I Wanna Know – Do You Have a “Go Bag” Too?

Your opinion of me just might change by the end of this post.

Nothing major. It will probably go from, “hmmm, that Gab is a little odd” to “man, that Gab is really odd.” I can live with that.

Here’s my confession: I sleep better at night with a Go Bag by my door and a car equipped with spare water, food, a camp stove, tent and other survival essentials. Ok fine, here’s another confession – maybe we just haven’t fully unpacked it yet from our two-year road trip.

I don’t consider myself a survivalist. I make no promises that I can go out and hunt, kill and cook my own food if necessary. Good lordessa no. And I’m no nihilist. I’m not stockpiling my basement full of silver, guns and end-of-the-world type stuff “just in case.”

(Nevermind that I have neither silver, guns nor a basement.)

I just like to be mobile.

I like to know that should something (anything, nothing) happen and I need/want to split, I can. And I am so, so lucky to have a partner that shares this mindset.

When I lived in Poland, it was such a pain in the *ss to get back to my apartment at the end of the tram line that I probably spent more nights at friends’ families’ homes than my own. So there was that Go Bag: packed with a toothbrush, some zloty (cash), a walkman, a journal and pen, spare underwear and a couple of scribbled lesson plans (in case I wouldn’t get home before work the next day).

Zloty and a walkman. Jeez am I dating myself?

Living in Santiago, almost all of our friends remembered huge earthquakes that shook their families and left them scrambling out of their homes at all hours of the night when they were kids. So the fact that our apartment had a go bag filled with emergency supplies just meant we were like everyone else.

9/11, subsequent security threats and national disasters have brought the concept of Go Bags to a much larger population in the United States. I am guessing that I am not the only person in my apartment building with one. But I’m not sure.

So here’s my question: do you have a Go Bag? What’s in it?

If you’re curious about what other folks have in theirs, here are a few links:

New York City Office of Emergency Management -simple, small, easy to do

Kobenhavn Kinshasa – and Back

The American Red Cross – cause some folks might not feel like packing their own.

Doyle & MacDonald – this page actually has packing lists for 4 different kinds of Go Bags -first aid, wilderness rescue, urban bag and one for evacuation and deployment. As you can see, the author of this page is a former military officer and a current Nationally Registered Wilderness EMT-I.

And this site – OneBag.com – is absolutely fantastic for all of the bags you need to pack. Bookmark this one now.

(If you’re wondering what got me off on this little kick today, blame National Geographic’s Six Degrees Could Change the World being on TV this morning.)