A lot of people are telling me that I’m going to die on this trip.
Over Easter dinner I was told that Michael Jordan’s dad was killed while sleeping in his car. This was apparently proof that somebody is going to try to kill me while I’m sleeping in my car.
Anyway, to answer the question: no, I’m not going to bring a gun. I guess I sort of trust people more than I should. My buddy Reid once said that if everybody knew the complete life story of everybody else, people wouldn’t hate each other. I thought that was pretty profound. I’m still going to use discretion, but I’m not worried.
Actually, maybe I will bring a knife. One of those “survival knives” that come with fire starter and fishing hooks and stuff. Like this:
Let me know what you think. Is any self defense stuff necessary in your opinion?
brass knuckels, baseball bat, golf club, you know
Good call.
The survival knife is good for emergency purposes and stuff.
But as a weapon, seriously. Do you really expect to have the bravery to knife or threaten some guy if he’s holding you up at gunpoint or even just holding you up?
Yeah, it’s not actually for the weapon but for the chance of an emergency.
But to answer your question: hell yes I’d stab a man
(probably not)
Drew, you should get a gun or something bud. No one is going to know everyones story; its sad but true. I do respect reid’s opinion but its impossible, plus some people are just crazy. Bring self defense bro….
Bears dont care about your story by the way lol
Haha, yeah maybe I’ll justify bringing self defense for use in animal attacks.
At the very least, bringing self defense will make people (particularly my family) feel like I am safe.
I lived in a tent last summer on some property in Vermont and my parents had just seen “Into The Wild” and were convinced I was going to poison myself , little did they know I was in much more real danger of a limb falling on my tent and crushing me in my sleep, there is plenty of shit you can run into on an adventure that can bring you harm but if you are smart enough to be escaping after high school then you are smart enough to deal with anything that will come your way.
Haha, nice. Yeah, my parents saw Into the Wild too, so they’re pretty scared. That book/movie is actually one of the inspirations for the trip.
Why were you living on a tent in Vermont? Sounds very interesting.
I was very lucky to be able to live there, the rent was the right price and it put me very close to a community of people I really love. I think one of the most important lessons about the summer was getting in touch with my own fear. My first night up there, it was cold and the coy dogs were going crazy and all of the concerns I had brushed off as irrational worry on others parts came rushing to me,
“What was I thinking, there is just a piece of fucking cloth between me and these things and what about bears, there are bears here too right?”
So after a few nights of fearing the wild doing me harm I shifted to people coming and hurting me, on good nights I would briefly go over my escape plan and inventory what I could use as weapons, on bad I would lay there imagining, in agonizing detail, different scenarios. This went on for two weeks until an INTENSE thunder storm rolled through the valley, I got back after dark and waited out what I thought was the worst of it in my car. It took a lot of self talk to get out and run through the woods to my bed and then tell myself I was safe and I could sleep. An hour after dozing off a huge limb fell on my tent and ripped my tarp, sending me running (there may have been a little screaming too) to my car, down the mountain, to a friends house 30 mins away in only my tighty whities.
After that, I slept much more soundly every night. That night was scary, but scary in a way that I never imagined, I was ok, I dealt with it, and moved my tent to a much smarter spot.
Though this was clearly terrifying, it also sounds great. I’m sure you’ll remember those stories for life.
What was this “community of people” you really love?
Just be careful of where you are sleeping and you should be fine. I’m not sure I see the motivation of someone to go out of their way to kill a 17 year old sleeping in his car.
to anonymous: the commenter above
Ever read In Cold Blood? Yeah.
Their motivation was money… they heard the guy was rich so they wanted to steal his money.
I took a similar trip like you but with a friend. My advice is to utilize camping grounds if you did not think of that already. There’s always a camp ground just outside of pretty much every town. That way you get to shower and all that stuff and you have privacy but are not totally alone. Some of the campgrounds, like outside Vegas, even have a pool and you can meet some cool people.
I did not ever run into any situation where I wished I had a gun, however I did not go looking for trouble either. Don’t do stupid things like go looking to buy drugs from strangers and such. Even though all hitch hikers are not bad I would suggest not picking them up since you are alone. Your chances of getting killed are very slim, but your chances of running into a-holes who want to take advantage of you are high. Keep in mind there are many other ways for people to ruin your soul-searching mission if you allow it. Imagine driving for hours with someone with body odor so bad that you want to puke. Or having somebody tell you a sob story that is obviously a lie and try to make you feel guilty until you give them money, or talk to you about their racist views for hours, or they will want to do drugs in your car, or just steal your stuff, etc, etc. If you are not an assertive person who can tell people to f-off when necessary, then I would just advice being smart about who you talk with. Many types who are just wandering about the country are street-tough survivors who are highly skilled at leeching off of others. They will try to trick you by being really nice at first. You have to just be truthful with yourself that you are a young kid just out of high school with no such experience. So be cautious.
Not to be all negative, but just protect yourself so that you can have fun. I’m sure it will be an awesome trip!
Great advice. Thanks Jason.
Tell me about the trip that you took. Sounds like you ran into a few annoying hitchhikers.
what kind of knife is that it looks awsome i would like to check it out
hey man i respect the fact that you want to be all non-violent and all but if you are going to do a trip like this i would at least secure a .22 rifle. The Wild is realy called the wild for a reason. Animals eat each other and people who think and act like animals dont act much better. There are people who would kill you for 50 cents or mabe just because you wear the wrong color tennis shoes. At least buy a reliable knife – Buck makes excellent ones, some sort of hatchet like gerber makes, and a good flashlight -reliable one like the LED’s that doesnt kill batteries quickly with knives and edged tools it is good to have a simple, solidly built one that can be counted on. Multiple mechanical parts like this can fail. Single solid pieces of metal are ideal. By the way a .22 rifle is small but it will kill smaller prey and even deer if your shots are placed correctly and you can carry lots of ammo with it and it is cheap. Do not trust it to take out or stop large game though. If you are just worried about protection against predators a mossberg 12 guage will do nicely. Even something so small as birdshot can do massive damage at small distances. The world is a nasty place and it is not smart to go out into such a place unprepared and unprotected. Wild animals are equipped with many natural ways of protecting themselves that humans dont have. That is because we are able to develope tools to fill that need. Firearms and other weapons are just merely a few of those tools that happen to help, nothing more, nothing less. Believe me when i say ive seen some of the very worst of human life doing horrible things to one another. Dont roll the dice with your life although i do believe God can remedy that. Be prepared