Short Siding

In the late 70's, my friends Joe and Randy decided they were going to take an extended vacation and drive the Alcan highway to Alaska, spend some time seeing the sites, and drive back. They read voraciously so they knew all about the weather, the primitive road conditions, and everything else. When they started to pack up Joe's truck to go, they had a huge checklist. They had water, tools, spare tire(s), tire repair kits, medical kit, clothes, stuff to make fires, canned food .... a truck packed to the rafters for hard survival. I came by to watch them pack and BS a while. Randy proudly showed me his checklist and all of the stuff they had. especially the store of canned food. I looked at him and said, "Do you have a can opener?" His jaw dropped. He looked at me blankly. He checked his list. Then he giggled loudly and went in to razz Joe about what they forgot to add to the list. A simple, yet necessary, can opener. A quick rummage through Randy's mom's kitchen drawers found the desired item and it was added to the truck, and the list. We laughed about it for a while but I knew they were actually a little embarassed. But they got off ok and their trip went great. There were weeks of good stories when they got back, and tons of great pictures.