Tell People When and Where You Are Traveling

I just returned from visiting my mom in Arizona, the same day the story hit the news about the 76 year old diabetic man who survived 10 days in Nevada when he and his friend got stuck. His friend wasn't so lucky when he tried to walk for help. This is quite the coincidence, because I had already decided to share some important information about the same subject with you when I returned.

If you are traveling, it is vital to make sure someone knows where you are going to be, when you will be back and how to find you if you don't show up on time! Don't ever take for granted that nothing will happen, or that you can deal with the situation if it does. Vehicles break down, accidents happen, people make mistakes. Don't depend on your cell phone to call for help, you can't always get a signal. Knowing what information to leave behind with someone is very important. When I'm with my mom, we spend lot of time on back roads, but this is also important for highway travel. Because of a scary situation that happened a few years ago, I knew I had to be more careful about giving someone information that could save us if something happened and we didn't come back. This is how I do it now:

I used my cell phone to take a photo of the license plate on my mom's 4 wheel drive vehicle we usually use. I sent it as a text to my adult daughter, along with a description of the vehicle and the phone numbers of the local Sheriff's Office and Highway Patrol. I saved the text in my phone. Now, when my mom and I go out, I re-send the text to my daughter, along with a general idea of where we are going, if we are going on a back road, I give her the road number. If we leave that area, I let her know. She knows that if she doesn't hear from me by the end of that day, she should call the numbers I gave her, tell them we are missing and give the information she has for us, so they can start looking for us. Even though my daughter is in another state, I know someone is looking out for us. I use this same method when I am traveling out of town. Someone always knows where I'm headed and what I'm driving. If I decide to take a different route, I let the contact person know.

My mom and I are obsessed with rocks and back road sightseeing. Our favorite things to do together in Arizona where she lives, has always been driving back roads to see what we can discover, and looking for rocks. My mom has a 4 wheel drive vehicle and we both have a history as longtime members of a Search and Rescue organization, so we know how to be careful. Getting lost, vehicle breakdown, getting stuck or physically injured is always a possibility no matter how careful you are.

When we were both younger, it wasn't a big deal. We made sure someone knew we were going out and what general direction we were headed. I was always confident that we could deal with any situation that happened. If we got stuck somewhere, I was in good physical condition and had no doubt I could walk out for help if I had to without getting lost, because the landmarks where we went were always so prominant. I do have to add though, trying to walk out for help is generally one of the worst things you can do!

My husband and I like to do the same things with our kids, we have travelled all over, exploring Oklahoma where we live and I have always been confident in just going out by myself with my kids until a few years ago. We got into some trouble and I wasn't sure we were going to get out if it! My mom and I hadn't realized how old we were getting, I didn't know I had developed type 2 diabetes which made me more vulnerable to heat.

We took my 2 younger boys (around ages 13 and 10) and went out on one of our favorite back roads to look for volcanic rock, about 10 miles from any town or highway. It was summer, around 103 degrees. We had plenty of water as usual. We parked on the edge of the dirt road, grabbed a bottle of water each and went out into the field to look for rocks.

The boys got hot and bored, so they went back to the vehicle to sit in the shade and play their hand-held games. My mom and I wondered around picking up rocks and putting them in our bag, we didn't realize how far out we'd wondered and how long we'd been in the heat with only 1 bottle of water.

By the time we realized, we were both in trouble. We were less than 1/4 of a mile from the vehicle, but we nearly didn't make it back and the boys were not paying attention to know we were in trouble. We were too hot, too dizzy, very nauseated, seeing black spots, fuzzy-thinking, barely able to walk - seriously in trouble! My mom couldn't make it, she had to stop. The only reason I made it was total determination and the fear that if I stopped, we would die and my boys would have to try to walk out for help. When I was close enough to the vehicle for my boys to hear me, I told one to bring me some water and the other to take water to my mom.My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears, it hurt to breathe!

I drank the water, trying not to throw it back up and put an ice pack on the back of my neck, then drove the vehicle closer to my mom to get her. We had to sit in the car with the air conditioner running, drinking water and putting ice packs on our necks and wrists for several minutes to cool off enough before we could head home. We were sick for a couple of days and couldn't handle the heat for several weeks. At the very least, we'd had a major case of heat exhaustion, quite possibly more.

Even with the knowledge and experience we had, we made a very stupid mistake that could have cost us a life. If something had happened, there was no cell phone service and even if there had been, there was no 911 in the area and my boys wouldn't have known how to tell someone where we were. The boys would have been in the same shape if they'd tried to walk out, possibly getting lost. Nobody would have known where we were!

So, now I realize I am a 50 year old type 2 diabetic who does not have the same abilities I used to have. My mom is a 73 year old woman with very bad knees who would never stand a chance. When we go out now, we both realize how easy it is to make stupid mistakes and how fast you can get in trouble. I'm more aware of our limitations and I am careful not to get into a situation like that again. We stay closer to the vehicle now, no more than a few feet out. We carry more water than we think we need and I set the timer on my cell phone to keep track of how long we are out. When we go somewhere, I make sure my daughter has the information she needs to send someone to look for us. If possible, I try to make sure one of the neighbors has the same information.

By Judy = Oklahoma from Oklahoma