The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Matter of Facts: Road Trip

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

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Welcome back to Matter Facts Podcast on the Prepper Broadcasting Network. We talk prepping guns and politics every week on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Go check out our content at mwfpodcast.com on Facebook or Instagram. You can support us via Patreon or by checking out our affiliate partners. I'm your host, Phil Rabelais, and my co-host Andrew Bobo is on the other side of the mic, and here's your show. Welcome back to Matter Facts. Oh, hi. This isn't Andrew. It's not. No. Andrew got tied up, so I got my much prettier co-host to join me. Thank you. I'm here. I'm physically here. I'm very tired, but I'm here to help you.

Well, and to talk about the topic, which is road trips, which this is actually something that one of our patrons, Kyle, dropped on us recently. Because, you know, we just finished out springtime, at least for our area. Summer's coming up. Everybody's going to be going on vacations and road trips. And this topic tends to come up pretty much every year of how does the preparedness-minded person handle a road trip, which probably seems hilarious to everybody that's not in this mindset because you just, you know, your biggest concern is make sure you pack all your clothes and everything. But for those of us who are a little weird and preparedness-minded, there's extra steps

involved in something like leaving home where most of your preps are for a prolonged period of time. But we have to do the administrative work first because if not, I will absolutely forget. Okay. So I know you wanted to remind everybody that Women in Prep Conference is coming up. Yes. Hang on. I wasn't prepared. I'm sorry.

Phil was talking to me and I wasn't listening. But yes. That is the mark of a good spouse when you can put your spouse to sleep just by speaking to them. It happens all the time. I get so, you just, your voice just swings me to sleep. Oh, dig yourself out of this hole, babe. All right. So the Women Who Prep Conference is in eight days.

So it is an online event from April 20th through the 23rd. And my affiliate link is still up in the description of the Raising Values Facebook and Instagram pages. So you can go to the link tree and you can purchase your tickets there. You don't have to be a woman to attend, but it is geared more towards women. There will be access to 15 plus sessions on various preparedness and homestead topics, a mix of live and recorded conference sessions, community group just for attendees that's off social media. There will be pre-conference live chats in the community, giveaways, games, and prizes, and you get recorded

access through July 2024. So you don't have to attend the three days of the actual event. You can access everything until July. So you want to get those tickets. And like I said, it's eight days away. It is online. You can show up in your pajamas or whatever. And that's being put on by This Prepared Life. Allison over at This Prepared Life is on Instagram. And so you can follow along the women who prep on Instagram and Allison with This Prepared Life on Instagram. And so you can follow along the women who prep on Instagram and Allison with

this prepared life on Instagram. And Phil and I did a session on prepping with kids, which is always something that we like to talk about because it's something that's near and dear to our hearts. And I also did a panel discussion on urban and suburban prepping. So that'll be fun. And yeah, and I think I might be in the live Q&A at the end of the conference, but I'm not sure yet. So yeah. And you know, the Women in Prep Conference to me is one of those situations where like, for years, a lot of us in the preparedness community, just like the firearms community, kind of bemoan the fact that it for a lot of years it was a boys club and like i would like to think that like most of us in those communities recognized

very early on we have to have female voices in this lifestyle because quite frankly y'all think of things we don't and i know from having spoken to a lot of people who are into preparedness and like they're the man doing the prepping and the the wife and the kids want nothing to do with it and that makes things infinitely more difficult yeah not just not just like financially because you have to justify it to the people that don't understand it but emotionally you know like you don't have anybody to bounce those ideas off of you don't have anybody to give you their check on your you know your ideas you're just kind of going at it blind. I've told many people, and I've had a lot of men ask me,

how did you get your wife into this? And I'm like, well, mostly stubbornness. But it's a great thing when we can get women of all ages into this lifestyle because some of those women are going to wind up being your moms, your spouses, your girlfriends, your daughters, and they need to know how to watch out for themselves as much as everybody else does. Yeah. And I'd also like to point out that on Raising Values, we did an episode with Holly, Kyle's wife, who was the brainchild of this episode, for a matter of facts.

But we did a giveaway for one registration on Raising Values, and Holly won it. And so we did the before show. So we're going to do a before and after the conference. And so Holly came on, and we had a really great discussion with her. So I encourage you to go check that out on Raising Values. I think it's probably been about a week or two now since we talked to Holly on Raising Values. So if you're not following us over there, you need to go over to Raising Values and listen to that episode too. So we talked a lot about prepping with the family. And so, yeah. And then we'll

do a follow-up after the conference is complete or after she's, after she's attended her classes and stuff, which may be not until July. Yep. And since we're talking about preparedness and classes, you know, Prepper Camp is coming up in September. I'm so excited. Unlike Women Who Prep, I can tell you that, you know, the event has not sold out yet. It almost certainly will because it does. It has every year for quite a few years. It's in Saluda, North Carolina, last week of September, if I recall correctly, last week in September.

And if you want information, it's PrepperCamp.com. It's not hard to find. The best thing I can tell you, though, is that if you're looking for, like, the true Prepper Camp experience to get a campsite, go out there. You know, like, it is what I advise first-timers to do if they're able to. Like, if you can camp. And if you can't, just get an Airbnb or something in the area. Just get an Airbnb or something in the area. But the ability to be based close to there where you don't have a several-hour drive home means that in the evenings, you have the ability to, like, find knuckleheads like us who are hanging out.

Usually, we're out there around a campfire, you know, like passing around bourbon and talking and just visiting, getting to know each other until 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night a lot of nights. So to be able to come in just for the day and then get the classes and go home is one layer to this experience. But the ability to stay and participate, especially on Saturday night where they have all the actual Prepper Camp-sponsored activities late into the evening. Like they'll have a keynote speaker. I think usually they do a movie night. It's a lot of fun if'all can attend. It is a lot of fun. I'm excited about it. We've got some people that are going this year that haven't been before. And I think our group up on the Hill has grown so much that we can't fit everybody on the Hill anymore.

So I almost hesitate to even call it our group at this point. Cause I mean, you've got like, you know, you've got that whole group that kind of, I guess, started off around the matter of facts podcast. And then you get the whole group from prep broadcasting network and several people that go out there to help support them for the weekend, because most of them are running vendors booth and they're teaching classes. And then like every year we pick up strays you know like we're a pretty welcoming group of people and inevitably we wind up making more friends every year we go so it's a great event if y'all can attend if you can i totally get it it is it's a haul for some people depending on where you at where you're at but like i know that our contingent from Michigan, I mean, they've got 12, 13 hours to drive down from Michigan.

