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Lowering your expectations helps insure you are seldom disappointed in your efforts! Lol!!! Living simply is basic survival, makes prepping easy.
 
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My point:
* We live our 'emergency kit' every day.
* We travel in our 'emergency kit'.....
Sometimes your 'emergency kit' is the emergency you need to escape from. Accidents happen, sudden natural disasters happen, vehicle fires happen.

Always have a Plan B. I have a small go bag in my 'emergency kit' I can quickly grab.
 
I think a bug out vehicle is a great idea. I would love to have one but do not want to support two vehicles, and I chose the SUV I have because it gets superb mileage. Even with gas so high as it is lately I am saving a lot of money driving that over driving something that takes a lot more gas.
I don't live in a place plagued by wildfires or hurricanes, floods or earthquakes, which is one of the reasons I like to live here. But I am always aware that something could happen that would mean I would have to get out. I keep a list handy of all the things I would need to grab if I were in that position and I read and update it regularly, making sure I know where everything is and that I can get to it quickly, including what I would need for my animals. I have it divided up into a section of the most vital things that I could grab if I had only 10 minutes, what I could include if I had a half hour, two hours. And a section of what to do to get ahead of things if I had a day's warning or more. I always keep my gas tank no lower than a half. And if I even thought that there might be a crisis coming, I would get all the stuff together and ready to go ahead of time. Of course some things that could happen wouldn't give any warning at all, I know.
 
I wondered about wildfires in the west. :unsure:

I like to go to remote places, where there is barely even one route in and out... so getting trapped wouldn't be odd. Then I'd be on foot, and since it's always windy when these things get out of control, ya... not much chance there... unless I can find a good spot to hunker down. Could be exciting! I have problems with smoke, heat, and suffocation (sweat lodge experiences, and others), which makes this particularly interesting.
 
If you carry nothing else, always have a sleeping bag in any car you drive. I learned this the hard way by having my car die in the middle of nowhere on a cold night on an interstate. It was a very uncomfortable wait for the next highway patrol car (this was before the age of cell phones).
 
Thanks for this!
Just want to add -- and this does not detract in any way from your message -- you still want to listen to early-warning advice so you don't grab-and-go right into a monster traffic jam. And fill up your gas tank at the first hint of trouble. Knowing the back roads in your area also doesn't hurt -- though you won't be the only person to think of that.
Whether to evacuate can be an excrutiating decision, so yeah, as eDJ said, be prepared.
When the tsunami warning or tornado siren, wildfire or flag flood alert goes off that to-go bag had better be right at hand. Advance warning is not always very long in advance of a major evacuation event. That is one advantage of living with a motor right in your dwelling vehicle versus having a trailer that needs hitching up.
 
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