10 Vegas Experiences for the Prepper

Since I live in Las Vegas, I know there are plenty of entertainment options for locals as well as tourists here.  It recently dawned on me, however, that there are plenty of Vegas experiences that would be useful for the prepper to partake in, whether you live here or are looking for an out-of-the-ordinary tourist experience...

1. Check out Battlefield Vegas and learn how to handle a variety of weapons.  There are actually numerous businesses in Vegas that specialize in shooting experiences, Battlefield Vegas is just one example.
2. For advanced tactical training, you can head over to Front Sight in Pahrump.
3. Learning how to hike in the desert is always a good skill to have.  There are several groups in Vegas that hike together regularly and most invite visitors to come along as well (examples here, here, here, and here).
4. And as long as you are in Vegas, there is no need to skip your daily run.  There are always a variety of running events (both road and trail) happening here.
5. The apocalypse has happened and you need to rebuild (or tear down what's left and start over).  Don't know how to work heavy equipment like a back hoe or excavator?  Learn the basics at Dig This.
6. On the other hand, you may need to steal a high-end car and race away from a situation a la James Bond.  Learn how to drive a race car at Dream Racing (or similar business) in Las Vegas. 
7. If you want to learn actual counter-terrorism skills, there's a place for that too in Las Vegas.  Check out CRI Counter Terrorism Training School.
8. Oddly enough, in the middle of the desert, there is a huge orchard and farm that provides u-pick experiences for anyone who comes by.  It's always a good idea to learn gardening skills where ever you can.
9. Do you know how to handle a speed boat, jet ski, or kayak?  After a simple "training" video you can rent a variety of watercraft to practice with on at Lake Mead.
10. Want to tackle your fear of heights?  The Strat offers a bunch of thrill rides, at the TOP of it's 1150 foot tower, that will either cure your of your fear of heights...or reinforce them.

When on Vacation...You Still Need to Be Prepared

This article popped up on my feedreader this afternoon about a water emergency over in Laughlin, Nevada.  Laughlin is a small tourist town about an hour and a half from Las Vegas on the Colorado River.  Seeing as how there is no water in the entire town, it is 110+ degrees there today, that it is a busy weekend, that there are tourists everywhere, and that the people on the Laughlin Facebook page are freaking out about the situation, it serves as a good reminder that even if you are on vacation and assume that your hotel will be able to take care of you with the basics like food and water, that may not be the case in an emergency.

We make it a habit as soon as we check into a hotel (or on the way there), to stop by a store along the way to pick up a case of water and basic food stuff.  You never know if or when an emergency will happen, like the water emergency in Laughlin, and you could find yourself without even the most basic of sustenance like water of food for a prolonged period.  Disasters, whether man-made or of the natural sort, can leave tourists in a bind because they are away from their home where they have their preps and the local hotel/stores/cruise ship/etc. may run completely out of water/food/electricity/etc. causing a crisis for everyone involved.

Next time you go on vacation be a bit proactive and make up a mini stock of preps in your hotel room/cruise ship room to tide you through any disaster that may strike.

10 Vacations to Take This Summer

Granted most people can't just leave work and literally take ten vacations in one summer but you can always condense your vacations into weekend instead of week-long adventures.

1. Go camping or backpacking (the back-to-nature thing, sans electronics, is a great way to unplug while also practicing some survival skills).
2. Go on a micro-adventure.
3. Go on a road trip to visit friends or family (this is also good practice for bugging out).
4. Take an international trip (traveling among different countries/cultures is a valuable learning experience).
5. Visit a popular tourist attraction (good practice managing in a crowd).
6. Go off-the-beaten-track (visit a small town, a beach town, a remote town, etc).
7. Go to an organized camp where you will learn something (dude ranch, a week or weekend at Front Sight or similar, a convention related to your hobby, DEFCON, etc).
8. Experience a destination you have never been to before (rain forest, desert, swamp, ocean, inner city, etc).
9. Spend a vacation helping others (working on a Habitat for Humanity house, volunteering at a children's camp, etc).
10. Attend an intensive workshop to increase your job skills (example here).

