The gimp home bag

I had a meeting in Denver yesterday that I couldn't get out of. I had 2 meetings at the same time and I picked the most informative and educational one, might as well learn the most. This one just happened to be outside of Denver in Suburbia.

I grabbed my get home bag and limped my way to the car, the broken toe is healing fine but it doesn't appreciate being jammed into a shoe. I realized that my get home time from Denver would be doubled if something happened, so I limped back into the house for some more food. Knowing what you can cover in X amount of time is really important when planning any kind of emergency situation. I made sure I had double the food and then a little bit more, mountain house meals are relatively light so the weight of the bag didn't increase much.
The items in the bag that weigh the most are water, loaded magazines and this:

Taurus PT92

This was my first handgun, my Dad got it for me in 87 (I would have to dig up some record to be certain, but it's about the year) and he put a lot of gun-smith time into it. I realize it's not tactical but I'm deadly precise with it after around 25 years. It's the best feeling pistol in my hand and I've shot a lot of different weapons. If you have ever had a weapon in your hands that just feels like it's a natural extension of your body, you know what I'm talking about.
I also had my Taurus Millenium baby 9mm, it's my normal carry weapon but has a horrible trigger pull but is the smallest concealed carry I have that holds more than 5 rounds. Better than crapping your pants and wishing you had something and I'm too cheap to get different one.

I take my bag with me whenever I'm more than around  20 minute drive away from home. Anything less I can make it home without the need for a bag. Some people like to carry one with them at all times but that's not practical with a company car that gets used like a taxi when I'm at work. 20 minutes travel by car wouldn't put most people more than 20 miles away and at the average fast food junkie walking pace, that's about 11 to 12 hours out. I've never met a person who said they couldn't walk a 15 minute mile... and I've met a lot of people. Being realistic is very important, if you lie to yourself it's going to be a little depressing when you are doing 2-2.5 hours an hour instead of 4+.

In a get home scenario that would double your time, make sure you tell people who expect you that the time would be doubled. There isn't any need to add stress to a crisis situation by showing up 3 days later than planned when all you have to do is communicate a little. This of course assumes there aren't issues on the way but don't expect me for 6 days is better than a search party after 3.

Lucky for me it's my little toe so I can function perfectly without a shoe on. I could use it as an excuse to put off house and yard work but it has to get done eventually. I had to stake most of my tomato plants, the round cages work pretty good but as things get bigger it's a lot of weight hanging off into space. There are plenty of sticks you can use for this, anything with a branch will work as a 'V' to support the stalk. I have a large roll of string that I can tie the off shoot stalks to the cage with. As long as it's supported that's what matters. I even have a bungie cord on one plant, it just happened to be the closest thing I found on the way to get the twine. I am a little redneck and I'm going to have home grown garden tomato with my turkey sandwich at lunch.