Episode 55: Prepping For Travel

spk_0:   0:00
Hello, everybody.

spk_1:   0:01
Good day, everybody. Welcome to the show, the big show, the three B y podcast. And here we are on the road again. Somewhere in Florida, in Florida, we don't live in Florida. We live in North Missouri's. You might assume that we're traveling,

spk_0:   0:18
which is what brought to mind doing a podcast on prepping for travel.

spk_1:   0:23
We do a lot of traveling. I mean, we do a lot of traveling. It's part of it's because that's what we d'oh part of it's because of our provocations. And, uh, some of it is job related. So we do traveling. And for right now we're driving down a road north of Panama City Beach and everybody knows where. The story of Panama City Beach it is, up until recently, Party Central and we set up until recently because they have passed a law no alcohol on the beach, which is kind of being a buzz kill for the college kids

spk_0:   1:03
apparently killed their spring break business. Isn't

spk_1:   1:05
that a shame that can't come to P C B to spring break anymore? Well, they can come, but to get drink on the beach on a beach and that kind of takes the whole anyway that actually ties into one of the things we're gonna talk about today, believe it or not. So we're talking about things, too, for Preppers Mike us to think about as we're traveling now we're also as you. We've talked about this before. We're both divers were We like to stick our nose into the occasional cave. And yes, we do actually have training. We know it's a technical, a technical form of diving. We do have certifications to stick our nose into the cave, so it's not something a normal open water divers should. D'oh!

spk_0:   1:56
It's very much a preppers kind of past time, though, because two is definitely one when your cave diving?

spk_1:   2:03
Yes. Um, but part of that is one of the things about cave diving, and then I'm also underwater. Photographer is it is ex seeding Lee gear intensive. And then you gotta take your spares too. We're in fact, on our way to a dive shop to get some batteries for because three of our four dive computers went out yesterday. What? I only went out because it had a broken strap, but still that kinda so we're off on. We're off on the road for parts.

spk_0:   2:38
Yes, despite being checked three days ago despite

spk_1:   2:41
being checked, and one of them just died. I don't know why I'm not diagnosed. It may just be mad batteries, but I put new batteries in last week anyway. Not the whole point is we're driving in a rental car because we rent cars. Thio make these big, long trips. It's much we get a brand new car for two weeks. We don't have to worry about a lot of the stuff, and it breaks down in ST Augustine, Florida. Well, it's not our car. We don't have to worry about getting at home. So that's that. That's actually a rental. Cars are actually a prep. You wouldn't think so, but when you're traveling, they can be. If you're going to take a big, long vacation, it very much behoove you to look at renting a car. Taking your own car and having driving 3000 miles on your own car is not necessarily going to save you money over renting a car, so you know there's a thought. We rent a car, but because we carry dive gear because we carry underwater camera equipment, and please keep in mind. You have the camera, you have the housing. You have the lights. You have cases ago. It is very booking that does not leave a lot of room left in the car for anything else.

spk_0:   3:55
Yeah, the whole four tanks of compressed air are kind of a thing to

spk_1:   3:59
Yes, and then the tanks are kind of big. Well, we're going to bring four because we're just doing basic. We're sticking around the caverns. It's been a while. We're a little rusty, so we're not really going doing deep penetrations. Um, if some of the guys who do these dives we'll have 10 or 12 tanks per dive. That's not us. We don't We don't do the 10 or 12 tanks production, but some. I mean, some people are full pickup truck is one dive. So anyway, long story short, there's not a lot of room. So I had we had an issue. I had to. I had a boot failure on one of the computers. The strap broke was gonna pop it out and put it in a different boot. I didn't have a screwdriver in the car to pop pop the gauge out

spk_0:   4:51
I saw that bag of tools when I was packing the car and looked at everything else that had to go in the car. So that's one of the things some risks you just got to accept from the nature of travel. I knew I was leaving my tool get behind. But

spk_1:   5:06
we do have what's known as a save a dive kit, which has. It's basically a spare parts bag with all kinds of different spare parts rings, and we have a branch. We can swear we could swap out. Uh uh, regulators. We should swap. We can swap out darn near anything

spk_0:   5:23
if it wanted a Phillips head instead of a flathead screwdriver. I had him covered but

spk_1:   5:28
flat. And that's one thing we did not have in our we're going to very soon. But we didn't have it today, So not a huge, not a huge deal. But, you know, it could have Ah, had we not worked around. And of course, we can dive tables to We don't have to die about the computer. We can have other tables because we've been table trained.

