Answering a question, and people can trump a GPS

I was asked in an e-mail for help in contacting other preppers. The best way I can think of to contact other people is to go to this site  and when you go to this page  on that site, send an e-mail to American Prepper with your questions. Did you know that the founder of the American Preppers Network is from Idaho? Yeah, he's the one to ask....

Happy 2012! We headed south for a few days on a road trip right after Christmas, and someone was generous enough to loan us a GPS  (global positioning system) to take with us so that we would hopefully never get lost. (As a side note, my husband has about the best sense of direction I have ever seen, and really doesn't get lost, but the GPS is still an interesting piece of technology to work with, so there it is.) It can be amusing to listen to a mechanical voice give you directions, even  (or perhaps especially) if "her" directions to "make a legal u-turn" when possible sound suspiciously like "make illegal u-turn" when possible... 

So anyway, we headed on our merry way. The borrowed GPS we used is handy because you can feed in an address, and it will then give you directions to the desired location. It worked really well most of the time. It was the two times it, shall we say, "got confused" that showed that common sense plus previous research on a location is priceless regardless of how much technology you are working with. 

Example one:

Ah, this was kind of a biggy... the GPS was programmed to take us to a particular address in a given city--and asked us to exit at a non-existent exit many miles in advance of the city we were actually traveling to. Fortunately, my husband knew enough about the area that he didn't even entertain the idea of taking the route offered, and reset the GPS. There's no shame in asking for directions if you can find someone to give them to you, but it might be a tad bit embarrassing if you are in the wrong area altogether and the people you stop to ask don't know what you are talking about. (Or they do know what you are talking about, and realize that you are about 30 or so miles off-course...) 

Example two:

We were in the aimed-for city already, so we were looking for help from the GPS  with the more detailed directions. Thing is, the location we were looking for was a pretty large building from what we understood, and the GPS was leading us out in the middle of nowhere....so of course we turned around, and just looked for it with our eyes. When I think back on that experience, I think the GPS was "turned around" somehow, because we passed what could have been the other end of a street we had seen when we were following its directions--if it was, it was a looonnngg street. In any case, the only way we got there was to look around, use common sense, and ignore the GPS...

So, what's my point? I guess in this case, one point that can be made is that it is best to think of technology as being the back-up plan in an emergency. If we have technology (electricity, and all that comes with it, as an example) woo-hooo, (seriously) our lives will be that much easier. We just have to know what to do when the technology isn't working, electricity or no. What could we do if the things we do with technology were no longer available? 

For example, what about lighting? If you read my most recent post on my other blog, you will remember that  one of the things that showed up as Christmas gifts were a couple of flashlights, to replace flashlights that had somehow disappeared from where they should have been. Those new (and older, truant flashlights) have a place to be so that they can be found when the lights go out. If the older truant flashlights had been unavailable during a blackout, we would have had to fumble our way to our candles and matches. And hopefully there would be daylight before we had to devise a plan C, if necessary. 

Technology is great, but sometimes fails, and common sense and ingenuity can come to the rescue if necessary. Having somewhat recently reread The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, I am intrigued by the "button light", I believe it was called, that Ma made when they ran out of other means of lighting. It involved a button, a piece of cloth, and some oil...if anyone already knows how to make this, please share. In any case, I will most likely look up how one is made, because I loved the ingenuity of it. When the family ran out of fuel, they made sticks of hay to burn, the method for which is also described in the book. The sticks burned quickly, but they kept the family alive. 

So, yeah, I pretty much figure that people can think of new ways to do things when they have to, and can figure things out when technology just isn't working right. I just figure it's best to have as many back-up plans as possible to deal with such events before any back-up plans are needed....