1:45 PM - Thursday - August 22nd - LPG&RVR - 78° F, humidity 14%, wind 18 mph out of the south by southwest......partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 79° F. On this date in 2020 TLE and I were courtesy parked on the property of good friends Bob and Karen who live on Whidbey Island near Coupeville.....Mt. Baker in the distance.....
....the temps that week were in the mid 60's.....not bad for late August most anywhere.
Still catching up on my blog postings, and this one will be about Wednesday's happenings, or lack thereof......😁
So far this summer we've completed our 2 mile out and back walk 40 times for a total of 80 miles. Wednesday's walk nudged us up to 82 miles. We should still reach our 100 mile mark with time to spare before we roll our wheels southward once again.....
......we averaged 3.2 mph once again, and my knee is feeling better than I deserve. Still had to wear the vest as it was just 49° F when we began our walk.
The rest of the day is kind of a blur of INactivity. I sat on the 'lido deck' sipping hot coffee for over an hour, then went into the trailer/garage (it looks more like a garage right now) to do my toning exercises, then into the Newell to do my PT (physical therapy) exercises, then put my knee on ice, and took a nap. The ice really helps reduce any swelling resulting from the PT exercises.
I think I've written about our modest preparations in case there is a major disruption in services due to whatever.....earthquake, fire (or any natural disaster), civil unrest (riots), EMP attack, etc. We've acquired about 2 months (and will be getting more) of dehydrated food which we keep in this sealed 12 gallon barrel....
....an we've got probably another 3-4 weeks of canned/shelf stable food. TLE recently bought (on Amazon) three rectangular storage boxes for these goods, which just arrived a few days ago. She spent part of the afternoon getting those things organized according to expiration dates, and then stowed in the new, stackable containers....
.....and, finally, we purchases 'Go Bags' which comes with numerous survival tools, a tube tent, emergency blankets (foil), emergency radio that you hand crank to charge the battery, water purification tablets, first aid kits, etc., plus 10 days of food and water. We will keep these in our car (clothing will be added) so if the worst happens and we must hike overland to get back to our Newell we can do so. We've added a Jet Boil stove, an axe, back pack shovel, and a solar water heater, which we bought last winter. We tested it, and we can get water to boiling in about 20 minutes with direct sunlight. Should the worst happen when, on extremely rare occasions, we find ourselves in an urban area, and the car in operable, or the roads are impassable, we can walk out of the urban area to a much safer rural area with 10 days supplies....
....to some this may seem a little extreme, but it pays to be prudent. There is no penalty for a little preparation, but the consequences of not doing anything will be fatal. These packs also have a hydration pocket which will hold a 100 oz water bladder (kind of like a Camelback). We'll also add our hiking poles, and extra water bottles in the car. As you know, we always keep our 160 fresh water rank in the Newell full in case of emergency, and we've been doing that for years. Anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
We spent about 2 hours sorting through all the stuff that came in the packs, and removed duplications to keep their weight down. My pack, obviously, will weigh a little more than TLE's, but she's a strong woman, and will be able to handle whatever needs handling. We've done a lot of other preparations, which I'll get into at a later date, but suffice it to say, we are just about ready.
There were at least two naps for moi in the afternoon. We had planned to see in the sunset again, but the breezes freshened again making 'lido deck' activities less desirable.
Thanks for stopping by!