It takes us 10, 11 hours to get up there from Louisiana. So if that's not an indication of our level of commitment and what that event is, I don't know how else to tell you. It's worth it to me to drive 10 and a half hours straight by myself in a truck because I did it for years before you and Piper started coming with me. Yeah. Yeah.

And this year, I'm going to make you work. I'm ready to. I'm ready to work the booth. And I have batted around an idea to host a class. I haven't quite committed to that. But, you know, one day. I think I'm going to get made fun of, though. For what?

For doing an alternative protein class. Oh, eat the bugs? Eat the bugs. So that requires context. Gillian used to work at the insectarium in New Orleans. I was an entomologist for a long time. Yes. So yes, she was telling people to eat the bugs before the New Orleans. Before Bill Gates did. Yeah. Before the WHO and the NWO and all of them started. But anyway, so the topic today is road trips, which everybody

does. I'm assuming everybody goes on a vacation sooner or later. Sooner or later, your spouses and kids win the argument and y'all have to, you know, sideline other things in the name of spending money on a road trip. It just happens. But that kind of introduces a whole layer of different concerns for a person who's like in my mindset of preparedness. Because like, you know, pre-prepper Phil would have just said, make sure I've got enough socks and underwear and, you know, like my overnight bag. So I've got like some basic medications and stuff like that in there. But now I look at, I look at like the whole process of a road trip through the lens of preparedness, which is how do I mitigate certain risks that

come up when you're away from home? And some of those are risks that could happen here to our house while we're gone. Some of those are risks to us while we're over the road. And like I was telling you right before we started recording, like the thing of it is from my perspective is that if we have a risk here at home, it's kind of mitigated by the fact that we are in the mindset we are. We have the six-month supply of food. We have the water. We have the things. We have all the things here we need to kind of go low-tech if we have to, like we did after Hurricane Ida.

As bad of a situation as that was, and we took it on the chin, we had the things we needed to not be in immediate danger. But when you're away from home, that calculus changes substantially. Yeah. So again, for the prepper minded person, it introduces new worries. Yeah. I think before we started this whole lifestyle, yeah, I was the same way. I was, do I have enough underwear? Do I have enough socks? And what happens if I, I don't know, I always said to myself, what happens if I fall in the lake or something and I need a change of clothes? So I would always pack more, but I never considered what to do in the car. And except for, well, I can't even say like, check your tires and everything else.

Really, the only thing that I did prepared wise, well, now, but I'm talking like before. Like I'm thinking like when I would do these road trips in college or whatever. I wouldn't check tires. I wouldn't check oil. I wouldn't do any of those things. I would say a prayer when we sat in the car and we were on our way. You know, I have no bug out bag in the back seat or in the thing. I didn't have anything for, I think I may have had a flat tire kit,

you know, where you spray the stuff in there. I may have had that. Was your spare tire even aired up? I don't know. Probably not. Men, please, please teach your daughters these things. I know, right? And not to say anything negative about my dad,

but no, I did not learn that stuff. That was not something, I don't know why I didn't know that stuff, but party liquors, candy, and a cell phone. That sounds like a college road trip. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Doritos. But yeah, so, but now I go through, we have a whole checklist. You have yours, I have mine. You check tires, oil, You do all those things, but I know how to do those things. Yes.

I unintentionally have a bag of clothes in the back seat right now, or in the back hatch of the Jeep that is supposed to go to Goodwill. But I'm debating on if I just keep that back there because those are all does any of that stuff fit well they're they're big like i'm getting rid of them because i don't i can't wear them anymore because they're too big but i'm i i go back and forth with we'll just keep it because it's clothes it's in case i mean everything's in there. There's all kinds of things in there. So my laziness has turned into a prep. That's one way to try to sell it. You did good there, right?

But let's start at pre-travel. And this is separate from what to pack because that's a whole, that'll probably be 20 minutes of this conversation by itself. by itself, but like pre-travel, and you've already talked about a lot of those things. I approach this, bear in mind, did a little bit of time in the military, and you don't pull a vehicle out of the motor pool before you've checked the tires, checked the oil, checked your fluids, made sure everything in that vehicle is not going to break down unexpectedly if you can help it. So those things are just kind of like built into me. And, you know, credit my dad. He beat a lot of this into me too about like, you know,

if your car is not ready to drive 300 miles right now, it's not ready to make a road trip. So for those people that are like, well, the tires are a little bald, but I think they'll make it. It's like, nope, those tires are not going to make it. You need to go get your tires dealt with. Or, no, the brakes are just making a little bit of noise. I'll be all right.

No, go get your brakes changed. And this was a discussion you and I were having. That's probably going to be my Saturday is doing the brakes on your Jeep because we're taking that to Tennessee and we're taking that to Florida over the summer. So I need to know that your Jeep is ready to make those trips. And then before we go to prepper camp, I got to do this. I got to do front brakes and probably wheel bearings on my truck. It's all these mechanical things have to be dealt with. And for me, that is part of my pre-travel checks. So a lot of times this doesn't even start the day before the trip. Some of these things, some of the things, things start the day before the trip some of these things yeah some of these things

start the weekend before the trip because if i find if i'm digging around underneath the hood and i find a problem i gotta have time to go to the auto parts store get the parts get it taken care of i gotta have time to go put it into a shop like these are checks that these are checks that start early and some of this i kind of cheat by the fact that I do the majority of our maintenance myself. So every time I do an oil change, I'm under the hood. If there's something leaking or misbehaving, I'm probably going to find it. So that's one aspect to this is pre-travel checks on the vehicle. Your Jeep, at my insistence, has like a minimum amount of food and water in it in case we get stuck someplace for 8 to 12 hours. Well, it has other things in it at my insistence has like a minimum amount of food and water in it in case we get stuck someplace

for eight to 12 hours. Well, it has other things in it at my insistence. So for a long time, I didn't have a blowout kit in my car. And I told you I wanted a blowout kit in my car. And I fixed that problem within what, a week? I think you... I had a spare. I think you were so excited that day. I was like, Phil, I'm just realizing I don't have a blowout kit in my car, and I would really like to have one. And I think you, like, jumped up that second. You're like, blowout kit?

Yeah, I'll go get it. And then in five minutes had a blowout kit in my car. Yeah, this is where having a prepper husband comes in handy because, like, I literally had all the stuff sitting in a box in the office to make a blowout kit just right there. But why didn't you just put one together for me, husband? Because a certain amount of you and preparedness separate from this topic has always been, I feel like I have to kind of present the information, but then I have to wait for you to think it's your idea.

