I have had a reoccurring thought the past couple of weeks since I started driving 120 + miles a day (round trip) to my new job. Mostly the movie (and the book) The Road by Cormac McCarthy. For those that haven’t heard about The Road, it is a story of a father who does his best to protect his son during a post apocalyptic world where the author doesn’t really say what happened to cause the world to “end”. Both of the main characters are in total survival mode to the extent of avoiding other humans. Later in the story you find out why.
But thinking about the book/movie lead me further to think about what would I do if I were to be caught “behind” the lines so to speak and had to get home.
Do I do the long march back to the house?
Try and drive my way through?
Take the back roads?
How long would it take a person in pretty good health to walk the 60 + miles if I abandoned my vehicle?
What would I do in the winter and was stuck walking?
What weapon (if any) should I keep in the vehicle?
Now that I am more worried about gas mileage I have parked the 4×4 Suburban for now so there are some change ups in the way I would drive my way back home. No bounding across the fields in an attempt to out run the stasi.
What to do?
As I leave work there is normally a couple of homeless guys that hang out at the intersection just before I merge onto the interstate. I had a thought, what do these guys do? How do they navigate around the area pretty much unnoticed by the rest of society? For the most part all they have is what is on their back and whatever is in a small bag or backpack. I really had an urge to stop today and ask him how he does it. What do they do in the winter? In a total collapse there would be enough places to hide out for a night. But what does a homeless guy do now? Mostly I am thinking about getting some sort of insight.
I am positive that there are a percentage of homeless that are just posers but I am also very sure there is some information to glean from the true road warrior.
So one thing I have started to do with most urgency, redefine my bugout bag for the car.
Maybe I’ll talk to that homeless guy this week see what he has to offer, buy him a burger at McDonald’s or something to break the ice.
Ad Parare 
I remember reading The Road, long before the movie came out. McCarthy is masterful and he never uses punctuation and keeps on adding ‘ands’ in there and somehow it makes for an amazing read. Seriously though, my favorite author. Read Blood Meridian – I say it’s the best book of the 20th Century.
My drive has gotten shorter and out of urban areas recently, so I’ve seen an improvement. You should have a plan with your spouse on how everybody gets home; the last thing you want is to go looking for the other using different routes.
My wife has certain waypoints along her route home where she knows people and will scribe notes with a sharpie if she’s been there and left (on the church door: x/x/xx xx:xx – rested then went to dad’s; on door at dad’s: etc.)
By the way – I can’t locate your email address – resend it to me: My sequel to Western Front is out. I’ll send you a copy. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009MTOBOG
That’s a long drive to work. Is there anything in your field available closer to home as that would eliminate having to try and get back to your home from a significant distance away if a disaster should occur.
Unfortunately not, I’m a computer geek and in the area I live currently it is pretty low tech. I like to say most people around here can’t even spell IT let alone know what it is. Just a few more years and we are moving closer to our property and set up a home there.