I recently traveled to far western Texas to backpack in Big Bend National Park. An ice storm hit west Texas shortly before my trip. The ice cleared before I drove out from Dallas, but knocked out the power in the area I was visiting for several days. That power outage taught me several important lessons.

The Resilience of Small Businesses

The power outage demonstrated yet again the resilience of American small businesses. I was amazed at how well, and how quickly, businesses were able to adjust to the loss of power, computers, and the Internet. Those adjustments make life much easier for people like me, stuck in the area with no local support.

It’s obvious to me now, but I never thought about the fact that gas stations can’t pump gas without power. I will forever be grateful to the gentleman who owns the small Fina station in Marathon, Texas. He hooked up a portable generator to one of his gas pumps and hand-pumped gas for people like me who would have been stranded in the middle of nowhere without it. (Marathon, Texas truly is in the middle of nowhere; look it up if you don’t believe me.) He even resurrected an old mechanical credit card imprinter to allow customers to pay by credit card. His price was higher than normal, but, frankly, he didn’t charge as much as he should have.

I had similar experiences as I continued on to Terlingua, Texas, just outside the park, and into the park itself. The Starlight Theatre, a wonderful restaurant in Terlingua, connected their stove, refrigerator, and lights to a propane generator so they could continue to serve meals. The lights dimmed every time the refrigerator cooler powered on, but I had a wonderful dinner.

The concession restaurant in Big Bend National Park was also cooking using propane, with lanterns and candles providing lighting. Their food supplies were limited, but they managed to juggle what they had to create a limited menu for those who needed to eat. The concession hotel also had no power, but provided lodging (albeit cold lodging) to those who had nowhere else to go. The restaurant and hotel took down credit card information by hand, to be entered later when the computers came back online.

In short, the capitalist system works, even when little else is working.

Our Dependence on Computers and the Net

My experience without power also reminded me of how much we depend on computers and Internet access. Interconnectedness has made life much easier for all of us, including businesses, but, when we lose those connections, serious adjustments are required. I read a lot of apocalyptic science fiction, and this is a recurring theme of that genre, so it didn’t really surprise me—but it was interesting to experience it firsthand.

I also realized how much time I waste on the Internet and my phone. We were without Internet or phone access for five days, including the three days we were backpacking. (Power was restored right before we emerged from the wilderness.) I missed it, but I caught up in about a day, and the five-day delay had almost no effect on my life. Apparently, it’s really not that important that I keep up with events on a minute-by-minute basis.

Kudos to the National Park Service

Finally, I was reminded how much I like the National Park Service. I backpack a lot, and I have had many experiences with National Park Service employees, both rangers and temporary employees. I have never had a negative experience. If every government worker was as efficient and worked as hard as the National Park Service employees I have encountered over the years, our country would be in much better shape. The National Park Service does more with less than any other government agency, state or federal, than I have dealt with. They also deal courteously with some truly idiotic behavior by tourists. Kudos to them.