Wait, what? you to think it's your idea wait what well okay sometime because i i find that with bringing you along in in the preparedness lifestyle there there were things in the earlier days you didn't really buy into at first right and there are still things that you haven't bought into name one conceal carry oh damn it yes and here's the but here's. I've always told you, if you're not comfortable doing it, I'm not going to push. Well, I feel like with concealed carry, I'm not comfortable with it, so I'm more dangerous with it. I think that could be ameliorated with training, personally. I agree. But again, you're not comfortable, that's fine. Not going to push that. But my point of view is that most of these things require some degree of training to be able to use them.

Like, it would tickle me pink if I could get you and Piper to sit down and commit to a basic field trauma class that I can teach y'all myself because I know how to do all this stuff. Just to refresh y'all's memory on how to use some of this stuff, like how to use a cat tourniquet, how to use an Israeli bandage. Then let's do it. Okay. Y'all are my witnesses. She agreed to it. I am not opposed.

I'm sorry. We're going off on a tangent, and now you're about to get. Case the rabbit. I am not opposed to a lot of the things anymore. And all you have to do is just say, hey, babe, let's do this. And I'm going to be like, cool. Or let's wait just a day or so. Or maybe this weekend.

Or don't act like that. You're being, you're not being fair. Remember when I tried to get you to commit to doing dry fire training with me and i got the the eye roll and the i don't really want to do this i'm leaving you can call andrew he's not available anyway but anyway my point is is that you know like there there are certain things i just don't feel like you've developed the interest in. And if it's not something that, like, I am prepared to, like, go to war over, then I'm just not willing to go to war over it. The whole here's food and water, you're going to keep in your Jeep, that's non-negotiable.

But you didn't fight with me on that either. That would be really stupid to fight over. But my point is that there are certain things within, because bear in mind, preparedness is a big tent. There's a lot of room underneath it. And within the lifestyle preparedness, not everybody sees things the same way. So I'm trying to meet you where you're at. I get that. Which is why the moment you said, hey, you have a blowout kit in your truck.

Why don't I have one in my Jeep? I was like, I don't know. What was it like? 10 minutes I had that problem fixed. Because I had a box full of stuff. So for context, I was in the process of building another I-Pack at that time. And I bought extras of everything because I was swapping out a lot of, I was swapping out like the quick clot from a lot of old kits and stuff, kind of doing maintenance

on the kit. Some of this stuff has about a five-year shelf life. You've got to replace it every now and then. And I was in the middle of doing that. So when you said, hey, I need, I was like, I bought three extras of everything. It was not difficult to put together a kit on the spot. But if I hadn't had all this stuff, I'd have put it on order that day. Yeah.

But that was an easy thing to fix. hadn't had all this stuff, I'd have put it on order that day. Yeah. But that was an easy thing to fix. I mean, yeah, things like checking your tires and your oil, those will all go into pre-travel checks for the house. Well, wait a second. I think there's so much to have in your car that you need before we move into the house. There's still something that I want for my car that I don't have yet,

although I know that I can use the headrest, the post on the headrest. Glass breaker. Yeah, I would like a glass breaker. And Jazz, is it her name, Jazz? Yes. Oh, God, I can never remember her name. Over at Mother Prepper, she had some really good content that came out after the Baltimore Bridge was knocked bridge was knocked over. But, um, so go check that out too. But one of the simple things that I don't have in my car and I, and I live in a place

where we have the longest bridge over water and, you know, I'm always, I'm always having intrusive thoughts of, well, what happens if my car goes here? Or what happens if I go there? I mean, it's not unheard of that Gillian has been in a ditch before. So having the stuff there that if I need to take care of myself or someone else or get out of my car in the water, I want to make sure we have all those things there. I can say, honestly, my car is not prepped the way it should be. We can start fixing those problems. Today. Today?

Today. Okay. Anyway. Anyway. So now we can move into the car. I mean, the house. Well, but the other thing, and I think I have a set in your Jeep. If not, I have a spare set in the garage.

Emergency beacons. The little LED sticks. Yes, I think I have a set, but I need to check. Yeah, they're in that little black plastic case, but I mean, it's a modern battery-powered version of a road flare. They have a magnet on the bottom of them. That way, you can just stick them on the side of your vehicle or on the back. They got a little tripod base if you need to put them on the ground but like some kind of emergency signaling device is one of those things that like i am a huge proponent of i am actually not a huge proponent of like tire slime or fix-a-flat all that nonsense um what i carry in my truck is actually like uh forgive me for not knowing the brand off the top of my head, ARB.

But it's an ARB, like a legitimate plug kit, like the kind of thing you use to plug like tractor tires or big off-road tires. Because if I get a big old nail or something, I can whip that S&B out on the side of the road, put a plug into it. I've got a 12-volt tire inflator that stays in my truck. And that's another thing I need to get for you, your own tire inflator, your own jump box. And again, the thing of it is that I keep all that stuff in my truck because most of the time when we go out someplace really remote, we're going in the truck where the ability to self-recover is more of a problem than if you're in town and you can call AAA.

I get that. But you notice that every time we're taking the Jeep someplace, I've got that Nike drawstring bag that I throw in the back of the Jeep. And it's because I clear everything out of my truck. I take my IFAK, which is basically yours with a couple extra things in it. I take my jump box. So if we get a dead battery, we can jump the Jeep right off of that. I take my tire inflator. I take my spare tools. Most of the things I would use for emergency roadside stuff, it all fits into a drawstring bag and I just chuck into the back of the Jeep. So those things,

those things transfer. Raising canes is prepper food, Kyle? Not exactly, but yes. Raising canes was, I have to, Kyle? Not exactly, but yes. Raising Cane's was I have to get home from school and I don't feel like cooking because I'm too tired. And then Piper came in and sweet talked her daddy into going to Cane's today. So not a sponsor of the show, but could be. He's one of the new billionaires in Louisiana. Not me. The guy who started Raising Cane's. See, I started a podcast.

I should have started that should start making fried chicken anyway so like i guess that kind of puts a pin in what what to have in the vehicle like you want to have all the things you need to make sure that when you leave your driveway you can get where you're going um a minimum amount of extra food and water i'm going to tell you right now, like I'm notorious for, I like to drive in flip-flops and that's just because it's comfortable, but I'm not going anywhere too far from home without having a pair of closed-toed shoes and a pair of socks in the vehicle. And obviously if you're driving, if I'm now, if I'm driving, especially like when we go to prepper camp, a lot of times I've got my boots with a pair of

boot socks in them and they're like by the back door or something where they're quick and easy to get a hold of. That way, if we get out to prepper camp and it's muddy or it's raining or it's disgusting, I just dump the flip-flops off in the truck, put the boots on and then get out and go. But poncho, cold weather gear if you need it. Every vehicle should have a poncho in it. Like, I guess you can make an argument about having an umbrella. But for me, I just want to have my hands free. So I keep a poncho in the back of the truck behind the seat. Just quick as easy thing in the world to throw on and keep yourself dry.

