Once in good shape, we had to go out looking for a new radiator for Bubba. The four of us gathered our normal allotment of several days of food and other assorted survival gear, and made our way out in Mike and Suzie. It had been several months since I had last started Suzie and it was somewhat comforting to see that she started right up as always. We never traveled without the whole group and never without two vehicles. There were many things in the new world that we did not have control over, but keeping close together was not one of them. After our experience with the looters we would not break that rule again. Even only going as far as the Kendall’s or Hayward’s was unnerving enough that we rarely did that without a minimum of two of us. My snake encounter had reinforced that thought process. Whenever traveling any distance no one wanted to be left behind, and no one wanted to be going it alone. We were happy with our little family and had decided that we stood a better chance of overcoming any unforeseen hardships if we stuck close together.
