Getting Out of Dodge by Doc for Survival Blog
In 1993, I was practicing in a large city and had a home on a lake in the suburbs. I had an attractive younger wife and life was good. I bought a new computer and was stopped in traffic on my way home while ahead of me, a backhoe was digging a hole in the street. I was hit from the rear by a truck loaded with pipe fittings. The truck had a sprinkler company sticker on the door, and was driven by a Mexican with no insurance. The impact was so great that my car was slammed into a stopped vehicle in front of me. The impact broke the CRT screen in the new computer monitor when it slammed into the back of my seat. The Mexican disappeared as did the sprinkler company. And the address on his license didn’t exist.
I was badly injured and had to sell my practice. My young wife was advised by her friends that I would be a cripple, and she divorced me. But I had property before we were married that was not included in a divorce settlement, by a premarital agreement. By 1997, I had healed up partially and decided to go south for the winter in my motorhome. I set the thermostat so the house wouldn’t freeze, turned off the water, and I left.
When I returned several months later the electricity was off. I called the power company and they said I didn’t pay the bill. It was set up on an automatic payment from my bank account and the account was closed by the divorce. They turned on the power and I went to take a shower but the gas water heater was off. I went outside and checked the gas meter to see if it was turned off and noticed the meter had been replaced. I called the gas company and they came out and lit the pilot light on the water heater and explained I must have had a defective gas meter because my neighbor with about the same size house used four times as much gas as I did for the past several years. I explained that I had R-30 in the side walls and R-64 in the ceiling and the plastic on the south end of the house was a large solar panel for heat.
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I took my shower after the house warmed up and noticed a smell from the refrigerator and freezer. A lot of salmon and steak was rotten. Saying this was a bad day would be a gross understatement! In the mail box I found a letter stating I must keep my grass mowed and shrubs trimmed or the Homeowner’s Association would take legal action. The house was paid for. I was single and didn’t need 7,000+ square feet to pay taxes on. So I sold the house.
ON THE ROAD
I sold the old class C motorhome and bought a new Class A diesel motorhome. I also invested $200,000 in gold and silver, to add to my collection. The gold was under $400 at the time. I sold the practice and some other assets and bought more gold and silver. I moved most of the furniture, tools, guns, and other stuff into a rented storage space and started looking for property to build a secure new base of operations where I could store the RV. I drove through several states looking and drove several realtors crazy. They don’t seem to understand about solar electric and solar heat needing sunshine. They located some beautiful property that was restricted from having garage doors large enough for a motorhome. Several properties would have to pipe in sunshine! And several would not allow an underground home, or steel buildings.
I asked a lady to go south with me for the winter and had a Hughes Net satellite dish installed on the roof of the RV. I contacted realtors on the Internet and located several properties. After spending the winter in warmer weather and consuming a lot of amino acids and other nutritional supplements, I was feeling better. I got lots of exercise.
BUILDING STOUTLY
In the spring I bought 11 acres in the middle of nowhere. I had a creek in back and a spring and a couple of acres that wasn’t vertical. I started at the spring and witched the path of water up the hill across the place to build an underground home. I drew plans to fit the property and drove some stakes. There was no building code at that time so I contacted several contractors and started digging.
