The Solitary Man’s Refuge (9 page)

Donald also had decided he didn’t want into the
limelight of being on for a number of reasons. First off, the
Prez was passing so-called National Defense bills left and
right labeling Preppers and ex-military possible suspected
terrorists. The show was getting too extreme and too
wacky making the prepper community look like nut cases
so he just opted out before the producers made him look
foolish or subversive. He decided to live a quieter and less
stressful life and had said he wouldn’t ever consider again

The Real Day Prepper Show

putting his life and preps on film, that is until his buddy
LowBuckPrepper (AKA Bubba) of YouTube fame had
called him up with an invitation to appear on a show he
was creating call Real Day Preppers
(http://realdaypreppers.com/R.D.P.html). This show was
unique; it showed Preppers in a positive light and as
normal people. Bubba and Donald had been talking for
over a year via the prepper community and Donald had
agreed to do a show segment with him. This would be the
first time they met in person, though, and Donald was
really looking forward to it. Bubba and his wife Cat traveled
the highways and byways of America in an old motor
home talking to real Preppers and sharing information in
their documentaries via their web broadcasts to the
prepper community. The show was totally supported by its
corporate sponsors and viewers financially and was widely
acclaimed and honored by its viewers as a no BS survival
show that was an asset to the community.

The Preppers interviewed only shared what they
wanted to and Bubba made sure no spin was ever put on
the representation of the prepper citizen appearing in his
film.

LowBuck was interviewing somebody over in
Mississippi and they had agreed that since he was this far
south that he would cross over to Alabama and fit Don in
this trip. Donald figured LowBuck was still driving at least a
day out of Mississippi and that he himself would be back in
plenty of time to meet him and they could spend a few
days doing the show and getting to know each other
better.

Donald had given Michael a heads up that
LowBuck might be in the area soon and to help out if he
showed up before he got back from his trip, or if Donald

The Real Day Prepper Show
ran into any vehicle problems etc. while on his trip that
delayed his return.

Traffic began picking up as Donald passed the
Florida line and his mind began thinking about the
conditions of the road ahead. He was on a pretty good
two-lane road but for the last 3 years the 4 lane being built
out of Panama City beach had been slowly moving it’s way
towards Alabama. Outside of and leading to Vernon had
been one messed up stretch of road. If any one vehicle
broke down on it you were liable to be spending hours just
sitting and waiting to get by. The first of the spring
breakers were due this weekend and Donald could tell that
some had already managed to ditch class or escape early
and begin the time-honored tradition of partying at the
beach.

“LOL, I bet I am going to be the oldest spring
breaker there”, he chuckled to himself thinking how foolish
it was for him to be acting like one of them. Well, not acting
like them actually, he was going to the older side of the
beach and do his partying with the snowbirds and retirees
that frequented the old dive bars that held nostalgic
attraction for him.

Might even get lucky and meet me a new lady
friend, Don halfheartedly thought with a twinge of remorse
about what he found lacking in his life.

Donald had been getting a bit more despondent
doing all this prepping and not having anyone in his home
to share life with. He was kind of getting burned out on
prepping in general, as many folks do that had been living
the lifestyle as long as he had been. Many a great
YouTube channel had been just no longer added to as
Preppers ran out of things to say or just quietly resumed

The Real Day Prepper Show
their lives after reaching their prepping point and moving
on.

Donald knew that his angst over prepping at the
moment was a very short-term emotion for the day and he
would most likely be excitedly explaining prepping to some
bar stool buddy within a few hours, but for right now he
was not going to think about it. The road ahead was just as
bad as he thought it was going to be and paying attention
to it and other drivers didn’t let his mind wander much as
he carefully navigated his way to his destination.

