faced your spouse 24/7? Doesn’t mean you don’t love them, but “your time” is “your time.”

Living over-the-road means you have to stop and take showers at various truck stops. Most of the time this was “our individual alone time” and I would take forever in indulging myself in my time! This one particular truck stop automatically decided we were a “couple” and choose to give us the largest shower. What? I remember we both looked at each other with horror – both of us realizing our “alone time” was not going to happen!

Looking forward and remembering back – Step 3 of Preparedness – LEARNING TO LIVE WITH YOUR SPOUSE ON A 24/7 basis and under unusual circumstances.

There was also my learning curve with cleaning up after dinner. I was using only a slow cooker and some plastic bowls to prepare food in, but they had to be cleaned. I carried dish detergent with us in the truck but how many people have you seen at the coffee counter (because the water is really hot!) washing dishes or when push came to shove – I had to do them in the restroom.

Sounds gross, huh? I would carry the dirty utensils and pots or containers in a plastic bag and look for the best spot – coffee counter or restroom. I washed the area as best I could and the put down paper towels (that I had with me) or use theirs. Some restrooms have hand blowers which I grew to hate!

I never let the dishes touch anything at all! I would hold with one hand and wash with the other. I even had to learn thatif I positioned the slow cooker at the right angle, it would trip the water sensor and the water would continuously come out of the spigot.

Sometimes, if the water did not get hot enough, I’d do the best I could and then run plain water through our coffee maker so I could better sanitize and clean outside the truck in the parking lot. Sounds really weird I know.

I would return the dishes to a clean plastic bag and return to the truck. Yes, I got many strange looks during this entire process.

It’s too expensive to eat out all the time, so cooking on board was the only choice.

Looking forward and remembering back – Step 4 of Preparedness – LEARNING TO DEAL WITH WHAT YOU HAVE AND MAKE THE BEST OF IT.

A major change for me was actually planning our meals. Remember, I was “pick it up on the way home” kind of girl before stepping in the world of trucking. It didn’t take me long to realize that you can’t maneuver a 53’ trailer and 10’ cab into the nearest McDonald’s – Wal-Mart was always the easiest and because of the schedule you never knew when you would have time to stop!

I cooked three meals a day; breakfast, a snack at lunch, and then dinner. I was never good at planning ahead until I entered the big red cab. I also had to make accommodations for having only a few means of meal preparation and storage room.

Here’s a glimpse of the bungee corded fridge!  It’s the big black square in the picture with the bungee cord around it, the microwave is to the right and it’s white. Meals had to be planned and then storage had to be planned. I had to plan what could go in the tiny freezer and cook accordingly. It was almost like the “first in- first out (FIFO) system we use now for storage.

Cooking with a slow cooker being powered by an inverter took some getting used to too. The heat was not as hot as it would be plugged into your outlet at home, so dinner had to be started mid morning at the latest. Again, I couldn’t overload the system either!

I also had to pay attention to how many miles we were driving that day because dinner was based on it. The inverter worked the best as it was being juiced by the batteries as they were being charged by the motor running. If we stopped and dinner wasn’t ready we would have to idle the truck to keep everything going but it didn’t work as well.

And to complicate things, I had to remind myself that everything had to be “trave-a-ble!” Meaning the truck was moving so I couldn’t forget to bungee the fridge door, make sure the microwave was secure, and never leave the slow cooker on the shelf – it had to be on the floor!

Looking forward and remembering back – Step 5 of Preparedness – MEAL PLANNING UNDER EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES

I had just gotten on the truck with my husband when Hurricane Ike was approaching the coast of Texas in fall of 2008. We were dispatched on a run to Laredo, TX and were told to stop in Hammond, LA until the storm passed. While we were there, we saw many trucks headed to the potential disaster area and we were all stopped 330 miles from that particular area.

There were trucks with generators, water, food, communications, etc. all sitting for 3 days! It was 5 days before these supplies got to where they were headed because a trucking company can’t risk their driver or equipment.