spk_0:   5:50
They probably don't know what that means,

spk_1:   5:52
but okay, for any of you divers out there? We dove the tables instead of relying on the computers. Okay, so long story short. Just a perfect example. So what does this mean? It means we could take clothing. All right, We can take, um, some spare food, but we're really not gonna be able to take a bunch of get home stuff.

spk_0:   6:17
We've got one bags worth. It's about Theo, £15 bag where I've got an emergency med kit and I've got the little little food and water supplies. And basically, it's my three day bag worth of stuff. Is is here bottom water filtration.

spk_1:   6:34
Bottom line, though. If we have an MP event and we're in Florida, we're in Florida. We're just gonna have to depend on our smarts and our skills to get us by because we'll be road people. There's just no way about it. This is a risk we take, yeah, to do what we want to do. Because there's, you know, you can sit around all day long in a shell. You could be Burt the Turtle, sitting your shell and not live your life because you're too afraid that something bad might happen. That's not how we choose to do this. We like to take reasonable care. So anyway, we made a list of stuff that we think about, and we think it's important for everybody to think about when they travel. Weatherby on vacation business, whatever. And these were all risks that that everybody has toe has to determine whether the risk is worth the reward. So,

spk_0:   7:32
yeah, we decided to take the risk of having the three day bag and a car jumpgate, and that's what we've got.

spk_1:   7:38
Always card. Okay. Where you going? They don't space. Always take a car jump.

spk_0:   7:43
We do have the things. Consider it. We did consider the territory we intended to go through as well as our destination. Which is why we have a pair of a boots, snow boots for me and a closed toed shoes for again. Not just the beach sandal kind of thing, because the terror territory we're going through, the Florida people probably wonder what that big thing is in the back window. That's actually an ice scraper.

spk_1:   8:15
I have no idea what an ice scraper is. I'm sure who's about us and doing podcasts. It makes his cough

spk_0:   8:23
talking a lot. Okay. Here in the glove compartment. We have a whole packet of laminated maps because we get those laminated fold up maps for every state we go through. And if we're gonna expecting to get very much off the main road ways, we also have a set of paper maps for the state, which are more detailed.

spk_1:   8:46
Now, I'm a huge, huge What we use gps where we've got we've got a garment. It's running here and saying, turning 28 miles. So, you know, we're big believers in the GPS. We love GPS, but we're huge believers and maps, too, because sometimes I row every trip. It seems like I'm like, Okay, give me another route or Hey, we just passed. Where is oil trough? Looks at up. We just passed oil traffic and look that thing up. Where is that organ or whatever? So, you know, we're like, Okay, I don't want to take the interstate. Give me another road. Do I need to go four miles north? More mouths were. Give me the highway.

spk_0:   9:31
The last trip we came down here, there was some serious flooding. The rain and the flooding is we're going through Alabama and here it is darkened night. It was Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I was Christmas Eve. And, you know, almost everything was closed. A whole bunch of the roads were closed. They hadn't got out the markers for the closed roads yet the general was useless. Yeah, because

spk_1:   9:57
it's trying to take us worlds that were underwater.

spk_0:   9:59
Yeah, it didn't know which roads were closed, of course. So we grabbed out the paper map and we found some routes that were open, and we got there in good shape. But we were very glad to have paper maps that might.

spk_1:   10:11
And they're also great for for roll with it. Vacations or trips Where you just like Okay, um, there's a red road. Let's take that one.

spk_0:   10:19
You haven't been here before, E. I mean, how else do you find places like oil trough? Arkansas, which by the name is named for a trough of bear fat they used to keep in front of town. Everybody had dumped the bear fat in after they got done, bear hunting, one supposes, and then that also the, uh, rendered bear fat.

