they didn't watch survivorman or read "how to stay alive in the woods"

[makattak]

And that little button-thingy in the dash that gets really hot when you push it.   Let's not overlook the obvious.

Many cars are made without a cigarette lighter today.

[Boomhauer]

Besides that, why would you leave a perfectly good roadway in this case?

By following the GPS like it's a religion. I know, it doesn't make sense, but there are people that do it without EVER questioning "Why is it telling me to turn onto this here dirt road in the middle of BFE when we are still 6 hours from our destination?"

I'll take a road map over GPS any da

I find that the GPS is extremely useful as a moving map, so it's still a map that just happens to plot your position. I find it very useful to keep track of upcoming exits and turns in city traffic, and for finding street addresses (mine is fairly accurate, generally good enough to get you within sight of the place, if not at the actual turn-in). I do have the voice turned off and I don't follow it like it's a cult. They are very nice to have IF you know how to utilize the strengths and deal with the weaknesses.

hopefully had survival gear,

Most people think survival gear is a cellphone and a credit card. They MIGHT have had one of those el cheapo emergency kits (you know, the kind with a cheap flashlight that's always got dead batteries, thin little jumper cables, couple of screwdrivers and a crescent wrench, maybe a worthless little first aid kit). Stuff that's virtually useless.

Very little of the population packs anything decent as emergency gear and they don't have the skills to do stuff from scratch, either...heck, most of the population doesn't even carry a pocketknife, for chrissakes, or own knives that aren't kitchen knives.

And that little button-thingy in the dash that gets really hot when you push i

Honestly, I don't even have the cig lighter for my truck anymore and a good portion of the non-smokers I know have long since lost theirs after they removed it to plug in some accessory...

[makattak]

Also, for some people, following the GPS like it's a religion ends up with better outcomes than trying to do it on their own. These incidents are EXTREMELY rare.

For forays into DC, I find GPS extremely helpful- I don't have to figure everything out to the address and try to find street numbers while dealing with DC traffic.

For long trips, I like to have the GPS but always have a map and printed directions from google, Bing, or the like. GPS is also helpful in quickly finding alternate routes, something that sitting down with a map would take time.

It's a good tool. For some people, though, it can be a life-saver.

[brimic]

And that little button-thingy in the dash that gets really hot when you push it.

Hah! I learned all about those when I was 3 years old.
I would be sitting in the front seat of the car (which didn't have seatbelts btw), and watch my dad push the button in, wait for it to make that special 'ting' sound and magically use it to light a cigarette. One day he left me in the car while he went into the gas station, so I pushed the magic button in, waited for the 'ting' pulled it out and was in awe of the orange-glowy thing inside. Being a 3 year old, I had to touch the orange glowy thing to see what it was all about.
Then there was the time I wanted to see what that special lever on right side of the steering column did....

[Boomhauer]

Then there was the time I wanted to see what that special lever on right side of the steering column did....

[gunsmith]

A friend of mine pulled a four wheel drive pick up truck out of the sand last year, he either buried a big block of wood & they used their winch or he used his circa 70 something two wheel drive diesel Mercedes, he brews his own biodiesel & pays 8 to 10 cents a gallon. Alas he refuses to move out of Oakland & teach me how to do it, an expert mechanic he only drives ancient beat up Mercedes that he gets free & he wrenches a hundred thou or more from them...

Anyway, I was thinking about it today, northern Nevada is awash with horny toad lizards, the things are amazingly easy to catch-the dogs eat them every day during the summer. I can see 3 a day at least without looking as I go on about the day.

If I was hungry enough I would be having lizard stir fry, anyone have any idea if you really can eat them? I don't recall hearing the the Paiutes ate them... Still, she did OK I guess-I cant understand why she never tried a signal fire of some kind

[KD5NRH]

If I was hungry enough I would be having lizard stir fry, anyone have any idea if you really can eat them?

IIRC, horned toads have a really vile taste.  As in, barf up anything else you've managed to eat.  Somewhat counterproductive for a relatively short stay, though I'd think for a permanent situation (downfall of society and you're scavenging for the rest of your life) you could probably work up a tolerance for it.

[gunsmith]

Hunters found Rita Chretien after spotting her 2000 Chevrolet van mired in mud. Alone in the rugged and isolated country, she survived on a tablespoon of trail mix, a single fish oil pill and one hard candy a day, said her son, Raymond Chretien.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Woman-who-was-stranded-for-weeks-leaves-hospital-1373042.php#ixzz2A3ujKu8V

Its SPRINGTIME LADY! cant anyone in north America recognize a dandelion?

I guess she knew enough to catch drinking water in all the rain, there are lizards, bugs, birds, cottontail galore out here, After 3 days of a vitamin pill and a tablespoon of granola I'd be eating bugs raw. I bet she was surrounded by Indian Rice Grass, a native species and the main source of food here for ages.

She got water from a stream ( but not FRESH FISH??) for awhile but lack of food made her too weak to continue, it looks like she ran the engine until she was out of gas, it also looks like she never started a fire.  

http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/Trio+found+Rita+Chretien+wilderness+recounts+incredible+rescue+story/4755478/story.html

[gunsmith]

ok, SO don't eat the hory toads, every stream out here has frogs, noisy noisy frogs that would look great in a hubcap stir fried with dandelion greens, block the stream somehow and catch some fish ...mice.. there are dammed mice everywhere!!! yummy yummy mice ( at least the ranch dogs think so ) use that trail mix as bait catch some big juicy rats and you've got yerself a real treat!

[AZRedhawk44]

Its SPRINGTIME LADY! cant anyone in north America recognize a dandelion?

I guess she knew enough to catch drinking water in all the rain, there are lizards, bugs, birds, cottontail galore out here, After 3 days of a vitamin pill and a tablespoon of granola I'd be eating bugs raw. I bet she was surrounded by Indian Rice Grass, a native species and the main source of food here for ages.

She got water from a stream ( but not FRESH FISH??) for awhile but lack of food made her too weak to continue, it looks like she ran the engine until she was out of gas, it also looks like she never started a fire.  

http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/Trio+found+Rita+Chretien+wilderness+recounts+incredible+rescue+story/4755478/story.html

There's freakin' FISH in the Superstition Mountains in AZ!

The streambeds dry up every summer.  Stagnant, nasty shallow pools here and there, and probably some extremely remote ponds I haven't found yet where they hole up for the summer... but every spring you can find little 2-3 inch fingerlings.  Little sticklebacks.  In little schools of a dozen or two.

I have no freaking clue how fish evolved to survive somewhere so inhospitable to them, but if there's fingerling sticklebacks in AZ's driest mountains then there has to be fish in creeks further north where vans  get stuck in mud.

[Hawkmoon]

Especially when severely fatigued, it's possible to have a "senior moment" and flip a bearing 180 degrees, forget which direction the sun rises, etc.

Up, of course. Otherwise it would be "setting."