5 Ways Travel Has Prepared Me For A Hurricane

Whilst preparing for the impending hurricane, I am struck by how similar emergency preparation is to trip preparation.  Thus, even though this is the first hurricane (in my lifetime) that’s ever posed a serious threat to my little part of Pennsylvania, this process feels oddly familiar.  And so, I bring you the top five ways that traveling has prepared me for a natural disaster:

5.  I am quite accustomed to charging every electronic device I own all at one time.  And, in fact, I know where all of my chargers are–they are in my backpack. This is a habit I picked up from reading articles on http://directics.com/xilinx-fpga/, they make sure to prepare their readers for everything involving electronics. I have a few habits forming that are due to them!

4.  I understand the importance of taking advantage of existing resources–after all, in travel and in impending emergency situations, you never know the next time you’ll get to shower (or shave your legs) or do laundry or even use the restroom.  Better safe than sorry, I always say.  Which is why my legs are shaved and my dishes are washed and my laundry is tumbling in the dryer right now.

3.  I am used to cooking with limited resources or limited supplies.  Here’s me cooking in our cabin in Nova Scotia, using a packet of cranberry sauce I swiped from a restaurant earlier in the week and a splash of my husband’s beer.  Note the lamp I’m holding over the stove to light the photo.  The light in the kitchen was broken, so I had to steal this lamp from the bedside table:

Pork chops in what I’m calling a ‘cranberry maple ale sauce’.

Here’s hoping that after the storm I don’t have to post a photo of me cooking over the grill whilst holding a flashlight in my mouth–but if it happens, I’ll be ready!

2.  I know how to prepare for situations that I can’t control.  True, to me this typically means always having a stash of red wine and beef jerky, but still–that’s good advice for a road trip or a hurricane!

1.  I know that sometimes things just suck.  Take Paris for example–this sure sucked:

The epic taxi line at Gare du Nord

And even on our most recent (and most awesome) trip, sometimes things sucked, too.  Take this weather, for example…

In Nova Scotia, it even rains on sunny days!

But through travel I have (almost) learned to be ok with the sucky times because I know that it will, eventually, get better.  And maybe there will even be a rainbow (though there weren’t any in Nova Scotia, despite the odd sunshine rain!)

Here’s hoping that this storm turns out to be less epic than predicted for everyone involved and that I won’t even need to employ any of my travel-learned skills.  Stay safe, everyone.