spk_1:   10:40
So now you know, oil Trump, Arkansas. It's a real place. So pressing right along.

spk_0:   10:45
Yeah, as part of prepping for where you're going to go through, Consider weapon loss if you're carrying, even if you're carrying just something like pepper spray. Because some states have weird laws

spk_1:   10:59
that some municipalities let's say, for example, to get here what we generally had to dry it. We had to drive through parts of ST Louis County. We did the basically the bypass. I don't like driving now through the city when I don't have to, um, but what the We're taking that we took the 2 70 North bypass and let me help you understand what that means. It's not like it's your on the interstate, but you drive right through the middle of the Ferguson Florissant area, where all the riots were a couple of years ago. I mean, this is this is Riot Central if you have a problem and you have to get off on new fluorescent Road, which used to be north fluorescent road. I know that because I used to live on North Horse that rode in Ferguson many years ago. But if you get off in that area, um, hey, I'm just telling you, that's where the riots were and you all know the national. But Ferguson riots there right upon the Florissant line, so you gotta get it. And they have different gun laws in ST Louis County than we do in the rest of our state.

spk_0:   12:13
Here in Florida, you can't even carry pepper spray without a concealed carry permit and which conveniently I have.

spk_1:   12:19
Yes, we actually both have. If Florida's weird on their concealed carry permits, most steaks have reciprocal CZ. Okay, but like, for example, Missouri. If I'm carrying my concealed carry license in Missouri, I have a non resident Florida concealed carry license. It reciprocates to Missouri, but my Missouri license does not reciprocate in Florida. For me as a non resin, it's a weird, weird look. The only way to legally carry in Florida is to have a non resident Florida concealed carry license. It's weird, but the good news is they're very cheap, tohave their auto renew. If you pay him the money and they're exceedingly easy to get, if you can take it class, the classes are not as challenging as some other classes I have taken in life.

spk_0:   13:26
Yeah, we had to fire a handgun, so you knew what one felt like What the heck are you doing? Guarantee concealed weapon if you don't know how to fire the night thing. State.

spk_1:   13:35
Like a state of Missouri now, it is constitutional care, but you could still get a concealed carry license for various reasons. We don't need to get into, Ah, you have to pass a shooting test and you have to go through the days where the classes yada, yada and in their states like the People's Republic of Illinois, which basically makes their concealed carry licenses out of on obtaining a, um, it's a special was material used for concealed carry licenses in places like New York, Illinois and Hawaii. So, anyway, just just a hint. If you're heading to Florida and you're planning to carry, you gotta have a Florida concealed carry. You're not residents lies.

spk_0:   14:17
That's actually the only thing I use my concealed carry license for anymore. Living in Missouri, which is constitutional Carrie is. I stick it in my pocket along with the pepper spray gun when I go walking on the beach by myself at night.

spk_1:   14:30
Now, one of the good news good things about having multiple non arrested, concealed carry allies is we just Florida for several different reasons when we least of which is it what we could get? One. Um, there was a class offered in our area, but if you have multiple state concealed carry licenses where you have one, ours is not resident in Florida. And get a Missouri resident license that covers almost everybody will take one of those, too. There's only a couple of states that don't take Ellen I New Jersey ho y You know, the usual suspects

spk_0:   15:06
the people who had to be beaten over the head by the federal courts before they would accept concealed carry it all. So

spk_1:   15:12
having those two really expands the Although I admit I do not have a misery concealed carry allies because I don't need one. Yeah, just It's got its Constitution. Carrie and my Florida license worked in Missouri, so yeah, yeah, but I won't throw that. The other is an option. So is why would I get a concealed carry license in different state? Well, there is. There is good reason. And if you're going to do one, pick one like Florida, where covers 38 states are covered by Florida, it's a hugely accepted license.

spk_0:   15:47
Next thing on the list here. You. I certainly hope you have made plans with all your family members and people you care about. If you can't communicate, where you going to meet up? If that place is impossible, where else you gonna meet up? If those two places air impossible. How else are you going to get in contact with each other? You oughta have a couple of fallback plans for that at home.

