Greetings TB2K regulars! Thanks for all your insights and encouragement during the year and a half or so I've been lurking here.

My story is fairly similar to many of yours . . . that is up till late August of this year.

I "got it" about 2 years ago thanks to the usual suspects, Ed Yourdon and Gary North. It took about a year, but I managed to convince my husband to relocate to a safer location, about an hour and a half commute from our businesses, families and friends. We set ourselves up with stored food/water/fuel/guns/ammo/generator/etc., while not busy driving to work, working and driving home. We tried to raise awareness in the small town near us, with no real success. We also tried to sway our friends and relatives, also without much success. And yes, we've been treated to the "I'm not worried, but if TSHTF, I'll know where to go" line.

As y2k concerns in the media seemed to fade during the spring and summer, my husband (sick of the commuting and ribbing from his family) began to waver and second guess our decision. I,OTOH, became increasingly concerned about the fact that too many people knew where we were and that we had stockpiled. I also worried because we had made no real allies. The final thing that got to me was reading Chris Ruddy's series of articles(at Newsmax.com)on the possibility of a surprise nuclear attack.

This was the final straw for my husband, and instead of looking at my fears rationally, he decided to issue me an ultimatum to move back to the city or break up. I chose the latter. Fortunately, I'm still young, we have no kids, and though I've been calling him my "husband" for the last couple of the several years we've been living together, we're not actually married.

So in early August we broke up, and I began to research anew to find the ideal location to weather not just y2k disruptions, but possible nuclear war as well. One thing I realized was that I needed to move to a small town, and make friends in a hurry. I just don't have the farming/rural/subsistence skills to go it alone. So I searched and searched for a remote, isolated small town (<5000) far from nuclear targets, prisons, chemical factories, etc. No place seemed to entirely fit the bill and I started to panic. Fortunately, I got lucky! Real lucky, as it turns out.

One evening in late August, after mentioning these issues in a y2k chatroom, I got some email from someone I'll call Mark.

He informed me that a very nearly ideal place did exist, but that for reasons of prevailing geographical ignorance and certain cultural blindspots, this area has been virtually ignored by so-called y2k relocation experts. You won't read about this place anywhere on Gary North's site. No one is publicly promoting this place as a y2k safe haven. I can't say too much about this place as I have promised Mark I wouldn't, and besides what's the point of a secret y2k haven if everyone knows about it.

At first I thought Mark was interested in me personally, but it turns out he had a business proposition. He offered to me the following:

-- the exact location of this "Galt's Gulch" and the rationale as to why it's the best place

-- help from a reliable, trustworthy y2k-aware real estate agent to buy or lease a suitable property

-- help stockpiling in advance of moving, and warehousing and guarding of supplies through 2000

-- my option of either a workable cover story for the locals (thus not having anyone suspect I have any preps) or admitting to moving for personal/y2k reasons (though keeping my extensive preps stash guarded, off-site and secret)

-- help in making inroads with the community in a hurry

The fee Mark wanted to charge for this was not cheap. And he required $100.00 of it to be non-refundable, if I decided the location/situation was not all he told me it would be and I decided to back out (though I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement).

I told him I would consider it and spent a couple days trying to figure out on my own where this place could be. I just couldn't figure it out, so I decided to go for it and risk the hundred bucks to hear Mark's pitch for his secret y2k safe haven.

Well, it turned out to be possibly the best decision I've ever made. We talked and planned extensively through September as well as Mark making purchases on my behalf. I moved up here in October and have found the pace of life and the many libertarian and self-reliant people to be a breath of fresh air. I've made several friends already and am starting to feel like part of the community.

Anyway, Mark has done a great service for me and though it was expensive, it was worth it. If you have either:

not moved far enough away from nuclear targets,

told too many people about your preps,

and/or not made enough local friends/allies

you might want to think about moving again. Maybe it will work out for you as well as it has for me.

-- Suze (y2ksuze@hushmail.com), November 24, 1999

Answers

Have you got a "Spit" near you ?

If you do you'll know what I mean.

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), November 24, 1999.

Good one snoozebutton!

If my guess is right, I know what you're thinking (can you hear the nah nah's :D )

Do you live there?