Cruise Ship Preps

It's been over a month since my last post here, mostly because we were floating around the ocean for a good chunk of that time.  The spouse needed a vacation and what better place to go than being stranded on a tiny ship floating in the middle of a vast ocean for weeks at a time?  Actually it wasn't quite that bad (and if you happened to have served on any type of military ship I can confirm that being waited on hand and foot and fed into a carb coma is much better than standing watch and hanging around the engine room, but I digress).  Of course every situation requires some preps so here is the list...

• Cruise ships are generally a safe way to travel.
• And many disasters can be averted by general common sense.
• Know where the things are that you would need in an emergency including escape routes from your room, where your muster station is, where your life jackets are, and what the alarms mean.
• Have a small go bag ready just in case (FYI...cruise ships now scan bags for any contraband prior to letting you embark so that rules out guns and other types of weapons).  My go bag was an Ultra Sil backpack, hung next to the bed, with a handful of ziploc bags.  To go into this bag (and the ziploc bags) in the event of an emergency would have been my cell phone, passport and ID, cruise ship ID card, wallet with cash and credit cards, bottles of water, granola bars, whistle, flashlight, etc.  
• Learn every corner of your cruise ship.  Check out each deck and learn where everything is.  Where is the tender deck?  Where are the extra life jackets stored?  Where are the life boats and life rafts stored?  How do you get from point A to point B quickest?
• Make friends with the staff.  Besides making your trip extra comfortable and enjoyable (we were lavished with free drinks just for being friendly with the crew, they went out of their way to make special meals upon request, and we didn't wait in line for anything), knowing the crew and them knowing you can only be a good thing during a crisis.
• Determine where you can find other items you may need in a crisis such as fire extinguishers, the ship's clinic, improvised weapons, etc.
• Be prepared to take care of your own health and safety.  Some things are pretty obvious (like being careful where and how you walk when the ship is bouncing around in turbulent seas and not touching everything in sight then touching your face/nose/mouth).  While others deserve a reminder, like bringing your own extra prescription meds and your own first aid kit, and keeping your hands cleaned and sanitized regularly.
• Take the same precautions on a ship that you would anytime you travel.
• Don't drink yourself stupid.  This is incredibly easy to do on a cruise ship as bar staff are pushing drinks on you at every turn but in order to keep control of your safety (and you credit card bill!), save the binge drinking for the safety of your home.
• Plan your cruise duration and destination with care.  Longer, more expensive cruises during the off season generally have a median age of 70+ and a quieter crowd overall, whereas short duration cruises to the Caribbean during spring break generally have a younger, rowdier party crowd.  I'll choose the former.  And you couldn't pay me enough to cruise along the coast of Africa without a SEAL team on board.
• Remain semi-cognizant of what is going on in the world.  It's easy to tune out the world when you are on a cruise--except when the only two channels you have on TV are MSNBC (we hate Trump, we hate republicans) and Fox (we love Trump, we love Republicans)...needless to say we mostly tuned out the news completely.  But in each port we did use free WiFi and/or free data from our cell provider to check up on what was happening at home and abroad.
• Realize that it is easy to spend money and not realize it since everything is conveniently charged to your room card (and thus your credit card) and you don't get the bill until the last day of the cruise.  Drinks are expensive, internet access on the ship is expensive, cell service on the ship is criminally expensive, shore excursions may or may not be worth it...do your homework and exercise some financial control when you are out to sea.

10 Lessons From Our Recent Vacation

Last week was the spouse's birthday.  The spouse loves to travel, specifically by cruise ship.  Thus, our vacation last week was to go on a cruise.  If I never go on another cruise ship in my lifetime...but I digress...

Here are ten lessons learned that certainly pertain to travel and can also carry over into survival situations.

