[ReverseEngineer]

Well, I am taking another one of those FRIGHTENING trips away from my Preps up here on the Last Great Frontier and flying down to the Lower 48 for my Mom's 80th Birthday Party. My sister has organized up a get together for this in Springfield MO, where both she and my Mom live. I'll be flying into St Louis on Friday night and driving to Springfield as this was way cheaper than flying to Springfield and I need the rental car anyhow.

As with my Hawaii trip, I'll try to post observations on what I see occurring in the places I visit along the way and what I hear on the radio and in the truckstops. I always hit all my old truckstop haunts whenever I drive the I-44 even in a car.

Anybody near enough to Springfield, I'll be in the area until Wednesday if you want to try to meet up. You can let me know in PM or here in this thread.

Reverse Engineer

[frankthetank]

RE-

Your just running from the weather! You can't handle the current temp of -27F in Fairbanks. First Hawaii, now this? Swing by and pick me up!!!! this weather blows

Work on your tan when you are in the Ozarks. Its actually pretty cool down there. I was in S. Missouri back in school and i loved it. Lots of good fishing, places to explore. I think its pretty cheap living. Have fun.

[vision-master]

Sounds like RE is a closet jet setter.

[ReverseEngineer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'S')ounds like RE is a closet jet setter.

[jasonraymondson]

I think It would be funny as hell to meet you. I am here in springfield.

[ReverseEngineer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jasonraymondson', 'I') think It would be funny as hell to meet you. I am here in springfield.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jasonraymondson', 'I') think It would be funny as hell to meet you. I am here in springfield.

[ReverseEngineer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jasonraymondson', 'I') think It would be funny as hell to meet you. I am here in springfield.

[jasonraymondson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jasonraymondson', 'I') think It would be funny as hell to meet you. I am here in springfield.

[Pops]

I'm in that neighborhood too, buy us a beer if you run into a guy who looks like this:

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', '
')
As with my Hawaii trip, I'll try to post observations on what I see occurring in the places I visit along the way and what I hear on the radio and in the truckstops. I always hit all my old truckstop haunts whenever I drive the I-44 even in a car.


Reverse Engineer

[Pops]

I'll bet you don't recognize I-44, it was voted one of the most improved roads in the country by some truckers magazine last year.

[ReverseEngineer]

At Ted Stevens International Airport once again, waiting while they fuel up my Gulfstream V. Brief meeting this morning with my NSA Handlers regarding research for this Field Trip. The cover story of my Mom's 80th Birthday has good credibility, and it doesn't appear my deep cover mission for the Illuminati has been uncovered yet.

Radio Silence required aboard the Gulfstream for Security Reasons, I am travelling with several high ranking members of the Illuminati and we have reason to believe the Jet might be targeted for one of those unfortunate crashes. If you guys don't hear from me by tomorrow, me and my laptop are probably being picked over at the crash site by FAA Investigators.

If we make it alive, I'll report from Minneapolis during the refueling.

Reverse Engineer

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', 'A')t Ted Stevens International Airport once again, waiting while they fuel up my Gulfstream V. Brief meeting this morning with my NSA Handlers regarding research for this Field Trip. The cover story of my Mom's 80th Birthday has good credibility, and it doesn't appear my deep cover mission for the Illuminati has been uncovered yet.

Radio Silence required aboard the Gulfstream for Security Reasons, I am travelling with several high ranking members of the Illuminati and we have reason to believe the Jet might be targeted for one of those unfortunate crashes. If you guys don't hear from me by tomorrow, me and my laptop are probably being picked over at the crash site by FAA Investigators.

If we make it alive, I'll report from Minneapolis during the refueling.

Reverse Engineer

[timmac]

Now this tread needs to be in Out Of This World Forum.

[ReverseEngineer]

Minneapolis was a mess, I was over an hour on the tarmac getting the Gulfstream de-iced and they cut down to one runway for incoming and outgoing flights. Stuck in a holding pattern for an hour before that also. The wireless server was also down in the airport so I couldn't check in sorry. Hope you guys weren't worried about me. LOL.

As per protocol, I rented a Black Sedan out of St Louis under an alias and headed down the I-44. Cheap Gas! $1.60/gallon. Pops was right about the I-44, its in great shape right to Springfield, where they are doing some roadwork below exit 82 and its closed there.

Commerce appears to continue, Flying J, Voss and TA all were pretty full with Big Rigs, as were most of the rest stops and a decent number of off ramps. The Car dealerships all still had lights on along the way so they aren't out of business...yet.

Anyhow, I've been up now about 20 hours and need to get some shuteye. I have some high level meetings with some undercover Illuminati attending Mom's 80th B-day Party tomorrow. We should put the finishing touches on destroying the World Monetary System over Cake and Ice Cream.

Reverse Engineer

[ReverseEngineer]

Just back from the party, and I have a few interesting things to report.