-- (Kurt.Borzel@gems8.gov.bc.ca), November 24, 1999.

years ago, when researching the "best place to be in case of nuclear war" I decided upon the Grant's Pass area in Oregon (when considering only U.S. locations).

Any comments on that choice?

-- guy (guy@here.now), November 24, 1999.

I will accept that challenge Guy, as I've been working on that particular challenge for 11 years!

Please email me with your reasoning.

I must admit, geography nut that I am, I am ashamed to say I don't know where Grant's Pass is...

Sounds like the divide area of Oregon.

-- (Kurt.Borzel@gems8.gov.bc.ca), November 24, 1999.

Grant's Pass was a place I considered seriously. What I don't like about the area is that it is still too close to many population centers and possible serious refugee/disease problems. Maybe they will blow up the roads if they need to, but I'm just not comfortable that close a drive from millions of people.

OTOH, if too many people know about your preps, and you just want to move to an area more secure from nuclear war than where you are now, it would be a good choice.

The hard part is being intellectually honest enough, and brave enough to relocate a second time.

-- Suze (y2ksuze@hushmail.com), November 24, 1999.

Guy:

FOUND IT! Not too bad eh? What's your real email address (if no, send it to my address, it's real, and I'll keep it safe.)

Now I've seen mention of that neck of the woods in the news lately, with a distinctly positive tone!

I'm a Canadian, where's the nearest target?

-infrastructure? -geology/geography/climate/soils/water/flora/fauna? -social issues? -wind drift (answered) -strategic importance? -secondary & tertiary effects from strike on CONUS?

etc. etc. ad nauseum...

-- (Kurt.Borzel@gems8.gov.bc.ca), November 24, 1999.

Hey Suze...Dad sez to ask you if you mudwrestle?

-- Prince of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), November 24, 1999.

A place with a "spit" not well known or advertized just might be a town I've visited a time or many, and begins with H?

-- Leslie (***@***.net), November 25, 1999.

Grants Pass is absolutely wonderful. A similar place is in northern Idaho called Kamiah by the Clear Water river. About 50 miles west of Lewiston, Idaho. A small town with a lumber mill. Maybe about 3000 people at the most. Beautiful hills with pinetrees and rivers. Good fishing!

-- freddie (freddie@thefreeloader.com), November 25, 1999.

Just click your heels three times and say
"There's no place like home"
- Glinda

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), November 25, 1999.

Sorry, Freddie....nice town but you are downwind from Hanford Nuke plant...one of the worst "messes" in the country. Taz

-- Taz (Tassie123@aol.com), November 25, 1999.

I think that spit might be near the town beginning with an S noted for its wonderful weather, rain shadow, etc. However, the Trident sub base is just across the bay. Certainly a nuke target. Taz

-- Taz (Tassie123@aol.com), November 25, 1999.

All that you're saying is why I won't release the name of store chain going into hyperinflation. People don't THINK. They just react without brains in America. One doesn't stare at common dry minced onion for ten dollars, and then turn around and tell where this "local store" is. One runs out and strips ones orange tree a teeny bit prematurely before one wakes up to it stripped.

It's a big and old chain. The product companies are well known. I feel no rush in this. A lot of people are about to panic post.

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), November 25, 1999.

guy,

I just moved out of there for another place. I lived there for three years, and the RV for 12, and I can personally testify that it isn't all that it is cracked up to be on other sites, like GN.

The whole area is growing like a mushroom, and for a large part because of the publicity it has gotten. It is accessable from the outside in several ways: one is Interstate 5, two exits. Another is the Redwood Highway, which connects to US Hwy 101.

The only people that GI y2k are the newcomers, for the most part. The "native" folks around there are mostly staunch DWGI. Mayor Andersen kept trying to raise awareness, but finally had to go low key, and only on a speaking schedule to some of the local churches. Even his wife has stopped her "living room seminars." No interest.

Earlier this year, the local radio station interviewed the GP police chief. One thing he mentioned was that the GP police department was successful in closing down 14 "drug houses" within the city limits alone, but that there many more in operation. That, for a city of about 20,000. Or, at least its supposed to be about 20,000. What with all the people going in there, it's probably a lot more, now.

If you want to discuss this further, say so here, and I'll send you my email address. Don't wait long. I don't expect to be on line much longer myself. I find myself in much the same situation as Suze.

-- hunter (way@up.north), November 25, 1999.