AAA 63-Piece Winter Severe Weather Travel Kit

This is exactly what I wanted in case I get stuck somewhere - hope that never happens, but just in case.

If you are a driver who travels in rough winter weather (or if you know and like such a driver), this is a perfect starter kit to put in the trunk before the first leaves fall. The AAA Winter Travel kit has put together a bunch of survival items that could make the difference between freezing to death or waiting for help in relative comfort. The kit is not 100% complete, no kit could be, but if you add the items that pertain to your personal situation, you will feel a lot better when driving those backwoods roads.

The most useful item, by far, is the enclosed "Emergency Car Care Guide," which has instructions and suggestions to get your car headed back to safety instead of being stranded at the side of a cold and stormy road. If the car cannot be started again easily, the Guide also contains suggestions on how to keep warm and safe while waiting for rescue. To help, there are emergency candles, a shovel to remove snow from around the car's tailpipe (keeps away that carbon monoxide), a flashlight and an emergency blanket. The blanket is made of thin, reflective plastic and would be better supplemented with a heavy woolen blanket, or even layers of newspaper in an emergency.

Another thing that the kit does not contain is food and water necessary to stay warm, comfortable and not hungry while waiting. I suggest always having a case package of water bottles (you need a lot more water than food, and three candles won't melt much snow) and some high calorie snack bars, which last a long time and will provide needed body heat in a winter emergency. Both items can be easily replaced and rotated as time passes, so that the items won't be old and stale when a real emergency occurs.

As a thoughtful starting point for your kit, this is great, but don't kid yourself - 46 pieces of the 63 piece kit are the "first aid supplies" (mostly bandages) and "quality vinyl cover." You need more than this in a winter emergency. An hour's online research will give you a complete list, to which you need only add something to kill time. A novel from Amazon, perhaps? :-)