What would you pack in your carry-on suitcase?  

You must be a seasoned traveler Ravenladyj! I'm looking forward to hearing what your morning coffee reminds you to pack.

Hello Gardengrrl,

No doubt you've done your fair share of camping. If I may, what are the twelve disposable aluminum pie pans for?

I've found you can make almost any kind of simple cooking vessel from a disposable pie pan or two, plus collect condensation, poke some holes and sift things, pan for gold, what have you.

I also forgot another of RaevnladyJ's excellent suggestions, collapsible plastic bottles, two if I could fit them.

LOL.... I took a teambuilding seminar back when I was a retail manager, and one of the exercises was to imagine we had just crashed our small plane into an Alaskan lake in mid-October. There was a list of things salvaged from the plane, and our group had to rank them in order of importance to survival. We had to use the thumbs up/down method of arriving at consensus, we couldn't present our ranking until everyone in the group was at least thumbs neutral. I forget everything we had, there was an axe, sleeping bags, flashlight, tarp, compass, a few other things... and a waterproof container of matches. I resolutely refused to accept any list that did not begin with the matches. I patiently explained that nothing but the matches matter, without fire we'd all succumb to hypothermia within hours of sunset. For 20 minutes my teammates tried to argue me out of this. Finally, they all gave up in disgust, slid the paper to me, and said, fine, do it your way, which I quickly and happily did.

The goal of the exercise was the lowest possible score out of 100. When we watched the Coast Guard film that explained what the proper importance of each thing was amd added up our scores, the lowest in the room was 61... except for our group, which scored a 22. It was very, very hard not to laugh when the guy in the film said, only fire matters, without it you are dead in hours.

I was a Girl Scout and roamed my local forest freely as a child. I still camp in all four seasons. There is simply nothing like laying in my tent and listening to the whisper of snow tumbling down the rainfly, plus there's no bugs, and no snakes. I'm not afraid of either, but I prefer to avoid them where practical. Summer camping doesn't allow enough hours of darkness for a good, roaring campfire. Thanksgiving is probably my most favorite camping weekend of the whole year!

Hello Gardengrrl,

I'm intrigued by your teambuilding experience. If I may, I'll ask that you p.m. me the sponsoring agent or trainer.

Excellent scenario they provided you with! And, good for you for remembering your Girl-Scout training!

Of course, you probably realize that the solar powered i-pod is unrealistic. So, how else might you entertain yourself?

Oh, and why would you choose to bring flints as opposed to lighter fluid?

I would skip the lighter fluid because I'm an eliteist snob who wants to show off my camping skills.... lol, just kidding! I'm a klutz and tend to spill stuff, so I'd be out of fluid in no time.

Hmmm, let me think back to that seminar, it was conducted by one of the company's trainers, but it looked like a seminar-in-a-box kind of thing, I'll hunt around a bit this weekend and see if I can find the handbook, that'll tell me who produced it.

Oh, if I had to do without the IPod, I guess I'd pack a harmonica and try to teach myself to play it. At least there wouldn't be anyone else around to annoy with it!

I would dearly love to bring my unabridged Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Pelican Books), but it is quite large and I don't know how I'd fit it in. That and the writing supplies would get me through the year.

Upon reflection, I might need more salt, to preserve fish with. This suitcase is getting mighty full!

Hmmm... if I'm not leaving real soon, that IPod might be an option, after all!
http://english.chosun.com...

Thanks for thr BR!

Good morning Charms,

If it were up to me, you know I'd let you bring 10 bags instead of one. But, it's not me who has banished you ... I would never do such a thing ... I would miss you while you were on the island. Hey, at least you've been banished to the tropics, and not Antarctica.

So, how would you charge your laptop? Oh, and there's no other humans on the island, and I'm certain the fishies & other critters won't mind you baring all.

Hello Whyaskq,

You sound pretty prepared! And, yes it is a deserted island. So, you'd not only be unable to get a cell phone signal, but you wouldn't be able to charge the phone either. And, there wouldn't be anywhere to spend the money.

So, you'd probably need those seeds & roots. Thanks for your input!

It might be deserted, but that doesn't mean that there will be no passers-by or another human being. Money come in handy. lol. As for signals, I will be using radio-waves or moorse code, or better still, birds to carry my messages :P

Oh, carrier pidgeons? Now, that is thinking outside the box ... or the plane as the case may be. You might only be allowed one carry on suitcase, but no one said you couldn't have your birds fly along side the plane, or boat that carried you to the island.

