Are you prepared to be stranded?

I always worry about getting stranded in my car. Despite its looks, my car is almost five years old. Not bad and I've kept up the recommended maintenance.

But things happen, like deer unexpectedly in the road.

So you can never be too careful.

For me, I have an emergency blanket and my triple A card in my car! 

But for my children, when they first started driving I took no chances. They didn't have new vehicles. So my husband and I built each of them a kit. Here is what we put in it. Remember we live in Wisconsin so making sure they could survive if they broke down in winter was essential.

Jumper cables

emergency blanket

road flares

fold-able shovel

kitty litter

fuses

rope

first aid kit

seat belt cutter

glass breaker

a few granola bars

a couple of bottles of water

gloves

hand warmers

rain poncho

umbrella

flashlight

I don't remember what else we put in there.

I do know that they had to use it.

The most used items were the shovels, kitty litter for traction and the jumper cables.

On an almost daily basis they shoveled themselves out of poor parking choices!

My daughter constantly used the jumper cables as she would invariably forget to turn off one light or another in her car.

I also keep boots, snow pants and extra gloves and a hat in my car during winter. If I'm stranded I plan on keeping warm. I try to keep a full tank of gas during the winter. You just never know what will happen.

I was looking up items and found an extended list. I can see the uses. Here it is. I stole this from Prepping to Survive http://preppingtosurvive.com/2011/09/07/the-get-home-car-kit/.

Bottled water
Powdered Gatorade
Red handkerchiefs
Length of rope
50 feet of paracord
Carabiner
Large trash bag
Small Kleenex pack
Firestarting supplies (magnesium/strike bar, lighter, waterproof matches, etc)
Camp towel
Handcrank flashlights
Mini-sewing kit, including safety pins
Fishing line, hooks, sinkers
Hand sanitizer
Ponchos
“Dry sacks” (nylon bags)
Lightweight blanket and “emergency blanket”
Tablet of paper & pencil
HotHands & chemical cold packs
Leatherman tool
Shoe laces
Superglue
ShooGoo adhesive
Granola bars
Small pack baby wipes
Deck of cards
Pocket knife
Emergency whistle
Compass
Adjustable (folding) saw
Cup
Bouillon cubes
Ace bandage
Water purification tablets
Pocket Survival Guide
Length of heavy-duty aluminum foil
Snare wire
Can opener
Mini pry bar
Tea bags & sugar
Jar of peanut butter
5 cable zip ties
Ziptop bag of toilet paper
Duct tape

The website stated that it will all fit into a 19 qt box. I can't picture the size. I'm sure if I saw it I would go, okay, this is doable. And well, duct tape is useful for anything!

Some of it seems a tad much, but if you were stranded in the middle of nowhere, I imagine all of this would be used in one way or another. This list misses a few things that I know I'd want like the shovel and kitty litter, focusing mainly on surviving. Me, if I was stuck, I'd like a way to get out. The shovel would help. My son would agree, lol, as he used his almost daily through out the winter!