[Big_John]

Please vote..... but read this post first......

How much do you enjoy life, beyond your prepping/survival efforts?

I think so many dive into an 'inward' existence..... that they fail to experience all our world has to offer.

I think a lot on here, dive themselves into prepping and consume themselves with SHTF survival, and don't enjoy life in our great nation. How many of your spend money on.... enjoying life and travel? How many of you spend money to explore and experience our great nation?

Have you driven the million dollar highway in Colorado? Have you driven the Tail of the Dragon in TN/NC?

How many of you have enjoyed Maine Lobster Rolls?

How many of you have driven Hwy 1 up the California/Oregon Coast?

How many of you have seen Devils Tower in Wyoming?

How many of you have enjoyed the Florida Keys?

Who has experienced the Big Bend National Park in Texas?

Have you seen the glaciers in Montana?

Have you floated a boat on the Mississippi?

Have you visited Bourbon Street and eaten crawfish etouffee?



Are we livin life... or are we 'holed up'?

??????????


==================================

Post script response to PeterWiggin......

"Oh good Lord.... Peter. Of course I meant no disrespect or judgement or condemnation to anyone without the means or someone with a different opinion. I will admit that this post, slightly pointed a finger.... but in my head it was more toward people that are being affected by all the fear-mongering in society today and sticking their head in a hole and not enjoying life."

 

[Aerindel]

I'd like to explore all of the world if I had the time and money.

Sadly I will probably never see 90% of even this country. If I'm lucky maybe I get out of the state once a year and its always for specific task, not exploring.

Absolutely holed up. Not even just for prepping, its my lifestyle. Running around the world is for people with money, no kids or pets, or wood stoves, or older parents....or jobs....heck, I really don't know what kind of people get to live that way. Lottery winners? Traveling Salesmen?

 

[Nomad 2nd]

I see prepping as an intergal part of life, not something to hinder it.

Back when I was more healthy I took long trips.
Both with my airstream, and I used to take a month a year and take off on my motorcycle.
(I went from New Orleans to Maine on 2 wheels one year)

Prepping helped:
- When all the card readers on the NY throughout went down and it took me over $500 cash to buy has to haul the mainstream across NY (NOT great has millage)

-Prepping helped when I was in BFE Pennsylvania on my motorcycle June 1 and it got down nearly to freezing, but I had camping gear and a take down shotgun to cuddle to keep the bears away.

-Prepping helped when my transmission failed in the middle of the desert with no cell signal on the way to Vegas for a conference. (Got to Vegas with break fluid in the transmission.)

I greatly enjoy travel and hope these stem cells work so I can do it again.
Eta: been to 47 states

I don't particularly enjoy life at the moment, but it is in no way due to prepping (hard to enjoy being in constant pain)

Amusingly I don't really think about prepping in my daily life. Buying extra on sale or in bulk of whatever is just what you do. Doesn't really detract at all, and in many cases adds to. (Yes, I have that thing we need.)

If it's detracting from either your enjoyment of life or living life your prepping wrong.

$0.02

 

[Aerindel]

If it's detracting from either your enjoyment of life or living life your prepping wrong.

Indeed. I'm not really enjoying anything right now either, but prepping makes it better, not worse.

 

[PeterWiggin]

I think so many dive into an 'inward' existence..... that they fail to experience all our world has to offer.

I think a lot on here, dive themselves into prepping and consume themselves with SHTF survival, and don't enjoy life...

oh good, lectures from strangers about how "a lot on here" should live

 

[SurvivalOfTheFit]

I've done many of the things on that list, and much much more, traveled the globe, raised a family (or two)... but I'm old now and on cruise control, not so restless any more, just happy to be retired and fit.

Nowadays I stay west of the Mississippi and east of the Pacific, screw Mexico.