Very creative!

What else better to do than to dream of wonders if really ended up in that deserted island. I will have lots of company too :)

Hello Lordwarwizard,

Funny! So, you'd follow in Rumplestilskin's footsteps, and sleep through the whole experience?

Wouldn't you get hungry?

Is Rumplestilskin that girl with long hair? My memory fails me. Sorry for the one-liner but I don't know how to elaborate. I am feeling brain dead tonight. Gosh, did I say that last night as well? What's happening to me?

Hungry? I thought it's an island. I can eat grass. I can eat sands. I can catch shrimps. But hey, I am supposed to be sleeping for the whole year.

Maybe I will set up something like those science experiments in school such that I will be popped a pill every day or so just to keep me sedated and asleep.

Oh geeze, you had me wondering too!

Rappunzel was the girl with the long hair, who spun the straw into gold. Rumplestilskin was the man who fell asleep for a hundred years under the tree. Of course, he had been bowling, and embibing of a hops concoction, so it's not surprising that he slept for a millennia.

Would you really want to sleep through a year of perhaps fantabulous experiences? The banishment part would suck, but imagine what one could do, and learn from a year of contemplation and survivalism?

All the r's. No wonder I was confused. :P

Hello Sigma,

Well have you applied to "Lost" for consideration?

Hmmmm, what about first aid supplies? Oh, and what about soap as a part of your first aid kit?

I love the fact that you would include a survival guide. Very wise! A couple of books? Hmmm, survival IS on the line here. What would you eat?

As for abandoning MyLot for a year, well you'd be treated with a very warm welcome when your returned. 'Cause, we'd miss you while you were gone!

Now that's quite a list Filmbuff! I love your inclusion of the crank, short-wave radio, and desalination tabs. That is good thinking!

Hello Diecaster,

Nice to visit with you again. Hope you're having a great week!

Hmmm, another really well-thought out list! And, I fully concur with your thoughts about Gardengrrl's and Filmbuff's fabulous suggestions. I think the harmonica is brilliant, and the pie-plates are very creative! Crank radio, duct tape, bailing wire, and desalination tabs are all superb suggestions!

And yet, I was wainting for more suggestions relating to a first-aid kit. Neosporin is a must! And, it is the first thing on my list. Aspirin, absolutely. But, I hadn't even thought about the malaria meds. Although I wouldn't pack my bag without pure tea-tree & lemon grass oils, which would keep the skeeters from biting in the first place. And, I think I'd have some sanitized cotton cloth sealed in a vac-sealed bag, for bandages.

I definitely understand why you would want a firearm, and ammo. There may be wild boars on the island, or worse yet pirates. Which still do sail some waters around the globe. And, since I didn't specify where the island is, pirates might be a possiblity.

A sharpening stone is a great idea. Do they make those more compact these days? Mine was a gift from my father, and it is the size of a brick. So, that might be space prohibitive.

Speaking of bricks, why a brick layers hammer, as opposed to a carpenter's hammer? Or, some other kind of hammer?

I like your dryer lint, and zip lock bag ideas too.
I had a military survival handbook on my list, but I can see your point about a book which highlights regional 'safe vs. toxic' flora & fauna. Good thinking!

But, I gotta' ask, since the frog suit would take up too much room in the carry-on bag, would you be wearing the get-up while you were transported to the island? That's a pretty creative idea, 'course, you'd have to pack a change of clothes, unless you were going to bare it all, for the year. In which case, I hope you packed some sunscrean.

And, I just love your idea about the air mattress ... but, how would you get that into the bag? We have a couple of them, for when more than two guests come to visit, and they take up a huge chunk of the closet. So, if you've found a condensed model, please do share.

You've put together a great list! Thanks for the great ideas?

This post contains content of a mature nature. You must be Signed in or Registered to have the option to view this content.

Thanks for the clarification Diecaster. I now understand what you mean about the frog gig. I will admit that envisioning you being transported to the island in a frog suit was pretty amusing. And, a very creative use of the limitation of "the clothes on your back".

Good choice for the hammer, and the inflatable pool 'floatie', oh yeah, that is a fine idea!

I've never seen the show "Lost", so I can't say how our survival thinking may rival theirs. But, I will say that I'm very impressed with the great, and very creative suggestions appearing in this thread! I believe we'd all do just fine on the island for a year!