The trucks were stopped 1 day out, sat for 3, and then made the day trip in to the area and got unloaded. Those supplies didn’t reach the people for 5 days. I don’t follow FEMA’s 72 hour rule – the trucking industry taught me to have at least 5 days on hand.

Looking forward and remembering back – Step 6 of Preparedness – EMERGENCY PLANNING (forget the 72 hour rule – go for 125!)

It took me a while, admittedly, to recognize the difference in beggars and hungry people. There is such a difference.

Truckers are targets usually for food, because most people realize there is food on board, but they are also the target of beggars.

Beggars are looking for a total hand-out of cash. We were approached many times over, out in the middle of now-where, asking for gas money or money to fix the alternator on the car. I always wondered, “If you are 60 miles from the nearest gas station, how is this going to work?” Some of them worked the rest areas so much, they forgot which direction they were headed or which side of the interstate they were on. One man approached, trying to get to Charleston, SC for a job interview and was out of gas. He was actually 40 miles from the nearest station and headed in the total opposite direction. After he was turned down by a few – he got in his car and drove down the interstate.

Others will ask for money but offer to clean the windows on the truck or clean the wheels or something. And yes, there were the occasional prostitutes doing their thing. I never felt bad giving a dollar or two to a man who offered to clean the windows on the truck or the wheels. He was, at least, offering a trade – he didn’t just have a story with his hand out.

On the other hand, one of the most memorable approaches was a man in Atlanta, GA. I’m sure he could smell the food cooking as we had the windows down. Dinner wasn’t ready yet, but the knock, knock came at the cab door. “Hey man (speaking to my husband as I was in the back preparing dinner), I mean you no harm, but I am so hungry, do have any food you can spare?”

I immediately started putting together a small package of food from the can goods and handed it to my husband to hand out the cab window. “Thank you, thank you, thank you sir so much. I am starving.” About that time I realized I had forgotten to add a plastic fork in the bag and went to look out the window for man. He was sitting on the curb behind our truck – had already popped the lids off and was eating with his fingers. Yes, he was hungry. I offered the fork and he said, “Thank you ma’am, but I’m fine now – thank you for the food, I was starving. God Bless you.”

These scenarios played out across the US. We traveled all 48 states and have witnessed many situations where some are simply hungry and some are scam artists. You must know the difference in order to prepare.

Looking forward and remembering back – Step 7 of Preparedness – Hungry vs. Beggars

Outside of keeping up with what time zone I was in the last thing trucking really taught me was about community.

There’s a common bond between truckers and there’s never a lack of conversation between cab windows! The cohesiveness that bonds these men and women together is the same cohesiveness we should all strive for. If one driver needed something – it was just a knock at the door of a fellow driver.

There’s a lingo and a universal language in this community. They are courteous and keep each other informed of their movements. Hazard lights are imperative to signal another truck that they are backing up – and everyone waits. Doesn’t matter how long or how many tries it takes to get it “backed-in” the other drivers wait.

Looking forward and remembering back – Step 8 of Preparedness – Community

Our experiences “out there” taught us much more about preparedness than I really realized until recently.

All of the things we, as preppers, talk about and discuss – I had the opportunity to experience all by climbing up into a big red truck one day:

1: Declutter, organize, and plan

2: Learn your equipment and limitations

3: Learn to live with your spouse, family or even strangers under unusual circumstances

4: Learn to live with what you have

5: Meal planning under various situations

6: Emergency planning: forget the 72 hour rule – go for 125 hours!

7: When they are hungry – people will do anything

8: Community

Sitting in Kansas City, MO one day, a flat bedder next to us just happened to strike a conversation about politics and the shape of our country. He actually ended up handing us an audio copy of “One Second After, by William Forstchen” – coincidence?

This was my personal 125,000 mile journey towards preparedness. The day I climbed on board that big red cab, I never realized my preparedness journey had actually started and all the lessons I learned there would be brought home and taken forward.

L.F. SC

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