spk_1:   16:11
At home? Yeah, absolutely. You should. Everybody should know. This is my one. Places are two places are three places are four place and even to the point of our one place nearby are two plays. For example. If there's a fire, you know where to go kept. You know what everybody in the family is going to. Even if you're not coming out the same door, you're all going to meet up at a certain spot. For example, our work. We have Ah, uh a plan or queer everybody. If there's a fire is to meet at the across the street at the car wash

spk_0:   16:48
so they can count noses and make sure nobody's left in the building.

spk_1:   16:53
I remember Ah, a coworker who hasn't unfortunately passed by now. But that co worker, I'm the guy. Of course I'm the safety guy or gay, Of course. So I set up the plan, and she's like, Well, why not just go to the gas station next door as, ah, fire. You want us to go to the next door gas station? Think about this for a minute.

spk_0:   17:18
The place that sprays water all over everything with a place that has exploding gasoline. Tough call. What? You can get coffee at the gas station. Why would go ahead and

spk_1:   17:30
go the car? Washington. The place with gas fumes all over the place anyway. So, yeah, I like it. PCB, which is where we're staying right now. Um, we have a plan plan. We get separated it or the hotel catches on fire, and we have to have a place to meet up, walk down the beach to the nearby pier and meet up the pier.

spk_0:   17:53
Yeah, it's far enough away that it'll probably be somewhere we could still get to, but it's an

spk_1:   17:58
easy walk, and it gets us away from the problem area.

spk_0:   18:03
Yeah, because I don't have my phone in my pocket. when I'm out there playing in the ocean. I hear that iPhones don't do well when immersed in salt water, and I'm not really anxious to find out.

spk_1:   18:15
Actually, are mine does. Fine years is the older model, which doesn't.

spk_0:   18:19
How about I not find out? So, you know, I couldn't just expect a call. If you know something weird went on at the hotel, you couldn't just call and tell him where I'd be. So now we've got a spot, would know where to find each other. So I have a plan when you're traveling as well. If your family member separate, what are you going to do? If the expected plan of meet up can't happen? What's the backup plan? And another one which is dear to a cyclist start is to consider the weather when you're going on excursions, not only the weather as it is and as it's expected to be, but things that might happen. You always see this when you go to get on hiking trails in the mountains, they'll tell you we know it's August. Bring mittens. Anyway, sometime it snows up here in August, when you're a cyclist, he head out into the headwind. Which way would you like to ride today? Up wind. Why? Because especially if you're not experienced, you'll get a very false sense of security if you start out with a tail wind.

spk_1:   19:35
My boss in a couple of co workers, too, that several years ago, none of these people are cyclist. They just run to the run today. Beach cruisers right along the beach. And the wind was blowing. And so they were like, Oh, yeah, it's much easier to go this way. They went that way, and then they went about eight miles and then there was like, Okay, it's time to turn around. Go home. Oh, my gosh, is impossible. I mean, they almost had to walk the bikes home because, you know, ocean breezes can be stiff, and they literally called for pickup because they couldn't do it. So just if it's easy going out, you may have to pay the piper coming back. Now we always When you're cyclist, you pay attention to the wind very much. You always try to go out into the wind, and then there are those horrid, horrid days when the wind switches evil thing and you get the the headwind both ways. That'll happen. You know, like once out of every 10 trips, you D'oh! Yeah, that'll switch on you, at least in Missouri. And of course, it could possibly be trailing both ways, but

spk_0:   20:53
not all that never happened since we don't start out with the tail wind, that's generally not how

spk_1:   20:58
it works. There have been a couple of times. So when the wind was blowing so ridiculously hard, like 35 40 miles is ridiculous and it's a straight stretch. I've actually hopped in the car through the bike in there, took her out their letter just It's a good way to pick up a lot of miles of a hurry.