9
Cat and Bubba

Bubba pulled in the RV Park just outside of
Mississippi and looked for the main office. He could have
kept on pushing the vehicle on to his next prepper
interview location city but it was time for a rest and he had
some video tape editing to do anyway. Harley, the bulldog,
woke up from his nap in the back of the motor home
sensing that a new opportunity to get out and water every
bush in sight would soon be presenting itself. Cat scolded
the hound to settle down for minute as he began pushing
at her to hurry up and get somewhere to put him on his
lead and let him out. They had thought about leaving him
in the care of one of their friends because this was going
to be such a long trip but considering his antics were often
part of the show, they had decided to let the boisterous
dog in on the adventure.

“You let the dog out and I will go rent us a space
for the night.” Bubba said as he wearily opened his door
and proceeded to the rental office.

Cat got Harley calm enough to get him out of the
RV without pulling her arm off in the process and took him
for a walk. About 15 minutes later Bubba came back and
said they were set for the night.

“That took a little while, were they busy?” Cat
inquired.

“No, they had a lot of trouble with their credit card
machine so I ended up just paying cash. They said their
WIFI was on the fritz, too, at the moment so I got a small
discount.” Bubba told her while wondering how the
reception would be on his satellite dish if the local area
was having problems.

“Well, Donald said we had some minor solar
storms building up this week.” Cat said as they pulled into
their parking place.

“Remind me to check space weather or Donald’s
handle @SolarPrepper on Twitter for the latest news on
anything developing. He hasn’t been tweeting as much as
usual, I guess he is busy or is still getting his internet
situation under control. You want to cook out tonight or are
you ready for a sit-down meal at a restaurant?” Bubba
offered.

“I want to go to that Denny’s we saw just up the
road, no dishes to do and getting waited on sounds good
to me tonight.” Cat replied smiling.

“Sounds good to me, we can walk up there if you
want and stretch our legs some.” Bubba replied as he set
about making camp.

“Ok, I will see to feeding Harley and then we can
go grab us a bite.” Cat said as she set about filling a giant
dog dish with chow.

Cat and Bubba walked into the restaurant and
were seated by the waitress. After looking over the menu
and ordering, Bubba started watching the local news that
was being broadcast on one of the restaurants many TVs.

“So that’s what is causing all the internet
disturbances, I just caught the tail end of what that
announcer was saying but he said NASA warned of radio
interference due to increased solar activity. They
announced they were supposed to have an update on the
10:00 news.” Bubba said, wondering if this latest solar
flare had anything to do with the earthquake report in
Mexico that was now being shown on the screen.

Cat’s attention was drawn to the TV screen and she
asked Bubba if he thought the earthquake and solar flare
were connected as many scientists had already started
seeing a pattern in these kinds of events.

“I don’t really know, I have been discussing that
subject in depth with Donald for some time. He says, in his
opinion, that earthquakes and tsunamis seem to appear
directly influenced by geomagnetic storms. I will try to hook
up with Donald later this evening and get his take on
things.” Bubba said as he relaxed back in his chair and
waited on his dinner to come.

“I think he is right. We need to tell our next
interviewee we are in around noon tomorrow. We still
going to swing by the beach in Biloxi afterwards or do you
think we need to start moving in Donald’s direction?” Cat
asked as she watched the waitress carrying over their
salads.
“David said he was going out of town for a few

days so I guess it wouldn’t do us any good to arrive early if
he isn’t around. I wanted to see the place and maybe visit
one of those casinos, so I guess we take a day for
ourselves before setting out. I think we deserve a little
break and we got those free stay coupons.” Bubba said in
between bites of his salad and wishing the main course
was already there.

“I was looking forward to seeing the beach but not
during a solar storm.” Cat said half jokingly.

“It will be fine, Sweetie, oh look, here comes our
dinner.” Bubba said thrusting his half-eaten salad to the
side and getting ready to pounce on the steak he had
ordered.

Cat and Bubba went back to the RV park and after
figuring out the internet was just too messed up to deal
with, spent the night quietly talking under stars about their
plans for the next few days.