But anyway. So yeah, for the house. but anyway, so yeah, for the house, um, I mean, there are those people that get really crazy about it, like, they'll turn off their gas in case they have a gas leak, and all kinds of stuff that I don't think is a huge problem, because I feel like if you had a gas leak, you should have taken care of that problem, um, we leave a couple lights on in the house and that's not because you're trying to like tricks trick potential thieves into thinking somebody's home because a an amateur is going to break in regardless because they're idiots and a professional is going to case the house for three or four days anyway and when they see no cars coming in or out they're going to know nobody's

home so i i look at leaving the lights on strictly under the guise of when we come home, if it's after dark, I want that porch light on so I can see as I'm approaching the door, I want lights on in the house so I can not come into a dark house and I can just assess my surroundings. Make sure the house is locked up. We like to let a neighbor, a trusted neighbor know like, hey, we're going to be gone. If you see any lights on or wild parties or cars in the front yard, call the police. But, you know, other than that, like the only thing I'm really particular about is I make sure that there's one firearm that stays out all the time. And that's because it's in the office.

It's in the backdrop, for a matter of facts, when we're not shooting in here. But the bolt's been removed from it, so I am perfectly comfortable leaving it out with pipe around because you can't get the daggum thing shooting no matter what. But every firearm in this house, except for the ones we're bringing with us, they all get locked up, hidden, squirreled away

and they're diversified. They're not all in one place. Because I don't, just in case somebody breaks in, I want to reduce the likelihood that they will steal a number of firearms that all have loaded magazines and have ammunition right next to them. Other than that, I mean, what, take the trash out so it doesn't stink? I don't feel like we do a lot to the house to prep for a trip. I don't feel like we do either.

I clean the house before we leave because I don't want to come home to a dirty house. But we don't, I mean, our house isn't dirty at all. It's lived in. It is lived in. No, I don't feel like we do much else with the prep. I mean, our animals, you take care of your animals. But, I mean, some of this stuff is so just common sense before you walk out of the house that you just do it for the trip as well. I think the car is probably more important and has more layers to it than prepping your house before you leave.

Have someone get mail and packages. Yeah, I mean, if you're going to be gone for an extended period of time, you certainly don't want that to be building up because then that's another sign of you're away from home. in-law's voice in my head um every time i go on a trip of not posting anything to social media while you're gone because then you really are giving away that you are not at the house um sometimes i do and sometimes i don't yeah so what to pack other than like underwear and socks and you know clothes other than other okay i'm talking about the things to pack other than like underwear and socks and you know. Other than clothes? Other than, okay, I'm talking about the things to pack other than the things that normal, in air quotes, people think to pack.

Like what do you bring on a trip that is not what our neighbors would bring on a trip, for example? As a prepper? Yes. Is this where I'd step in? Yeah, I'm trying to think.

What did I bring on this last trip that... I mean, so I always make sure I have extra medication and a first aid kit in my backpack wherever I go. Whether it's hiking at the state park or going to Costa Rica or... Define first aid kit. That means different things to different people. Okay. Mine's just a basic first aid kit. It's Benadryl in case you need something for Benadryl. It's Band-Aids, gauze, and ibuprofen, Tylenol.

It's like simple basic stuff. It's what I refer to as an ouchie kit. Yeah. It's really an ouchie kit it's well but here's the thing somebody got a splinter so i have tweezers it's not stuff that's going to kill you but it's it is stuff that you need to deal with or it's going to make the trip suck and almost every time we go hiking i pull it out for something whether it's a band-aid or some ibuprofen or whatever oh and then the then the little thing I got for Christmas from my Secret Santa, for Matter of Fact Secret Santa, was the... You're going to have to help me with the name of it. It's the girl's pee thing.

Oh, the She-We. She-We. There are other names for it. It will always be a She-wee to me because. It's the girl's pee funnel, not tunnel, funnel. That's what we called them in the Army was she-wees. They issued them to female crew chiefs because there weren't a lot of toilets when you were at a FOB in the middle of nowhere. So I'm definitely, I need to get two of those for the car.

And then I have one for my hiking bag that I keep in there, but I try to make sure that those are always in there because mom bladders on a hike, it doesn't matter. And daughter bladders too. Although y'all probably aren't going to share a shiwi. That's why I said two. Well,

she needs one for her hiking bag too, but I'm just thinking like for mine, what to pack in there and what I keep in there. But yeah, so the ouchie kit, I wouldn't say like a full on trauma kit. No, it's not a trauma kit. But, you know, I put together something similar but larger, just better stocked that stays in my truck. And it's got a lot of the same things. Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Benadryl, Band-Aids, Ace Bandages in case I might twist an ankle.

And that's just stuff that lives in the truck, but I'll be daggum if within the first two weeks I had that kit put together in the truck, we went someplace and Piper had a headache. The most minor thing you can think of, but Dad had ibuprofen and Tylenol

in the truck. I keep bottles of water in the truck. It was nothing right there in the parking lot of a restaurant to pop that kid open, grab out what I needed for my kid, pop a bottle of water, and get her taken care of. It's just one of those things where it's like, yeah, it's such a minor problem. But the point is to deal with minor problems, not just suffer through them. Right. We went, we were in Lafayette. We went to go visit my sister

and there was, um, a truck fire on the interstate. And remember we were at a dead stop. It happened not a half mile, not even a quarter mile in front of us. And so we were at a dead stop on the interstate for almost two and a half hours. And of course, little bladder started to take effect. And I wish at that point I had had that shiwi, but definitely going to get one because Piper, we were in the middle of the swamp, so there wasn't really any way for her to go to the bathroom, but she had to go.

I don't remember how we met. Oh, she peed in your coffee cup. Oh, yeah. Yes. That was the big blue one that you're always drinking out of. Such a good dad. I washed it so thoroughly after that. Yeah. But I think it would have been a lot easier had I been prepared with the sheet wing. Maybe, I don't know. Anyway, but. Yeah. I mean, you know, you make things happen. What else would you pack? Well, if we're, if depending on, I mean, obviously firearm.

I carry a firearm, just go cross the street. I mean, it's just the way I'm wired, but. Your sister asked me the other day, does Phil always wear his gun when he's in the house? And I was like, yeah, why? And she goes, oh, he was just showing me something. I don't remember what it was. And he lifted up his shirt and I saw the butt of his gun. But y'all were at the house. And I was like, yeah, everywhere we go, even at home, Phil is armed.

