I've got a rough plan in my head, but its given me some questions, so I'll include those here and if any of you have answers, I'd appreciate a thread below trying to help me out a little.

If I'm not at home but still local, the first part of my plan is to head to my house. I'll try to drive highways at first, I figure I'll be smart enough to react faster than most folks and be moving before the roads get too bogged down. If I miss that window I shift over to the back roads. If I still get stuck on the surface routes, then its off on foot to the old homestead.

This brings me to the first question, how far from home (time not distance) do you have to be before you decide, uh oh, not gonna be able to make it, better spend me energy looking for an alternative place to get supplies, hole up, etc.? If I'm traveling to a conference in Oregon, the odds of me making it from my hotel to my house umpteen hundred miles away in Oklahoma are pretty freaking slim, but where do you draw the line?

Let's say I'm close, or at home when I figure it out. Full on bad juju is taking place in my immediate neighborhood, then I make a tactical advance to the rear as fast as I can. I've got a bugout bag packed and depending on just exactly what is going down, I go by car, motorcycle, or foot. If its just a zombie outbreak in the area, I take time to pack that extra bit of snivel gear, maybe try to catch some more of the news, contact family members via phone or internet to warn them. Maybe it won't reach my area and I can just hole up in place.

That's my next question, when the real and the bad and the scary is occuring in your front lawn, its time to react. But what about when its across the street? Two blocks down? The next city up the road? The next county? The next state? Anywhere on the continent? Where should I draw that line, obviously it depends on what the occurence is, but still you've got to have a boundary in mind or you'll wait too long, can't decide what mine is.

So now its safe for me to travel, or at least its not as dangerous as staying put, I've got to go pick up my kiddos. They don't live with me so I figure odds are good they won't be with me when zday comes, if they are I can skip this step and happy to have it so. But my ex wife moved very far away, to a very urban environment. This means my odds of surviving to get to them are pretty low, but screw that I'm going anyway, as I think anyone with a family would.

That's the new question. Say the news reports that zombies have completely overrun chicago(not where my kids are but a good example). Do I still go and try to find my ex's house? Do I go check the nearest refugee center to Chicago in hopes they made it out in time? Do I grieve and just move on to ensuring my own survival? I don't know if I could answer that until it really comes, but I wonder what other people would do if they're far from loved ones on Z-day.

Anyhoo, ideally I've got my kids with me at this point, make it back to my folks' farm and fort up for the duration of the emergency, along with whatever family members also make it back. Now I'm at my last question.

How long is the duration of the emergency? I'm assuming there'll be an interruption of utility service post z day, since as remote as they live there is an interruption of utility services during a mild storm much less an apocalypse. So that means no TV, no newspaper delivery. I guess you could go with a battery powered ham radio, but what are the odds anybody in my area is broadcasting its safe to come out. The fact that the city down the highway has been reclaimed from the undead doesn't mean I won't get massacred when I leave the farm. So how long do you wait for it to get better before you start scouting? Give it a few weeks? If it is over in a day I'm probably out of a job. If its over in a few weeks, and I wait a few months I'll be living on scant rations in unpleasant conditions for way longer than I have to. I know better safe than sorry, but at what point do you just need to go see?

I don't know if this is much of a plan, but they're real questions and I'd appreciate it if someone could give me a hand with them. THanks
S1CREAMER