Well, as many of you know, about a week ago or so my “Get Home Bag” from my truck was stolen from the park­ing lot where I had been park­ing my car for two plus years.  In hind sight, I think it was my fault for assum­ing that there was ample secu­ri­ty.  Rather, I became com­pla­cent.  Com­pla­cen­cy, I think, will kill you in a sur­vival sit­u­a­tion, no mat­ter how mild or extreme.

The truth is, I have felt a bit naked and unpre­pared with­out the bag in my truck.  I have been in NYC sev­er­al times, the envi­ron­ment the bag was pri­mar­i­ly designed for, as well as out and about in PA, and cen­tral NJ since it was stolen.

All of that said, I am plan­ning on replac­ing the gear.  I have made a pre­lim­i­nary list below for you to peruse, and be sure to let me know what you think.

Total cost of the Get Home Bag as priced on Ama­zon: 482.75 (give or take $50.00 — $75.00 for sourc­ing bet­ter deals on the items)  This is prob­a­bly with­in $75.00 of what I prob­a­bly spent on the gear that went miss­ing when it was stolen out of my truck.    Much of the gear I had assem­bled over time and was redun­dant camp­ing gear I had, but cal­cu­lat­ing the replace­ment prices this morn­ing was a real­i­ty check to me.  Sort of sucks, don’t you think? This varies great­ly from the con­ver­sa­tion that I had with my friend Doug, about the cost of what went miss­ing… I was off by about $275.00.  Shows you that you for­get what you spend over time.

Some of this gear I already own today, and is redun­dant to what I have in my Bug Out Bag already, and has just been sit­ting around wait­ing for a use.  Some of it I have to order.  As you may gath­er, it is going to be some time before I order every­thing up I need.  I’ll end up spend­ing about $300.00 on gear.  The ques­tion, I need to ask myself is.  What of these items is ABSOLUTELY essen­tial, and what can I do with­out to save mon­ey, and to still feel/be pre­pared to get home if I have to?

This was the pre­lim­i­nary list I put togeth­er this week… Next I make a futile call to Vista Park­ing to see where they got with the stolen items.  I can tell you where, before I even call, but need to do the fol­low — up any­way…

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