Is that weird? I don't know if that's weird. I mean, I don't know if that's weird, I mean, I don't know that's weird, but that's the way it's going to be. Like there is no such thing as a gun-free zone if I'm present. I know. I don't know why I thought that. But how far from home we go dictates kind of what gets brought in that vein. You know what I'm saying? Or what's happening. Yes. Sometimes what's happening, but I don't lean too heavily into that line of thought just because my point, I go back, there's a self-defense instructor named Masad Ayyub. You've probably never heard of him.

He's very well known in my circles. But I can't remember if it was him or somebody else equally prolific, but one of them kind of in tone, don't go stupid places with stupid people and do stupid things and i advise i tend to well i tend to look at things in that vein of if there's a place that is so dangerous i feel like i need a plate carrier and a rifle and armor on my truck to go there i don't need to go there i don't need to go there like we can eliminate all these extra steps and just say we don't need to go there it's that place eliminate all these extra steps and just say, we don't need to go there. It's that places a level of threat. We're not, there's no point in indulging in,

but at the same time, if I'm not going to go there means you don't go do something you want to do. Then you have to ask yourself, how reasonable is this fear that I'm having? So there's give and take there. I was thinking more along the lines of when hurricane Ida happened and we had to go to my parents and you packed the body armor and three guns. Okay. And that is kind of like special situations.

But I also have to point out that if it weren't for the fact that we had to go check on your parents, we wouldn't have left the house. So because the place we were going, because of what was going on around us, there was a heightened threat. And because the place we were going, we really didn't have a choice. We had to go. Then I'm going to escalate the preps to match that environment. So that's good. That's a fair point. And in that case, yeah, I mean, like, I would never, like, to drive 45 minutes away from home. I might not even pack a spare magazine. I might just bring my one mag and my gun and be perfectly okay with that. Cause you know, if you can't solve a problem with 14 rounds, not millimeter, you're doing it wrong.

But in that situation, yeah, I had a plate carrier and three spare mags and an AR-15 like down on the floorboards of the truck and chainsaw and fuel in the back because we were going to be cutting trees out there. And I had a five gallon jug of water and I think five or six MREs in the back of the truck. Like I had what we needed if we had to spend the night in the truck out there. Because again, like, you know, post-hurricane Ida, there's trees down everywhere, the power's out everywhere. Police response time will be measured in hours, even for an emergency response, if you can get a phone call out because cell towers were down everywhere. So it was one of the situations where, like, I approached this from the perspective of almost like a military operation of I'm going someplace.

I'm going into an environment I don't know, in a situation I don't know, with no support and no safety net. So I have to do everything I can to mitigate those risks. Under normal circumstances, if we're driving within a couple of hours, I might pack a spare magazine. When we go on vacations, I usually pack my Scorpion, my CZ Scorpion. And with that, I've got four or five extra magazines. And, you know, like I'll pack the bailout bag. I call it the man purse is what Stuart Keith calls it, that old jerk. But, you know, that shoulder bag has four spare magazines in it. It's got two spare handgun magazines in it.

It's got the whole contents of a blowout kit in it. It is that and a bag to hide the Scorpion. And my, you know, my, my normal concealed carry handgun is all the firepower and prepper equipment. I feel like I need to have to go four or five, six hours away.

And maybe the only upgrade from that would be like, if I'm going to prepper camp, sometimes I'll, I'll take the Scorpion. Sometimes I'll take, um, I'll take one of my ARs and a couple of mags and maybe a plate carrier, maybe a chest rig, but like, you know, how far away from home I'm going kind of dictates that end of things. And it kind of, to a degree, also dictates the rest of the car preps. Like when I go to Prepper Camp by myself, I've usually got like two, two, five gallon jerry cans full of fuel with me. Because if I get off the interstate at Prepper Camp, again, you know, 600 miles away from home, if I get off the interstate in South Carolina and I gas up, I've got 20 gallons in my tank, 10 gallons in the bed, 30 gallons of fuel will get me to within

about 20 miles of home before I conk out on the interstate. So I have all the fuel I need to drive from Saluda straight here and not stop at a gas station. Worst case scenario, I have what I need to get home. And I carry get home and I carry extra water and I carry extra food and I'm packed up to be there for four or five days. So I've got everything I need to live out of my truck for four or five days. But with you and Piper, we're going to have to do a little bit of truck Tetris and maneuvering this year to get everything into the truck. Yeah. But the point still remains. I would say that for a normal, for a normal vacation where you're going to be like at a hotel or at a campground or at a pool

or whatever, you just need to make sure that if things, if things were to suddenly unwind, you have the things you need to protect your family. You have the things you need to, you know, care for your family's immediate needs until the situation stabilizes. And nine times out of ten, that is as simple as a firearm, a few extra magazines, and like a few hundred dollars in emergency cash. Like if you're at a hotel and something happens, you got to stay an extra day or two, do you have enough money in your checking account to cover two extra nights in the hotel? If the answer is no, that's poor planning. It's the reason why every time we go someplace, I've got $500 cash with me minimum if we go on a trip. And that's not blow on junk money. That is emergency get home no matter what happens money. Yeah. So it's just, it's a lot of little things like that, guys. Like

none of this, to most of y'all, this probably sounds like a big no-duh, and it should, but there's a lot of people that didn't learn these lessons. I see you, Joe. Joe Oliver is saying that he and the wife are listening tonight, and Kyle has been in the comments. We haven't been ignoring you, just trying to keep the conversation moving. So prepping on the road. This is going to sound absolutely hilarious

coming from a person who took combat convoy training, which is legal. It is the opposite of defensive driving. The DOD taught me how to use a truck like an armed weapon and run people off the road. But the very first thing I always point out to people when we're talking about prepping over the road is just like eyes open. Don't be fooling around with your cell phone or your radio. Be scanning your mirrors. Be walking around. You drive super

defensively and look way down the road. Not at what's happening like 20 feet in front of your bumper, but like look way down the road so you can see the tail all of a sudden everybody's brake lights all start lighting up there's a wreck or something or watch this knucklehead that's merging onto the interstate right next to you who might be a jerk and just try to push you out of your lane you know like to me step one is always just drive ultra defensively just be aware of your surroundings i um again have your dad's dad in my head but he's never said this to me it was something that you said to me but you of course you started it off with you know what my dad says yeah and it's always when i make a turn the turn

into the subdivision here of cutting it close, like turning in front of someone who might be only a quarter mile down the road or whatever, I always say to myself or hear your father say, what would happen if your car stalled? And again, that advice is not as pertinent today in the land of automatic transmissions. But back in the day when he was driving a manual, and I drove manuals for quite a few years before this truck,

