Meeting before Trip (Part 2)

JP with Lorem, Lasersexpanther, Redsword, Jaxx and Cindy

Lily nodded properly as she replied, "Yes lady Elizabeth. I am eager to gain new skills."

"Very good. I think we might be able to alternate who teaches you but for now let's start with one person. Who wants to volunteer to teach Lily to drive?" Elizabeth asked. She would do herself but probably not best to have a first time driver in the lead vehicle.

Lorem raised her hand quickly. This was right up her area of expertise, so she felt a high level of expectancy. In addition, it would be nice to have some female company and perhaps make friends with the person on the team closest to her age. “I would gladly help teach Miss Lavigne.”

"Alright, we will go with Miss Ipsum teaching Miss Lavigne." Elizabeth gave a small smile and a nod of approval. It was a good start. "Thank you, Miss Ipsum."

Elizabeth paused and looked over the team. "So, what I am thinking, at least for the first day is Mr. Sung and myself in the lead vehicle. Mr. Aster and Captain Maseo in the second vehicle. Miss Lagrave and Dr. Jackal in the third vehicle. The last vehicle will be the Orc wagon and that will be Miss Ipsum, Miss Lavigne and Cronk. It is up to the drivers of each vehicle to work out how to split up the driving among yourselves. We can change off pairs each day, but that is a decision for each evening.

My plan is to stop about every two hours. We will stop around noon for lunch, which I say we take, at least, an hour for. Then somewhere around 5:00 in the evening for the overnight stop. The other stops will be about 20 minutes, just short ones to stretch legs, so to speak." Elizabeth paused. "Now, I do realize, unforeseen things can happen while traveling. We will need a signal to tell everyone that a vehicle has stopped. I was thinking of using the horn for this but does anyone have any other suggestions?"

"Stop about every two hours?" Sung asked. How much tea do we need? " He joked. Stopping every two hours seems a bit much. Every four hours should be sufficient," suggested Sung. He was not used to stopping so much, and his military training said that was too much, and they would not make good time on a road trip.

Mr. Sung I realize with your training you might not need as many stops but we have team members not used to such long traveling days and a new driver." Elizabeth commented. "The village is not going anywhere and we will still get there on the 5th day whether we take breaks or not."

"Yes, Lady Elizabeth, it is as you wish then," replied Sung, satisfied with her answer.

Lorem spoke up, "Horns will work for less serious communication, but because they have alternative uses it creates a potentiality for confusion or misunderstanding ... I think. For example, I may use the horn in case I am in serious trouble, or because I needed to stop for a benign reason, or I may need to use my horn because a cow is in the way." She paused for a moment and then added, "I have some flare rockets which could be stored in each vehicle. They shoot off leaving a trail of red smoke and make a distinct popping sound when they explode. These could be used to reliably convey a threat or emergency situation, giving us a specific visual and audio stimulus while in our vehicular caravan."

Sasha shook her head. "We need a solution that won't draw attention from anyone or anything that could be around." She said.

Elizabeth nodded as people spoke, "Are there any suggestions as to how to grab the attention of the wagons in front then?" She didn't know how to accomplish that. "I would suggest the lights but they might not be seen during the day."

Lorem wrinkled her nose in thought. The easy solution was not going to work because it would give away their location. She jumped back in the brainstorming session, "I have a few ideas I would like to propose given these new parameters." She paused looking about the room to see if anyone was going to stop her from sharing. "While a steam powered wagon will be plenty loud enough for anything in the area, I could whip up a mechanical chirping device. It would be a wind-up device that mimics bird calls or insect sounds that we code for communication. I think an advantage is that it would blend into the natural environment better. We can differentiate the sounds to represent specific meaning thresholds. For example, a sparrow chirps for stop, a crow caws for danger. My concern is it might require knowledge of local fauna to avoid suspicious or out-of-place sounds. A concern might be, perhaps it sounds too real and we can't identify that it is being used with the surrounding environmental noises."

"While that might work, there would need to be at least 3 and somehow we would need to be able to hear them and know that's its the signal. We cannot be stopping everytime we hear a bird that we think might be the signal." Elizabeth explained.

"Oh, it doesn't have to be a bird. Perhaps foreign nature sounds to the local environment, for example … the cicada sound? Things like that would stand out." She hesitated, then continued. "Of course there is the Semaphore option." Lorem went on to clarify, "Miniature semaphore arms or flags mounted on the wagons could convey coded messages. But would require us to be checking our rearview mirrors more frequently."

"What about Storm whistles?" Sasha suggested. "They are loud and melodic enough to be heard and different enough from a horn. The people in trouble blow it, it gets everyone's attention quickly." She added

"Duck calls are good, ducks are everywhere and they are loud, "suggested Sung.

Lorem affirmed Sasha's suggestion, "Storm whistles would definitely work. Though their decibel level would still be heard from a distance, it is better than many of the other options presented so far and require no time-consuming fabrication. It would be a very easy thing to acquire and useful for each person to have one on their person in case of emergency." There were no perfect solutions, only trade offs she thought to herself.

Elizabeth weighed it in her mind, "Each solution has pros and cons, but I also like the storm whistle idea and the camping store had those. I can get Askel to sent a servant or two to fetch some. So, is everyone in agreement with using the storm whistles?"

Lorem nodded in approval.

Sung nodded with Lorem.

Dr. Jackal then said, "Can we set up moving colored flags in the back of the carts? Red could mean danger, yellow for simple animals in the way, orange could mean bad roads and green could mean "go." If we keep it simple we won't have to worry so much."

"That idea is good, if it can be done in time. And they would have to be controlled from the front seat. I know, in the front wagon, at least the person not driving will be in the front seat as they try to navigate and help look for possible dangers." Elizabeth replied.

Dr. Jackal rubbed his chin and then replied, "Well we could use a small labeled rope and pully system for each flag so the driver or passenger can pull them."

"Miss Ipsum, do you think you could put together something like that for the wagons?" Asked the team leader.

Lorem thought for a moment. “I can definitely rig the wagons with the system Dr. Jackal proposed; however, I am concerned about our timeframe. 4 wagons to do between now and tomorrow.” She looked like she was doing calculations in her head. “I will need the necessary materials provided as soon as possible and in addition assistance to get it done in time.”

"Getting what you need should not be a problem. I can assist you. Who else can assist Miss Ipsum?" Elizabeth asked, but then added. "Actually, do we need that for each wagon? The Orc wagon will always be in the rear so it probably doesn't need a system. The front wagon is the most likely one to need it. Just in case we don't have time for all of them."

"First and third?" Sasha suggested. "It will ensure everyone can see it."

"I believe those two will be enough. If we find we want the others to have the flags we can add them later. We can always buy what we need and just take what we do not put on before the trip as necessary." Elizabeth replied

"I will assist in making what we need to attach the flags " Sasha offered her help. "If I can build a gun this should not be too difficult."

"Miss Ipsum, can you make a list of what is needed for the flags? When the servants are sent for the whistles, they should also be able to pick up those items as well." It seemed as if the signals were taken care of, for the moment. So Elizabeth moved on. "Before we move on to what I need everyone to do to get ready. Were there any questions?"

Dr. Jackal spoke up, "I can assist as well. I've built similar items for experiments in the past."