Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Standing into danger

My brother had cancer. It is an extremely rare, extremely deadly form of leukemia. People with this form of cancer have a median survival time from diagnosis of 18 months. He was diagnosed last summer. He has been flying back and forth to Houston every two months for treatment.

The first phase of his treatment ended in February. Now he has to return to Houston every month for the next year to receive chemo. He reports to the hospital once a month, stays as a patient for five days, and then returns. The problem here is that he is immunocompromised and cannot fly because he is EXTREMELY susceptible to COVID. He can't even be near his family when he returns home, unless they want to be isolated, too.

So, he hatched a plan. He bought a 55 foot RV. He won't be able to drive it home to Florida from Houston, because the chemo will make him too sick to drive for long distances. Since the RV is so large, his wife can't drive it, so knowing my experience driving fire trucks, he asked me to drive it and him home.

So we leave on Friday for Houston, where we will arrive on Sunday. He will be admitted to the hospital on Monday morning, and will be staying there as a patient until Saturday morning. I will stay in the RV with my wife in the RV and then drive us home on Saturday the 13th. We expect to be home by Monday the 15th.

So watching the upcoming trip, there is a tropical storm headed that way. The funeral of George Floyd is going to be on Monday, less than 5 miles from the RV park where we will be staying. Normally, I would be far away from an event like this, but I have no choice but to be there in support of my brother.

The big advantage I have is that the RV is mobile. I can move if the riot or storm get near, as long as things don't cut off my escape route in a city I am unfamiliar with. My wife is nervous. My other advantage is that I am in an RV and can bring supplies. We will have gas masks, body armor, and weapons. It seems paranoid, but all I will have while I am over 1,000 miles from home is what I bring. I am thinking 2 handguns, a PDW, and an AR15. I will have 3 magazines for each handgun, and 5 magazines for each long gun. I will also bring LODS.

That should do it.

I am going to do my best to avoid, but I need to plan for everything.

7 comments:

Joshua said...

That doesn't seem paranoid at all. That seems like prudent preparations to prevent piss poor performance.

Enough to be sporty but not enough to get in your way.

Miguel GFZ said...

You are an old Florida hand. You got this.

Nick Flandrey said...

my last name at aol if you need a Houston contact...

nick flandrey

Borepatch said...

That's a big RV.

Good luck to your brother in his fight. Cancer sucks.

jwl said...

How much spare fuel are you bringing? RV tanks tend to be big but they go through gas pretty fast, and if local stations are closed...?

Therefore said...

What is your wife comfortable with? Do you have a way of carrying mags for those firearms?

Normal load out use to be 200 rounds.

My suggestion is to go with a second ar with 6 mags for each. My mag vests have an attached blowout kit.

If SHTF you are going to want more ammo.

Good luck to you and yours.

Ratus said...

As "Therefore" said a normal load out is six magazines plus the one in the rifle.

As long as you don't have to carry it on foot, I'd have double the normal load out in loaded magazines.

I'd also have an M2A1 can with ammo on stripper clips in bandoliers just as a worst case backup.