 

[MTShawn]

Been to many countries, lived in Germany for 10 years and drove everywhere.
Been to the vast majority of States and plan on a huge trip in the next 8 years, once my youngest 2 graduate high school. There is much to see but... yeah I prep and in a big way, I prep so I can keep living. I do not live to prep.

 

[Ghost863]

oh good, lectures from strangers about how "a lot on here" should live

Is that the best yo have to offer? Why even bother? you could have jst not opened the thread.

As to the OP, I have been in all 50 states and seen many wonders, some of it I have gotten to enjoy but others I was on the job driving truck and never got to experience things I would have liked to, such as the Grand Canyon during the day, The world's largest ball of yarn, The Paul Bunyan Park etc. But my main goal in life is to not let the prepping become a burden but to have fun with it. I try not to look at as prepping as much as I do learning the forgotten ways of our parents and grandparents. My Grandfather, quit school at 12 years old and had to go to work to support his mother and siblings because his father, my great grandfather died of a heart attack in 1934. My grandfather's first job was as a grist mill. He ground up Wheat and corn to make different products from flour to corn meal to grits and hominy. Those are the kinds of skills I try to learn and make it a point to make it a fun endeavor.

 

[PeterWiggin]

Is that the best yo have to offer? Why even bother? you could have jst not opened the thread.

I dislike it when others try to make others feel bad for their choices or inability to make a choice.

Yes, I do have more to offer and started this thread -- https://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=934516 -- as a counter to this nonsense.

1. some people are very happy at home... why is this a problem to OP?
2. I have been to about 30 US states and a dozen countries. I have spent months in Europe. And probably a few total years exploring our great CONUS.

Maybe OP was trying to help, but he was judgemental to people who have different opinions.

Please visit the thread link and share one place that really meant something to you.

 

[MTShawn]

oh good, lectures from strangers about how "a lot on here" should live

I should have deleted this but, I would rather make a point.

He posted an opinion and poll out of curiosity and was wondering what we do outside of prepping to fulfill our lives. Nothing he said was judgmental and certainly not a lecture.
EVERYTHING you said was contrary to what was posted and is considered trolling. Don't post if you have nothing to contribute.

 

[Ghost863]

I dislike it when others try to make others feel bad for their choices or inability to make a choice.

Yes, I do have more to offer and started this thread -- https://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=934516 -- as a counter to this nonsense.

1. some people are very happy at home... why is this a problem to OP?
2. I have been to about 30 US states and a dozen countries. I have spent months in Europe. And probably a few total years exploring our great CONUS.

Maybe OP was trying to help, but he was judgemental to people who have different opinions.

Please visit the thread link and share one place that really meant something to you.

I did go there an offered my suggestion but there are so many more places I could have mentioned but you stated only one, so I stuck to your OP. BTW, I wasn't trying to sound as harsh as it did sound it is just that so many people do as you did and end up trying to derail the thread, and it gets old really quick, so I apologize if it sounds like I was being too judgemental.

 

[PeterWiggin]

Nothing he said was judgmental and certainly not a lecture.

uh huh...

"I think a lot on here, dive themselves into prepping and consume themselves with SHTF survival, and don't enjoy life"

did you miss that part?

 

[PeterWiggin]

I did go there an offered my suggestion but there are so many more places I could have mentioned but you stated only one, so I stuck to your OP. BTW, I wasn't trying to sound as harsh as it did sound it is just that so many people do as you did and end up trying to derail the thread, and it gets old really quick, so I apologize if it sounds like I was being too judgemental.

eh, i probably shouldn't have limited that thread to just one place, so please, post another :thumb:

 

[SurvivalOfTheFit]

Wow, this could of been a fun thread, but of course it is ruined like most of the others.

Why are some so damn sensitive?

 

[MTShawn]

uh huh...

"I think a lot on here, dive themselves into prepping and consume themselves with SHTF survival, and don't enjoy life"

did you miss that part?