that was a legitimate concern is that you might just booger up, get in the car moving in first gear, and you might stall in the middle of the intersection. And that could be a situation when somebody's bearing down on you at 60 miles an hour. Yeah. What do you mean by this on the road because i feel like we've talked about packing the car and everything uh hang on a second i gotta pop this up joe saying watch the side of the road always have

an out for your vehicle this is actually a really good point when i say on the road i mean like literally in transit to your destination okay so we So we're past the packing. We're past the packing. We are now at the point of like, we have five hours to get where we're going or 10 hours or whatever. We are in transit to our destination. And obviously this is a multi-day trip. There's multiple instances of this. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, Joe brought up one good thing as it pertains to uh defensive driving which is like always have an out which is the reason why i've always told people i'm like you know you want to you want to stop far enough back from the vehicle in front of you that you can see the bottom of their tether tires not not the bumper but like you want to be able to look

down over the edge of your hood and be able to see where their tires touch the pavement. Because on most vehicles, that just happens to be enough room between you and the vehicle in front of you. You can whip the wheel hard right and cut around them without having to hit them and push them out of the way. Which in an emergency, that can happen. But you don't want to have to shove a 4,000 or 5,000 pound vehicle to get out from behind it. Yeah. So that's one thing um you don't if there's a three-lane road it's kind of a it's kind of a thing where like on a on a on a two-lane road you can defer to the right or the left if you have to get out of the travel lane

on a three-lane road i don't like being in the center lane a lot just because if you get boxed in on your right and left you have nowhere to go. You're stuck. But then again, there are instances where being in the center lane means you don't have to deal with all the traffic slowing down and speeding up, merging onto the interstate. So it's kind of a situational thing. The takeaway though is to always have a plan for if this person does something they're not supposed to do, how do I escape from it? Because you're just trying not to get into an accident and it's not about saving the vehicle it's about saving your family that's with you in the vehicle like trucks can be replaced bumpers aren't that expensive family members that's a little tricky it's hard to replace good wives oh that's sweet woke me up for a second

i'm struggling and kyle is saying uh pay attention to the weather, which, I mean, that kind of, to me, that almost goes back to like pre-travel checks. Like if your tires are bald, if your windshield wipers are skittering across the, if your windshield is not clean. Why did you look at me like that? Well, I thought of something and I kind of blue screened for a second. That was intentional. Well, but one of the things to bear in mind, though, is like if it's love bug season down here in south Louisiana and your windshield gets love bugged to death after about three days, you just got to keep it clean because a dirty windshield is going to reduce your visibility if it's raining and your windshield is dirty then the rain is going to

streak back and forth your windshield wipers aren't going to work worth a damn yeah it's just one of those things where like this all goes to the best way to mitigate weather is to have a vehicle that is properly maintained so that it mitigates the weather for you and don't overdrive your headlights don't overdrive the headlights. Don't overdrive the conditions. Like this assault defense is driving 101. That username. BrigJL. I think I know who that is actually.

LJ. But I don't want to say it on the show. But emergency extra cash not on your person. So I don't know if you were ever in this habit when you were younger, but I know when I was young, it wasn't an uncommon thing to like, you had a 20 like in your glove box. And that was like emergency. That was not beer money. That was like emergency get home money. Because this is back when $20 would fill up your gas tank and buy you a Coke. Now $20 is like up your gas tank and buy you a Coke. Now $20 is like, and, you know, get you about two miles down the road.

No, I didn't have that. But my mom told me all the time to keep a quarter in my shoe so that if I needed to make a phone call home, I could find a pay phone and call home. I think we just dated ourselves. I know. So I did. I kept a quarter in my shoe. Pay phone and a quarter to make a phone call. It was. We didn't have cell phones and pay phones were still a thing.

Or know how to call collect. And that was when you memorized everybody's numbers because the Rolodex was in your head. But yeah, I kept a quarter in my shoe or in my sock. The only number I've memorized is yours. Really? Yeah. I was one of those weird kids that had like a little pad of paper with everybody's number on it. Because I just, something in my brain is really good at math and really bad at memorizing. I mean, mom and dad's phone number was the same thing because it was a house phone.

It was a landline. Yeah. I wasn't memorizing cell phone numbers. Actually, I think I still know my old my old home phone number anyway wow anyway so when you're away from home ostensibly this is going to be when you're staying at a hotel someplace i mean i'm not really lumping in like camping trips with this because when we go camping like you're you're gonna live like a homeless person anyway. So you bring everything with you, but like,

is there anything preparedness wise that we do or don't do or things we do differently when we're staying away from the house at like a hotel or something that maybe don't apply to the average person? I mean, I have things. I have, I make sure that I always have hair clips so that I can clip the curtains together. And I use every lock on the door, no matter what, and I test those locks.

So I'll put the little flap thing over and open the door to make sure it holds, or the chain to make sure it holds. over and open the door to make sure it holds or the chain to make sure it holds. As crazy as it sounds, I look for places where cameras can be. Do you know the window trick or the mirror trick? The mirror trick, yeah. So the mirror trick, I never use... Can you explain the mirror trick if they don't know? Can you explain the mirror trick if they don't know?

So if you put your finger on the mirror and there's space between your reflection, then it's a real mirror. If you put your finger on the mirror and there's no space between your finger and the reflection, then it's most likely a two-way mirror. Or it's a one-way mirror. One-way. Yeah, one-way mirror. I'm sorry. It's a two-way mirror. Or it's a one-way mirror. There's a... One-way. Yeah, one-way mirror. I'm sorry. It's a one-way mirror. So you can see through it.

Yeah. On the other side. So there's that trick. I don't worry about that because if somebody is going to go through that much trouble to see my naked butt getting out of the shower, enjoy it. Yeah, well... But you know, ladies might want to consider that.

But... And then the other thing is I never use a hotel safe. That is an excellent point because a lot of people do not take into account the fact that hotel staff almost exclusively has a way to break into those things. And it's assuming they don't just set them all to the exact same combination because knowing a lot of lot of, a lot of patrons won't change the combination even though you're supposed to. So I make sure that my valuables, if I have them are on me at all times. The other thing that I'll do, like for this last trip that I went on,

I went to Costa Rica. I did not wear my diamond rings down there. I wore some $15 Amazon purchase in case that fell off. So I make sure like, it depends on the event or whatever we're doing, but I'm not going to bring like my jewelry or good expensive jewelry. I'll wear, you know, whatever. And, um, yeah, I just, I don't, I don't, I just make sure everything stays on me or it's locked up in my own stuff. Yeah. And typically, I mean, if I'm going to be away from the hotel for any length of time,

I'll usually take like that one bag that has like the fireman or everything in it. So if the truck's going to be someplace out of my custody for an extended period of time, then I'm kind of in a weird position where I'll usually try to hide it someplace in the room. You know what I'm saying? Because I agree with you about leaving it in the hotel safe. To me, that's like putting a big old sign on that says, here's the stuff I don't want stolen. Whereas I feel like if you hide it someplace in the hotel,

the first obstacle that has to be overcome, somebody has to find it. And that involves them going looking for it. And I tend to think that if things are just not left out in the open, that that is already the greatest thing you could do. Like for those of you that are in preparedness, I would say like if you're going to have prepper stuff or firearms and it's going to be left out of your custody because sometimes that's just unavoidable on a trip, have the most nondescript duffel bag you can find. Nothing that's camouflaged, nothing that has patches or Velcro on it, nothing that looks like something you got at an Army surplus store.

