You've made some really good points legojenn. I would definitely always have enough food and water on board to last a few days and I already have a good first aid kit.
"Money spent on electronic gadgets that may never get used might be better spent on things to help you cope with situations that you might face on the road." I do agree with you on this. But the way I look at it it doesn't have to be an either or situation. I can do both, have things that aren't electronic and have things that are. In my experience there's no substitute for a cell phone at expediting the speed at which I'll be able to ask for and receive assistance when a situation is beyond my control.
My main focus is safety in several distinct situations. The first is being vulnerable on the side of the road if my car breaks down and I'm not in a safe area meaning I'm in a bad neighborhood. I once had a tire blow out near one of the two most dangerous neighborhoods in San Francisco at night and had to pull off the highway into the edge of said bad neighborhood (as it would have been too dangerous to park on the shoulder following a curve on the interstate in the dark). When I called AAA they looked at my location on a map and said they would make me a priority call and the next available driver would be sent to me. It took less than 5 minutes for the driver to arrive). Another concern is a narrow shoulder that doesn't give me enough distance from the lanes of traffic (more on that later), or if night was falling because I don't want to be stuck on the side of the road in the dark until help finds me rather than I be able to call for help. Also if someone is harassing me in some way and won't leave me alone I want to be able to call the police or Highway Patrol to come help me.
The concern about a narrow shoulder to pull off on came to pass on my maiden voyage just over a week ago but thankfully I was within range of a cell tower. I'll be blogging the entire harrowing experience in a day or two (with lots of picture) but here are the main details:
I saw some really nasty looking storm clouds on the horizon so I called my mom on my car's blue tooth system. If it was going to be bad I could pull over in the town and wait out the storm. She looked up my location on the real time satellite weather map and saw that of the five stages of weather it was rated as a two of five meaning rain and heavy rain. I stopped for gas right off the exit and got right back on the interstate. Less than ten minutes had probably elapsed since I'd made the call. Less than two minutes later as I drove into the storm clouds it became really, dark, almost as dark as night right after dusk. Immediately I knew something was wrong because it was 2:00 in the afternoon but it looked like 9:30 PM.
Before I could even think through what was wrong the hail started. In those few minutes the storm had gone from rain only to a tornado watch with severe hail. Within 10 seconds I was in a white out hail storm and could barely see the road. I was able to inch my way to the shoulder just barely making out the solid white line on the side to know where to pull over to before it was covered with ice. The hail was tremendous. By the time it was over it looked like just under 3" of pea to marble sized hail had fallen in just a minute or two. The sound was thunderous as it came down on the top of the car and at the time all I could imagine were dozens of dents forming on my new trailer's aluminum skin.
As I sat there listening to it pound down I thought to myself "Oh well, if it ruins my trailer I'll just have to turn around and drive the 2.5 days back to Michigan and move in with Fred while he re-skins her for me."
Within a minute of the hail stopping traffic began flowing again at almost full speed. I however was stranded on the very narrow shoulder of the highway just below the crest of an incline.
NOTE: When faced with an immanent loss of visibility LOOK at the shoulder while you still can to figure out how far you can pull over safely. I didn't and wasn't sure if the shoulder was flat to a meadow, a steep embankment, a small gutter, or a drop off a cliff. Because I wasn't sure I only pulled over until I was just inches over the white line. Later I would realize I could have pulled over an additional foot.
So there I was, on the shoulder too close to traffic. Without the proper snow or all season tires combined with the weight of the trailer I was stuck. Without a cell phone I would have had to wait it out until the Highway Patrol found me, which eventually they would have, but it was a precarious situation to be in. Even more so when I watched a car, flying past me just inches away at 60+ mph, hydroplane on the now melted hail and pouring rain in the right lane and spin out of control off the shoulder and into a field 50 yards ahead of me. That's when I started worrying less about my trailer being dented by hail and more about me being flattened by an out of control car or truck.
Thankfully since I'd just passed a town there was cell reception and I was able to call the local police department who transferred me to the highway patrol who called a AAA wrecker for me who arrived 20 minutes later to pull me to the top of the hill. As it turned out the car that slid out did me a favor because as they slid across the shoulder they removed a bunch of the hail that had piled up which allowed my tires to gain enough traction to clear the shoulder (the wrecker strategically pulled me to the cleared area) and make it back out onto the highway once he unhooked me.
I also called my mom back and asked her for the latest update on the storm I was near. She gasped and said It's all red! And there's a severe hail and tornado warning! I said I knew that already, I was just wondering how accurate the map was
So I really don't feel I'm being too cautious. Things happen. My past experiences tell me the best thing to do is plan for them and be prepared so when something does happen I can lessen the odds that more will go wrong.
by deleted » Wed Jul 03, 2013 1:34 am 