1. A guy I was talking to on the ship paid $75 to get from LAX to the cruise port via taxi.  Another guy paid $25 for the same trip using Uber.  The spouse and I paid $1.75 each using public transit.  Lesson: public transit of an often overlooked, but quite cheap and efficient way to travel whether at your travel destination or in your own city.  Even if you don't particularly care for public transit, it is a good idea to know how to use it anyway.
2. We each carry a 26l backpack and with a bit of planning, we can easily pack for a week-long to month-long trip in this very small bag.  We each had plenty of clothes for all occasions on the ship from beachwear to the captain's dinner, and hauling the bags via public transit was simple and easy.  I always shake my head when I see people pull up to the ship and unload two huge suitcases each from their taxi--it looks like they are permanently moving in.  Lesson: travel light, you don't need to bring too much stuff to have an enjoyable vacation.
3. I always carry extra food and water with me as you never know if you will be delayed and unable to find sustenance while you are waiting (or in the case of this cruise, when you will be left stranded for days with limited food and water).  Lesson: always make sure you have extra food and water at hand whether in your cruise ship cabin, vacation destination, or home.
4. When we travel we always drink bottled water, and we mostly avoid the buffets on the cruise ship in lieu of going to the full service dining room for meals.  When you think of how many dirty hands have touched the serving spoons at the buffet it is kind of an epidemiologist's nightmare.  Lesson: your efforts at cleanliness will aid in you not getting sick while on vacation or in a disaster situation.  Sanitation is kind of a big deal.
5. I had some interesting conversations in both the spouse's language (since half of the crew were Filipino) as well as in Spanish (there was a problem with our cabin and the guy who came to fix it spoke Spanish but very little English so a conversation in Spanish it was).  Not only does this help to make new friends and/or gather information you would otherwise not be privy to, but in the event of an emergency, I have already developed a sort of relationship with these people who could be helpful in the event of a crisis.  Lesson: learning another language can expand your horizons--as well as your survival options--during a disaster.
6. Fortunately, a vacation like an all-inclusive cruise does not require cash but rather a credit card that can be debited for everything from drinks to ship-board souvenirs.  Even though I didn't need any extra cash, in this case, a few well-placed tips were appreciated by the crew, and in port, American dollars usually work just fine.  Lesson: carry extra cash, you never know when it will come in handy.
7. Also, fortunately we had a very pleasant, very enjoyable vacation, however you never know when a crisis--most often medical in the case of cruise ship travelers--will strike so it pays to have a disaster plan for this scenario.  We checked our health insurance and yes, it would cover us anywhere in the world, we had extra cash (for medical emergencies the ship will usually spit you out at the nearest port to be taken to a local hospital which often isn't well versed in insurance reimbursement and will require cash for treatment), and we rolled the dice on not getting medical evacuation insurance but as we get older this may indeed come in handy in the future.  Lesson: consider what kind of "worst case scenario" you may run into on vacation and make a plan to deal with it.
8. I realize that some people come on cruise ships to party it up and remain black-out drunk for the duration of their vacation but that sort of experience can get you into trouble in a hurry (especially in some ports).  Vacations can be enjoyable with some or no buzz which will allow you to remain in control of yourself and aware of any situation you find yourself in (not to mention that you will find your bar bill less than catastrophic when you finish up your vacation).  Lesson: never get so drunk that you don't know what is going on around you.
9. Most vacations will end up costing more than you expected.  On a cruise ship this can come in the form of over-priced drinks, photos, and activities, while in other places you may end up paying the "Gringo tax" every time you purchase something.  Often people are much more free with their money when they are on vacation simply because they are on vacation.  Lesson: set a budget and a spending plan for your vacation and stick to it.
10. Finally, as in any scenario, be aware of your surroundings.  In the case of a cruise (or even traveling to the cruise port by public transit), I note where the emergency exits are, who the people are that are around me, where potential weapons can be found, what the weather is forecasted to be, etc.  Lesson: just because you are on vacation, your situational awareness should take a vacation.