I am an avid back packer and love bugging out for leisure.
However I would not recommend the only preparation someone makes is to grab a small bag full of stuff and hit the road. Everyone else is going to have the same idea. You will, in time, just be a refuge.
There are few situations where it would make sense to abandon ‘home’ for the road. Speaking for my own location there are only a few things that would force me out of here. We have a major rail line through town. One of those care could tip and release a toxic cloud causing me to leave for a couple days. We have long cold winters but we have nice warm summers in which to prepare. Maybe the power goes out and cash is unavailable for a while. Do you know your neighbors? Is it realistic to plan for an invasion a-la REd Dawn? Are we all in such great shape we can hike in to the wilderness, where no one else is in a country of 350,000,000 people? Are you likely to find someone who can fix your car, stitch a wound, or slaughter a goat with whom you can barter? Is it more likely you can farm an acre of food and kill a few elk before a truck load of food arrived at an empty grocery store?
The bugging out model has a certain romance to it. However, I would venture to say a great many are not able to make it more than a couple days. Staying put makes the most sense in all but the most extreme situation.
I am not saying don’t have a BOB ready to go. I keep one in my office, one in my house, and a bin in the car. I am not too worried about the Canadian Mounties invading, but some day, a train may crash and we have to bug out of town. Cash, booze, bullets, a few barter guns. If it really gets bad I could barter a very specialized skill, machinist mechanic. I’m not likely to carry a 2000 pound mill nad 500 pound toolbox on my back.
For some realistic advice check out Ferfal’s blog, Alpharubican, and (his name escapes me) a blog written by a Bosnia who survived in that war.
That actually happened in a suburb of Toronto- a train hauling propane & chlorine blew up and they had to evacuate half a million people for several days.
Right off the top of my head, I think his name was Stefan. His initial thoughts on what that year of change in Bosnia was like can be seen here.
The AlphaRubicon site is spelled just a bit differently, and I'd add JW Rawles Survival Blog to your reccomendations.