What would you bring?

[Alpo]

I know I've asked this before, but I'm not sure if I've asked it on this board.

 

There's an Andre Norton  novel.

 

This kid, in his early twenties, is going to go spend a week at the cabin at the lake. He's riding up there on his motorcycle. Since the family owns the cabin, he's got clothes up there. There are staples and canned goods there.

 

He stops off at a little country store to pick up some fresh food. Gets a dozen eggs, a pound of bacon, a loaf of bread, a cantaloupe, and a six pack of CoCola. Then he rides on down the highway and turns off onto the trail through the woods that will take him to the cabin at the lake.

 

Suddenly the trail disappears. There are giant trees all around him. He has crossed over into another dimension. Andre Norton does write science fiction after all.

 

So he takes stock. He's pretty sure that the cabin at the lake is no longer there. So he has what he has. That little bit of food, plus the tool kit that came with the bike. A flashlight. A first aid kit. And something sharp - it has been a while since I read this and I don't recall whether he had a hatchet or a hunting knife but he had one or the other. And that's all he's got to survive in this wherever the hell he is.

 

And when I read that my immediate thought was "where's the gun?" If I was going to spend a week by myself at the cabin at the lake, there would be a 22 pistol in my gear and at least a couple of hundred rounds - maybe a full brick - of 22s.

 

If you were going to spend a week by yourself in a cabin at the lake, would you bring a gun? If you would, what would you bring, and how much ammunition would you bring?

 

Remember, you are writing a small street motorcycle - maybe a 350 Honda - and you are limited to what you can put in the saddle bag and maybe in a backpack.

 

One board I asked, and one of the respondents said that he would have an AK-47 and a case of ammunition. I could see that - maybe - if I was driving up there in my truck. But not on my small-to-medium size motorcycle.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Go ahead blame Otto… writing a small street motorcycle.

 

did it write back?

[Alpo]

No, that one was me. Every time I say the word WRITE or WRITING, otto changes it to RIDE or RIDING.

 

I just kind of got in the habit of when I do my proofread if I see the word RIDING, I automatically change it to WRITING.

 

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

[bgavin]

I never earned my Iron Butt patch...
The longest I ever rode was 660 miles, non-stop on a Honda 305 Super Hawk.
It had no saddle bags, so a back pack was the limited amount of storage.

 

I'd probably bring an SP101 with a box of fifty 38SP or 357.
And water.

 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

If I were a teenage boy, then yeah, a .22 pistol and a brick of ammo. But if it were the me I am today, I'd have that, maybe a AR7 rifle, my EDC pistol, and at least 3 magazines, or reloads if a revolver, and probably a box of ammo. 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

A Colt Scout steel frame .22 and a brick of ammo.  Carried one for a long time back in my younger days.