Like, I'm telling you, you could get a guitar case and you could have a freaking minigun in it if you wanted. Most people wouldn't even think twice about it. So like, you know, a little bit of like gray man knowledge, a little bit of hiding stuff in plain sight goes a long way in that instance. Personally, I do agree with you about checking to make sure all the locks actually work. We usually will take the do not disturb sign and we'll smack that on the outside of the door as soon as we get there. Yeah. Because we don't want people in and out of our hotel room.

And if it gets bad enough that they need to be in our room, we will intentionally take that off. And at least usually we'll stick around the hotel until they've come and left and then put it right back on. If you minimize the traffic in and out of your hotel room, there's less opportunity for something to turn up missing. Yeah. Oh, on this trip, so I have my passport and all that stuff.

Well, you don't want to carry your passport on you at all times. So I made sure that I found a place in my room where I could safely put my passport. And I did not keep my passport and my money together. I won't say where I hid everything. But, you know, thinking about that beforehand of, okay, this is going to be a good place to stash my cash because I'm only going to take $60 with me as I go out today. But, you know, a couple hundred are going to stay back at the room in a certain place. And I'm certainly not taking my passport with me, but I do have my ID, my state issued ID on me for identification so I can get in and out

of this country. And taking a picture of your passport that has your ID number on it. And then the stamp when you got into country to show, look, I really am here because my passport. Here's a good one. And I am kind of ashamed I just now thought of it. Did you know where your nearest consulate office was? I did not. But I knew where the police station was. Police station would have helped. But I would say if you knew where the nearest U.S. either consulate office or U.S. embassy was because you were out of the country, I would say that would be very useful information for those of you who are going to travel internationally. Because like you said, if you have a picture of your passport or you have a state-issued ID from the U.S. and you show up at the front gate and say, I'm an American, I need help, you're in infinitely better position than if you show up hat in hand. Because the first thing they have to do at that point is prove who the hell you are. If you at least have a picture of your passport, they can call home and verify that. So, you know, but at least know where the nearest police station is.

I did know where the police station was. I did know where the police station was. Do you know where the nearest hospital was? I knew where the clinics were. Okay. I don't know how Costa Rica works with hospitals. I never saw a major hospital, but there were clinics everywhere, like urgent cares. As long as it's a place you can get emergency medical care. And, again, like this is one of those things that, things that I usually will, again, it depends on the situation.

When I go to Prepper Camp, I'll be honest, I have no idea where the nearest hospital is to Prepper Camp. Don't really care to know either. Because of everyone we're surrounded by. Well, okay. And we're at Prepper Camp. I'm going to tell the story, and I doubt Dave Jones is listening. Dave Jones, the NBC guy from Prepper Broadcast Network. So the first year we

were at Prepper Camp, Dave cut the F out of himself. He had a big old Rambo knife. He was selling... I remember this story. Yeah, he was selling at his booth at Prepper Camp and somebody wanted to see it so he whips that thing on out of the sheath and just right

through the meat of his hand with it. And he went to the aid station i think all they had was like band-aids and some gauze and they wrapped his hand up said yeah you might need to go get some stitches so he's coming back he's holding pressure on it you know gauze and an ace bandage around his hand come back to the booth and we said we happen to see him it was like what happened and he's like oh you know i cut myself this end the other and well happened to see him. And it was like, what happened? And he's like, oh, you know, I cut myself this end, the other. Well, we're standing right there with Tommy, who's a critical care flight paramedic by trade. Well, Tommy frigate has Medbond in his pack and literally iodines him and glues that shot

right there in the vendor's area of Prepper Camp. So yeah, Prepper Camp is the best place to have a life-threatening emergency. Right. Because you are surrounded by people that are, you know, paramedics, EMTs, firefighters, police, military. I will say this. In Costa Rica, because your sister Becca got the opportunity you know she's she's a paramedic works for one of our local ambulance services but we were crossing the street and it just so happened that one of their ambulances pulled up right behind us and the look on your sister's

face was this Christmas it was like oh my god should I go talk to him I really want to go talk to him I really need to go talk to him I really want to see what's inside that ambulance. And so I said, go talk to him. And so I push her over that way. She goes, she's so excited. I mean, she was jumping. She was so giddy. And I have pictures of her talking to these paramedics, but I don't even know if that's what you would call them. But I can say that we are better equipped and prepared in our car than, well, if not more than at least equal to, minus a stretcher, to the ambulances in Costa Rica. They are just basic life support. Basic, like, boo-boo kits. If it's worse than that, you're going to a hospital.

Yeah, but there was only one ambulance in HACO that had an AED on it. Ooh. Only one in the entire area. You can say what you want about our health industry and the cost of health insurance and the cost of an ambulance ride, but you cannot complain about the sheer volume of equipment and medicine

that our health system can bring to bear on a problem. Yeah, I totally believe that I'm better equipped in my Jeep than one of those ambulances. Although they're going to have more of the supplies. I have it just for three people or whatever. But yeah, I thought it was really interesting. Very interesting. Sounds it.

We're definitely more prepared at Prepper Camp with everyone. Well, I mean, that's the whole point is to be more prepared than if you weren't. I'm talking about in comparison to an ambulance in Costa Rica. So, I mean, is there anything we haven't talked about yet that you feel like belongs in a conversation around going on a road trip, going on vacation when you have a crazy prepper husband and prepper tendencies. I think most of it is common sense. I really do.

Oh, I can't sign off on that idea, though. Well, the basics should be common sense. You used the right qualifier there. I know. I know. I know. That's why I changed what I said. I can't think of anything that we didn't discuss or didn't talk about.