That is a generalized opinion and or observation. He attacked none. And he may be right, or wrong. Although he is probably more right. But, hey, I have been here for a long time an know a lot of people here personally. You turned a fun thread into something it was not intended to be. Stop reading between the lines looking to be offended. Answer the poll or don't. Simple.

 

[PeterWiggin]

That is a generalized opinion and or observation. He attacked none. And he may be right, or wrong. Although he is probably more right. But, hey, I have been here for a long time an know a lot of people here personally. You turned a fun thread into something it was not intended to be. Stop reading between the lines looking to be offended. Answer the poll or don't. Simple.

I have been reading this forum for years and know people too. There are plenty of fine human beings on this forum that cannot travel due to financial, physical, and/or mental struggles. Should they be made to feel less than just because they have a different lifestyle than OP?

Don't worry, I'll leave this thread, but you know darn well that I'm right about the judgemental post and if OP is honest with himself, he'd agree too.

We all live differently... and that should be okay.

 

[MTShawn]

I see it different. There are many that live to prep, in a constant state of worry, spending to the point of debt to make sure they have 30 of everything. Normal folks earning normal money. He was simply asking if we have forgotten to stop and smell the roses and enjoyed some of the finer things. It could be anything, from stated Lobster roll to having a non-edible flower garden. To hanging out at a local museum or traveling to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. He simply want to know if we were stuck and focused solely on survival. Turned inward towards self reliance and forgetting that the world is big and some of it should be enjoyed.
He said nothing about the old and infirm, the injured or otherwise.
He was simply asking if we enjoy things outside of prepping.

And as it turns out, we do.

 

[MTShawn]

As for the OP. There is much on your list I would like to do. I am finishing up with 2 boys and have some life goals to meet.
But, I tell you, sitting in a piazza in downtown Florenze Italy, eating some authentic Italian, sipping on wine with some veteran friends of mine....watching the night come to life with musicians...yeah. Or standing on the Eagle's Nest in Germany having a beer on the patio where Hitler hung out and had underground bunkers and a huge Nazi tunnel network nearby.... A sense of solemn pride and what the allies accomplished.

Or day trip to the local sites. Eating at a good steakhouse or local diner famous for their bacon. My town has like 130 people in it. Food sucks but, there are 2 bars, a great store and 5 churches. And that is cool. But the gem is the museum and ice cream place. Yeah, we all do life different.
The Founders never stopped bar hopping and drinking.

 

[Ghost863]

As for the OP. There is much on your list I would like to do. I am finishing up with 2 boys and have some life goals to meet.
But, I tell you, sitting in a piazza in downtown Florenze Italy, eating some authentic Italian, sipping on wine with some veteran friends of mine....watching the night come to life with musicians...yeah. Or standing on the Eagle's Nest in Germany having a beer on the patio where Hitler hung out and had underground bunkers and a huge Nazi tunnel network nearby.... A sense of solemn pride and what the allies accomplished.

Or day trip to the local sites. Eating at a good steakhouse or local diner famous for their bacon. My town has like 130 people in it. Food sucks but, there are 2 bars, a great store and 5 churches. And that is cool. But the gem is the museum and ice cream place. Yeah, we all do life different.
The Founders never stopped bar hopping and drinking.

Shawn, if you go to Europe, and the problems have eased in Ukraine, go to Kiev. There are a series of bunkers that surround the city called the 44th battery. They Ukrainians used it in WWII to fight off the Nazi army. They were successful because of those bunkers, even though they were greatly out manned and out gunned. I have always wanted to visit there.

 

[hardcalibres]

My prepping is integral to who I am....

To thine own self be true

To answer the question, I have done a lot of the things on your list and traveled very extensively (first to see many places and later to work there). I have worked on all seven continents.

I am happy most of the time - my life is relatively low stress (although many find that hard to believe in the context of the inherently dangerous occupations that I have had over all my working life).

I am abnormalcy biased (and believe I was born that way).

If I stopped prepping, I would become more stressed and less happy.