They got up the next morning and headed to
Hattiesburg, MS. to do their next interview. This next one
sounded like fun and not just your typical discuss preps or
threats discussions. The guy had set up a biosphere to
grow year round food and Donald had told him to take
some notes so maybe he could do the same on his
property. This was about the longest trip he and Cat had
been on except for that long ordeal of a trip Donald had
helped him arrange to go visit Bruce Hemming at
Buckshots Camp in South Dakota. Cat and he had learned
the fine art of survival trapping from Buckshot and that
interview had been one of Real Day Preppers Shows most
followed and talked about shows. Bruce, AKA Buckshot,
was a master at the art of snaring and ran a regular school
up there but had invited Bubba and Cat to attend it for free
if they would relate the experience to their large base of
viewers. Bubba had been sure to buy a few dozen modern
commercial snares that Buckshot handmakes in his
kitchen and added them to his preps and bug home
location.

Most preppers look for and stock a bug out
location if able. However, since Bubba was on the road so
much, he was already basicaly bugged out and had
outfitted his old motor home accordingly and was towing a
trailer full of food and emergency supplies. Bubba knew
that if faced with a long-term survival situation though, he
needed a firmer footing and had plans and a location to
bug home to if he needed it as a safe haven to ride out a
disastarous national collapse type event..

Bubba and Donald had talked about how it’s odd we
Preppers were all doing preps for various reasons, but its
something we do for ourselves because we see something
foreboding or some type of calamity in the future, none of
us is sure what, not the headlines in paper making us
aware to do it. Just something it seemed for each
individual to be called to do and start down the trail to
prepperdom and self-reliance.

They had guessed that every prepper must ask
themselves the same question, why are we all here in
these forums and watching various types of social media
that other Preppers use to share information? How is it we
all manage to have formed up and start talking about so
many different scenarios together?

Bubba didn’t know the answer to this mystery, but
he was sure glad he had a network full of like-minded
people he could call upon if he got caught somewhere and
couldn’t get back to his bug home place immediately.

10
The Morning After

Donald woke up bleary eyed and slightly hung-over
from his little party the night before. He had started
wondering why he had thought this trip was going to be
such a great idea in the first place. Everything had
changed on the beach now it seemed and it wasn’t giving
him the joy he thought he might feel at the beginning of
this trip. He half heartedly thought about returning home
early, but he had already paid the hotel charges for three
days and decided to go explore the other end of the beach
today and see if any fond memories or places were still
around he could visit.

Friggin’ cable was out on his TV it appeared, so he
didn’t even get his morning dose of news headlines today.
Oh well, probably just as well, he was supposed to be on
vacation and not worrying about that crap at the moment.
He had forgotten to bring any coffee with him so he
wandered outside to his truck and dug around in his get
home bag until he found some individual foil packs of
instant and just ran some hot water out of the spigot to
make himself a quick cup.

Yuck! This stuff tasted awful. He had forgotten just
how bad Florida water was on the beach. He forced
himself to drink it anyway and did a bit of self-reflecting on
which direction life was taking him these days and possibly
what he could do to improve upon it. He finally realized
that the answers to all these questions were not something
he felt like undertaking today and took off in his truck to get
to the far end of the beach and work his way slowly back
to the hotel. He almost stopped at the old beach bar next
to the hotel he was staying at because he knew they had
coffee available this early in the morning. But he knew that
would lead to a breakfast of beer and he was going to
pace himself today better and behave for a while.

He drove all the way down to where one of his
favorite hang out spots at the Marina was called the
“Treasure Ship” and found it had been torn down. This was
too much for his psyche to start the day out with! No! That
was a wonderful landmark. What had once been a big
seafood restaurant and dockside bar designed to look like
a Spanish galleon was no more than an empty lot with a
few docks. He had heard that sometime during the past
year it had sustained some damage from a fire, but it was
such a landmark and crowd attractor surely they would
have rebuilt it.