No. I can't think of anything that we didn't discuss or didn't talk about. No, I think that when it comes, I'm kind of notorious for insisting that preparedness is not like a hobby or a set of activities. It's a mindset. Oh, Gillian has an idea. You have downloaded maps on your phone so that you don't have to use the internet. So if you get out in a place where there's no cell phone service and obviously no Wi-Fi, you at least have maps to get us out of there. But I will say that in that vein, if you're going to rely on maps on your phone, you now have to carry like one of those rechargeable battery packs. You have to carry one of those either in your bag or in your vehicle and that is not oh i just want to play candy crusher nonsense

that is now an emergency piece of equipment to keep your maps up i'm just saying i know or an atlas make sure you have an atlas in your car again some some way of navigating yes 100 um i i mean if you want to take one one step further, I'd say get a compass. But quite frankly, if you can't figure out, like, bear in mind that most of the interstates are laid out north, south, and east and west. You can look at the sun and know what time of day it is and figure out what direction you're going. And if you can't figure that out, you need to do some orienteering. Probably shouldn't be driving. Yes.

But I agree with Joe. Let's back up. GPS unit is another good one. Although if you're going to use a GPS, it's the same kind of problem. You got to have an alternate way to power it or charge it. That now becomes a piece of emergency equipment because if your navigation equipment goes down, it's not doing any good. But I have to agree with Joe. Like a lot of this stuff should be common sense, but not everybody has common sense.

And a lot of the, a lot of the lessons like you and I grew up with, they don't apply anymore. I don't want to say they don't apply, but like people aren't being taught this stuff. People, people just cross themselves and wing in a prayer and go and hope they get where they're going. And then Joe's comments start carrying extra lady hygiene stuff. Again,

I guess I would hope that that would be common sense for women, but I know it's not. I know it's not common sense and common sense is lacking in my gender. You are a highly evolved woman. There are other women like me out there. There are. But that is, that's tucked away in all the tucked away places. No matter where we go, it's like, oh, yeah, I have that. And then having that, that's a good, that could be used as a bandage or something.

You know, you can use pads for, or even a tampon. You don't want to think about it like that? No, there's a running joke in the prepper community that people used to think you should put tampons in your IFX to use for gunshots. Okay. Does that sound like a stupid idea? No. How much blood does a tampon absorb before it's fully saturated? Well, it expands, too.

How much blood can it... I don't know. Okay. I've never... I don't know. About one-eighth to a tenth the amount that a wound packing will. Okay. I'm not thinking in case you get shot by a gun.

I'm thinking like you, I don't know, you fall on a stick. I don't know. Yes. I think having something super absorbent you could also use. They're made to absorb blood i'm gonna make you talk to somebody if you keep to keep going down this whole tampons for wound care route i'm not okay don't you think that having don't you think having tampons or pads for their typical use, which is for feminine hygiene, could also be doubled up as, oh shit, I need something to stop the bleeding or to put over a cut or something. And it's like,

ding, I have something just for bleeding. No? Okay, fine. If you ever cut yourself, Lord forbid, you're not getting one of my pads. I don't want one of your pads because I have other things that are much better at dealing with, you know, bleeding. Oh, Lord have mercy. Okay, listen. Listen, Linda. Hang on. Listen, Linda. I will concede that in an emergency situation with no other options, a tampon as a form of dressing is better than nothing okay comma however if you have

to use the tampon because you ran out of gauze and you know everything to pack a wound with you've either had a really really bad day or you really really screwed up i'm not saying only pack tap tampons and pads for emergencies. I swear to God, honey, I will get one of my frigging TACMED friends to come on this show and you will be obligated to come and defend this. Oh, well, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying, oh, we got everything we need. I've got tampons and pads. Oh, Jesus Christ. I cannot believe we had to unpack this trope on my show. Well, the fact that you thought that that was what I said is

disheartening. Joe said they're good if you cut them in quarters for nosebleeds. One that you're going to have? I'll punch you in your face? No, what he did say is, Phil, you need to carry them for me and Piper.

You wear two socks. Somebody come get your boy. Come get your boy. Come get your boy. Can't help it. Not going to try to. But anyway, I mean, bearing in mind, like i was saying before i was derailed by the tampons in the med kit preparedness preparedness is a mindset it's not an activity it's not a hobby

so because preparedness is a mindset it becomes the lens you look at things through and i tend to think that yes most of the things we would talk about in the guise of preparedness largely are common sense things or they used to be common sense. But I think that for a lot of the same reasons why I started this show eight years ago now, you know, it's because I see people doing things that to me are common sense. And at one time to our generation, they were common sense. We were younger, but somewhere along the way, people forgot to get the message out. So I had one more thing. One more thing. Is it tampons?

No, it's not. One thing that came in, I needed while I was on this trip to Costa Rica was liquid IV and having a backup resource for electrolyte imbalances. Because sometimes you just don't realize how hard you're working or how much sweat you're losing and things like that. And you can't get to a corner store to get a power aid. So having a little packet of powder to put in your water bottle to refresh your electrolyte so you don't pass out, that will go

in every car a box of it will go in every car and we'll go on every trip for us with us from now on it was a lifesaver in costa rica that's perfectly fair seems reasonable anyway i introduced um interrupted your that's okay you're i'm just saying these things really should be common sense well isn't that why you do this show, these things really should be common sense. Isn't that why you do this show, you and Andrew? Yeah, because common sense isn't common anymore, apparently. But I would say, you know, to the listeners, if we missed anything that you feel like bears pointing out, like if you're watching this on YouTube or Facebook, drop a comment. If you're listening to this in audio, you can always come find us on social media and talk it over with us.

Or you can go straight to mofpodcast.com and drop something on the contact form. Like, we don't have, me and Andrew are the social media team. So when you contact us through one of those routes, it comes to us. There's nobody else. There's me. Not on Matter of Facts. Not often. There's me. Not on Matter of Facts. Not often. Sometimes.

Okay, Ghost of Gilead 2. But yeah. Anyway. Let's not turn this into an Italian goodbye. You do that. I'm the Italian. I'm not even saying goodbye. You're the one doing it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right before we leave. one doing it yeah yeah yeah uh right before we leave brig jl saying lj brig lj saying uh carrying a portable power station 12 volt usb and 110 i mean yeah have again to me it is always if you have if you have a piece of equipment you have to support the piece of equipment if a piece of equipment, you have to support the piece of equipment. If a piece of equipment is like a CPAP, like some of our listeners have to deal with, or if you're depending on your cell phone for anything, for communications or for navigation, you've got to have a way to keep that lit up.

You have to treat all of your support equipment as mission essential, and then you have to ask yourself, what do I need to support the equipment? But anyway, we'll go ahead and kick this one out the door. Matter of fact, podcast going out with Gillian. If you're going on a trip, please plan ahead, check your tires and make sure you're going to make it there and back safely and talk to you in another week. Are you asking me? I guess not.

Bye. Have a great afternoon. Thank you.