spk_0:   21:23
My plan is never go out any further. Then I can come back in comfort under the expected conditions and reliably under unexpected conditions. It was

spk_1:   21:36
the wind can switch, and we've had some times upon us just out of the blue

spk_0:   21:43
or what happens. You know, you're warm enough now, but what if you get a shower when you're halfway out and have to walk back? What? Which happened to me this morning, which was fine because Florida and I do it might rain on me, so yeah,

spk_1:   22:00
So and thing too is, you know, you know, you know your conditions, too. I mean by that is, if you're walking on a beautiful, hard packed dirt road and you just go for a hike in the search to raid that turns into a mire of mud because the hard surfaces only on the very surface and it's wet underneath. We get this a lot when we're riding our bicycles on, Like to Katy Trail, which is macadam ized. It's crushed limestone, but a lot of it is just a layer of limestone over what gets to be, um, more like glue that anything else and your tires just start sinking in and it becomes glue and it is a knee destroying hope crushing. Uh,

spk_0:   22:58
if you weigh twice as much as spice ways,

spk_1:   23:02
I mean it could it could crush your soul. That's some of that stuff, knowing you've got to go 20 miles in that kind of stuff. So just pay attention. And, um,

spk_0:   23:15
everything's not just like it is at home. So

spk_1:   23:18
everything is not just like it isn't home infect. The weather patterns are not going to be the same like you. Gotto go to Hawaii and go to the Big Island where they have every weather pattern on the planet. It can be July or August in Hawaii and snow on you. It can happen. It has happened. It hasn't happened. Us. But it can happen. You just have to be at the top of model or Ma Nakia Porta happen. But there's stuff at the top of Monica.

spk_0:   23:50
Yeah, we've talked to the snowplow driver that lives in Hawaii. The professional snowpack better.

spk_1:   23:57
And he is on call you around because it even snows in the summer time up there. Um, so place like Hawaii is the weather is pretty, well, predictable. It's where you are on the island. And what about the two draft? Yes, there's nothing like at home, you know, home. You know, storm fronts come in, and if you're if it's 10 o'clock at a certain altitude, a certain time of year, you know what it's going to be doing. Like if you're in hell. Oh, you know, it's gonna be raining in the winner at 10 o'clock a m. It's just gonna just what's gonna be happening? It just is because you're in a rain forest, and that's what it does. So anyway, But places If you're traveling to the Big Island, it's a very safe place to travel. You're not taking your guns, of course, but do you pay attention to stop? I mean, the wind can shift. And if if kill away is active and urine that you're taiking in the kill away area pay. I mean, those gases can kill you. You have to pay attention. I remember one of the stupidest things we've ever seen. If we were at the whole way and volcano observatory at kill away and we were standing there looking down across aluminum, which is this giant crater. Okay. And the creator has has opened up, and it was steaming and smoking in spewing poisonous gas. And there are four people who ignored all signs walking across the Hallelujah crater. Now there are many volcanic craters at kill away that are perfectly safe to walk across. In fact, one of them is really cool. Um, the, uh, Kiki, Could we Yeah. Yeah, it's really great. Hike. Love it. Yeah, it's one of her favorite hikes. I do it because she loves it, and it's great place to take pictures. But long story short, these people were about when they got to the other side they were gonna get arrested because even the volcanic weren't going to go out there where they were. Because it was so freaking dangerous because of the gases that closed that part of the park. Because the poisonous gas and another thing too. You know, if you're in a place that has some natural dangers, like kill away, for example, they used to be this really cool, overlooked that. We used to go out there every time we were in the park. We go out there and we stand there and we look down. I had this beautiful rock and had the native Hawaiian people would leave their offerings to the goddess Pele. It isn't there anymore because it blew up. So, you know, if you had been there when it blew up, it could have been a very bad thing. Fortunately, after a little night, so nobody was there, But but you

spk_0:   27:00
pay attention to local hazards.

spk_1:   27:02
You d'oh! I mean, if you're going to the ocean, you just be aware there are fish that will eat you there are a lot more fish that will sting you. You can really get some nasty sea urchin spines embedded in you If you're not paying attention, all kinds of the stuff. Just pay attention, Know what you're doing. Riptide can kill you.

