We travel, nearly every weekend of the year. Next week, in fact, we'll be headed on a 1240+ mile (each way) trip, and camping out for the entire 10-12 days we are there.
We almost always camp out, or sleep in our van. If anyone were to ask, we'd say we don't see the sense in paying for a motel, with travel expenses as high as they are. Truth be told, we LOVE camping. It gets us closer to nature, gives us a chance to practice skills, and always makes for some awesome adventure stories.
We have to be ready to go, at short notice, so we keep our van stocked with everything we think we'll need... tents, sleeping gear, grill and fuel, cookware, and such accompany our usual emergency vehicle supplies.
We pack more food than we'll need... three days, for an overnighter... five days, for a three-day trip... two weeks, for a ten-day trip. This way, if we have to stay longer, we're set.
As you can imagine, our work-related gear takes up a good portion of our spare room. Most of you have seen a media crew unload, so you can imagine. We have our cameras, and all of the related equipment, plus several computers, lighting gear, sound gear... you get the idea. We also have a generator, to power up our laptops and such (camera batteries are charged through the two cigarette lighters in the van).
Over the past few years, we've gotten our system down to an art. All of our work gear (except the generator) is easily carried on us or packed into backpacks. We have plenty of spare room in the packs for extra gear, should need arise. As it is, you'll usually find me running all over a one-mile race track, climbing towers and jumping guardrails, and dodging bikes WITH two cameras and an accessory bag around my neck, AND a backpack (loaded with one 17 1/2" and one 9" laptop, a mobile WiFi unit, 2 liter-sized water bottles, an EDC, a notebook and pen, a first aid kit, a tripod, a Kindle, etc.).
(Shameless plug... check out the Daytona AMA Pro motorcycles races on Speedvision, March 17th and 19th, and you might get an idea of what we do).
Anyway, the point is, when you are lugging a load of gear around for hours a day, regularly, you get to a point where you don't notice it, much. If we had to abandon our vehicle and hoof it home, we would. It'd take time, sure, but I know we'd get there. We'd have to leave the tents and sleeping bags, but we have our ground tarps and rain ponchos. We couldn't take the grill, but we have our lighters and firestarters. We couldn't take the canned foods, but we have plenty of lightweight dried goods that we can pack. We couldn't pack our gallon jugs of water, but we can each pack our 1 liters and refill whenever possible.
I don't worry about it, but I have THOUGHT about it. It's not foolproof, but it's reassuring.
Another thing... my fiance is an INCREDIBLE navigator. He never even LOOKS at the atlas and maps we take, on each trip. I do, though. On our trips, I'm constantly searching for alternative routes. This has actually come in handy, when we have encountered detours and traffic accidents. The shortest route from our home to our destination is always highlighted, pretrip, in case I end up being the "return driver..." scary thought.
We also (as a family) pay close attention to landmarks. On trips we've made before, we use these familiar sights as a sort of gauge, to help us judge our distance. I imagine, in a disaster scenario, these landmarks would be a reassuring sign we were heading home, and give us an idea of how far we'd come.
By nature, I also scout out "safehavens..." spots that I think would be good shelters or resource stops, if need arose... or spots that scream "danger!" and should be avoided. This isn't concious, just a habit I picked up during my months as a "concrete camper."
I also keep a full list of phone numbers and addresses of friends, on trips. Once, we were returning to Ohio from Illinois (after a three-day trip had turned into a five-day). We got into Indiana, and needed to gas up. That is when we discovered that our emergency gas card, cash, and debit card had been stolen. Someone had, apparantly, broken into the van while we were showering (we now shower in shifts). A guy collecting cans from the trash cans was later arrested for pulling this stunt, but that fact did us no good, at the time.
It just happened that I had my phone list with us... I was transferring numbers into a new cellphone, as a boredom buster. We called one of our racer pals, who lived about an hour and a half from where we were stranded. He hopped on his race bike (in full race gear, nonetheless), rode out to us (at 2:30 in the morning), and used his credit card to gas us up.
You have to love a guy like that.
Anyway, the incident taught us to always keep a phone list, always think security first (not leaving valuables unattended...EVER...and being aware of EVERYONE around you), and the importance of keeping a backup debit card in the GHB, as A-Team mentioned.