First off, I am considered now to be a Seer, having written to my sister and my friend about 8 months ago about all the stuff we see going down now, and everybody here is now seriously prepping up. My sister has stocked up food and is enlarging her garden, and they have a gun on order from a friend down in Galena who has a nice Doomstead down there. I am also going out wednesday before I leave to buy a gun for my friend, who just got her carry/conceal permit.

My friend has also got together with people and is forming up an Organization that is part of a "Communities of Protection" scheme that has its roots in pre-Revolutionary War times. She also told me about a friend of hers who got foreclosed on (he was in financial services and lost his job) and is now squatting on his house. Since his mortgage was securtitized, nobody directly holds a lien against it and nobody will take over the taxes so so far he has been able to stay on the property. He is paying his property taxes. Just food for thought for anyone who might be facing foreclosure.

The woman who catered the party is another friend who grew up on a farm around here, she told us stories today about growing up and walking 100 acres a day picking sweet corn and how tey all figured they died and went to heaven the day they got a potato picker for the tractor. LOL. They had 5000 Acres and ran sheep also back in the day.

All in all, I think this part of the Ozarks is going to be one of your better spots when TSHTF. The locals are all Arming Up, and the State Politicians (my friend is into the Republican party here quite extensively) are thoroughly disgusted with the Federal Goobermint. There is plenty of local produce around here, so I don't think they will starve here anytime too soon even if the grocery stores dry up.

I'll give this part of the Ozarks an 8.5 on the Doomstead Survival Scale for locations, better than the 8.0 I give for my spot on the Last Great Frontier for the short term. Long term I still like Alaska better because I think migration down here of displaced city folks from Knasas City and St. Louis will make things difficult here, where migration of nearby city folks really isn't an issue for Alaska. Anyhow, I at least know that if I do need to move back down to the Lower 48 I'll head back to join up with friends and family down in the land of Frank and Jesse James. Just like those Civil War days, the Moonshiners and Mountain Boys around here will put up a fight before the Goobermint takes them off their land. Where's my Confederate Flag?

Reverse Engineer

[Pops]

Glad you had a good time with the Clan.

Though I'm more of a Redleg than a bushwacker I've found plenty of welcome from both camps here - don't anyone be afraid to come to the Ozarks; just be a good neighbor and most will accept you.

Yea, between "right to carry" and the recent "Castle Law" this is a good state for gun owners.


I'll say to those looking for a good place to move the grass grows tall here and Susan likes to look at places for sale. She looked at probably 10 states before we settled on this area - PM me. (not a sales pitch, though it should be...)

[ReverseEngineer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'G')lad you had a good time with the Clan.

Though I'm more of a Redleg than a bushwacker I've found plenty of welcome from both camps here - don't anyone be afraid to come to the Ozarks; just be a good neighbor and most will accept you.

[ReverseEngineer]

I just got back from a shopping expedition, I'll report here on the Electronics situation here right now.

I hit Circuit City, still open but barely. They were packing up the remaining toys, and of what was left there really WERE some bargains to be had, unlike when I hit the CC directly after the bankruptcy in Hawaii. 30-40% off most items. I bought a nice 19" LCD display for my laptops for $120. These things used to go for like $500 just a couple of years ago. I also got a 400GB external HD for $100. Slim little job not much bigger than a Wallet. The big purchase was a 32" Flatscreen TV for Mom for $497. Her old TV gave up the ghost a couple of months ago and she has been using an old one my sister had in the basement. I actually got the TV at Best Buy, not Circuit City.

Prices over all on electronic stuff is at bargain basement levels even at BB, a real sign of the deflationary pressure in Asian products. In a year most of these products will be hard to come by I am pretty sure. Since we also don't have any real good electronics stores in the Mat Valley, I am basically stocking up on these items to keep my electronic communications good for at least a couple of years.

Anyhow, the wallet is a bit lighter today, a few less dollars for Helicopter Ben to devalue on me. I'm getting less and less concerned about the monetary system collapse, at least for areas like this one and where I live. Barter will take over and in both places there is enough local production of food to keep people from starving. I recently noted the exceptionally large number of potatoes available cheap up in the Mat Valley, which I now know all come from farms in Palmer. Along with the fish and the fact the area has its own source of FF, its self contained enough to get by. Not to say it won't be quite the mess but I'm a little less worried about short term starvation anyhow.

My main questions for the short term revolve around the mobility questions, aka how long will I be able to Jet Set my way around the world here, renting spanking new Nissan Altimas (still has new car smell!)? I mentioned I am heading down to Oregon next month, and I was thinking of doing a trip to NZ in late spring. The Airports still seem functional and the price of fuel these days should keep the airlines somewhat profitable, long as some people can still afford to fly anyhow. Anybody want to hazard a guess how long before the commercial transportation network breaks down? 6 months? A year? Two?

Reverse Engineer