spk_0:   27:27
Yeah, we probably sound like a bunch of, ah, timid old women here with all these threats and hazards. But yet we do a whole lot of a lot of attention to us,

spk_1:   27:38
and we know about the threats, and we know what's going on. We've been out in riptides. Okay? Yeah, we've been in some incredible currents in the ocean. We we know what surges

spk_0:   27:56
and in

spk_1:   27:56
the caves. And in case we've been, you know, we've been in caves where the current was so hard you just had literally had to pull yourself into them. And if you let go, that would just blow you out of the cave,

spk_0:   28:09
which I would strongly recommend because it's a heck of a lot of music. Let's really

spk_1:   28:14
get past something like Jackson Blue when it's in full flow you got there in each let g o we

spk_0:   28:21
crawling in there like a shrimp, crab and rock to rock to your roll your way.

spk_1:   28:25
Read it because she don't. We're not wearing gloves in the cape. Yeah, you. Just because you used these rocks and then you just come out. Let go. It's just way across the millpond. It's lot of fun, Highly recommended. But

spk_0:   28:42
if you didn't know that was gonna happen and how to get out of it, I saw some very unhappy kids there who thought that would be a really good time. But then they didn't know how to get out of it. And it took him, You know, most of my old downstream before they figured out how to get out of the flow. And then they had to walk all the way back up the shore, which was not nearly as much fun. Because mosquitoes

spk_1:   29:05
let me teach you. If you don't know how to get out of a current, you swim across it, swim across a riptide, same thing, swim across it. Although we do have I have we talked about this? The single most weenie thing that America does are these of these beach one

spk_0:   29:24
that the beach desert flags. That's not where you want to get your information, guys.

spk_1:   29:30
Yeah, because I mean, we're looking at was two days ago. I mean it. Waas millpond still still. I mean, it was a still is you get. And still they were still with the yellow flag. They weren't They didn't even go to blue or green. I mean,

spk_0:   29:46
now we had all of six inch rollers may be coming in off the Gulf.

spk_1:   29:52
I mean, it was if that the wave hits your feet, it wouldn't even make your ankles wet. Kind of rollers. We're using the term rollers with with a smile. And they still had the yellow out because apparently there could be riptides.

spk_0:   30:08
Yeah, I found one. It was six inches wide and six inches deep.

spk_1:   30:13
So yeah, I mean, he's like, I don't know why they even bother saying there's a green flag. I've never seen him use. Well,

spk_0:   30:20
I think they say it so they can always point to the fact that well, we warned you it wasn't completely safe.

spk_1:   30:26
But I've been at the ocean in this particular place hundreds of times now and I've never seen a green flag. I've seen yellow flags. I've seen red flags. I've seen double red flags and double red flags. Really?

spk_0:   30:38
Even the purple from time to time.

spk_1:   30:40
Purple purple is a dangerous wildlife.

spk_0:   30:43
Now there is a difference between the bread and the yellow. And there's a difference between the red, which is high risk and double red, which is don't even think so. And purple is marine life. But the green is just there on the signs. I doubt they even onem.

spk_1:   30:59
First, people say you're dangerous marine life. The first thing they'll think it's shark, but usually it's something more. And, yeah, you don't get stung by a jellyfish

spk_0:   31:10
or sometimes microorganisms Red tides. Yeah, get the marine plug.

spk_1:   31:18
So yeah, there we go. What else we got on a list?

spk_0:   31:20
That was all I had on this list. Okay,

spk_1:   31:23
so we're looking good. We're gonna stick a fork in this puppy.

spk_0:   31:25
We're approaching our destination. So

spk_1:   31:27
we're approaching our destination. Well, not really, but yeah, Much already. Close. We're looking at a swamp now. We're all of Cyprus needs to get up,

spk_0:   31:35
and it is worth my time to just look at the cypress swamps. So

spk_1:   31:39
cypress swamp circle. Okay, we're gonna hang this up, and, uh, if you go traveling, be safe. Where? Your seat belt, as always,

spk_0:   31:46
but enjoy. Enjoy the road.

spk_1:   31:48
Enjoy the road.