My Apocalyptic Camping Trip…or The Day the World Didn’t End

Part I – The Preface

12/21/12 – The end of the Mayan Long Count Calender. The last day before it starts all over again . . . or if you would rather, the end of the world!  Was it really going to be the end of the world?  I didn’t think so, but I also knew there would be a fair number of people out that would be a lot less rational.  I’m not going to lie, I was a bit nervous about what some of those people might do on that day.

At least the Facebook posts got a little more entertaining

.Explains a lot. I would have done the same

Then there are all the people that say, ‘Woo hoo! It is the end of the world, let’s party like there is no tomorrow!’  That was fun in 1999 when I had just turned 21.  But that was 13 years ago and the idea is less than appealing to the older, more sensible me.  The best outcome that scenario would give me was a miserable hangover on the 22^nd and I could think of much worse outcomes; especially if I happened to bump into a person that exhibited both previously mentioned qualities.

Been there. Done that.  I'll pass this go round.

So I decided to go camping to avoid the issue altogether.  I haven’t had the opportunity to go camping much this year and I have not had many opportunities to be alone with my thoughts either.  The idea of doing both was more than appealing.  But it was more than a camp trip.  I was going to be prepared to stay out there longer than my intended trip if I had to do so.  You know, in case individuals in that first group I mentioned decided to do something crazy.

See when I was a kid my dad had a backpack that had everything we would need to survive in the mountains ready at all times so that if things got real, so to speak, he could grab it and be gone in a moment’s notice. I am not sure of the exact reason why this was necessary but it probably had at least a little to do with the fact that he grew up in the aftermath of the height of the cold war when the threat of nuclear weapons was very real and the cities were where those devices were targeted.  So if you had any notification it was not going to be much, and the city was the last place you wanted to be.

Whatever the reasons, does not take away from the fact that it is always a good idea to have a contingency plan in case you can’t rely on the modern conveniences that our advances have afforded us.  There are a lot of things out there that can knock out the power grid for a couple days.  Do you have everything you would need to ride that out?

I understand that the power running out for a couple days might not warrant running out into the mountains and living like Bear Grylls, but what if it lasted for several weeks or months?  If you answered ‘no’ to my last question, imagine everyone else that did the same.  What if aid to all those people was unable to happen for one unfortunate reason or another? It might make since to get out of an urban setting and away from the potential mob mentality at that point.

It's all fake anyway.

When my dad had that backpack, I wanted to do everything that he did so I wanted one too.  My dad threw together a hatchet, a collapsible fishing pole, a backpacking stove and a first aid kit and put it into a little school backpack with a few other things for me. Realistically I probably would not have been able to last a day with it on my own, but I was happy.  I ended up taking it out with me a few times in high school where it affectionately became known as my ‘end of the world kit’.

But as I finished college and got into the professional world, I had always intended to make a more functional pack.  And that grew into a desire to have extra food, water, and other supplies around the house as a means of just being a little more prepared for the unexpected; especially after I started volunteering for the Red Cross. I was slowly working toward that goal but still wasn’t where I had hoped to be.  So I looked at this camp trip as an opportunity set a deadline to get to the point of basic preparedness that I had always intended.

And it was exciting. Not because I was preparing for the end of the world, but because I was achieving a goal I seemed to have always had. That excitement bled over into thoughts of actually having the opportunity to use it all.  I found myself thinking, ‘well if the apocalypse does happen I could use such and such to do this’ or ‘if the end of the world does happen I would have enough supplies to last so long.’  I found myself planning out how I would survive the apocalypse for as long as the earth let me not because I thought it would happen, but because I was finally prepared for an unexpected emergency; at least as much as I could foresee happening.

I mean who could have predicted that there would be no more Twinkies?!

 Because of this excitement, I found myself doing and saying things in a tongue-in-cheek manner as if I were waiting for the Mayans to come and end it all.  I decided to write about my camping experience in the same manner because it was funny—at least to me it was.

So tune in tomorrow to see if I even made it out the door or if the Mayans were waiting at my house for a surprise sneak attack!

Until next we meet.