I’m including !hypotheticalsituations in a game I play with myself sometimes. The bolded parameters were all assigned using a random number generator.
Don’t worry about how you were convinced of it, but you know for certain that you will be transported to 17 August 1888 in exactly one week from right now. This is a one-way trip.
Luckily, you will be able to bring some things with you. You will be able to bring back 2 m3/72 ft3 worth of stuff. For reference, that’s about what can be stored in the bed of a standard pickup without going over the bedrails. Let’s say that you’ve been provided the appropriate number of steamer trunks to fill.
What are you going to do for the next week, what are you bringing back with you, and what will you do once you arrive?
You may bring people/pets back with you, but you must subtract their approximate dimensions from your baggage allotment. You will arrive in 1888 in the same geographic location that you’re in next week.
Oh man, I didn’t see this. Awesome!!
One thing a person could consider is visiting the historical society in whatever location your ultimate destination is. Pull newspaper microfilm from 1888–1900 or something, then pay to have every single page printed. That would easily take an entire day, if not two, and the prints would occupy the better part of a steamer trunk. But… information is power.
Another thing I dwell on when it comes to these time travel mind games I play is food safety. We in the west REALLY take clean food and water for granted. Our gut microbiomes are so pathetic that I’d expect to fall ill almost immediately upon arrival. It might even be lethal. For real. I’d bring so much pepto bismol lol. I’d also bring scholarly literature on stuff like foodborne pathogens and water activity. Not that I could use to to any real effect, but perhaps I’d be able to find someone who could.
Watch. I’d end up one of the wealthiest humans on the planet because of my involvement with commercial food production… all because I didn’t want to shit myself to death and/or eat nothing but homegrown carrots.
I know a good amount about food safety in the back country. Assuming you’re far from the tropics (northern US qualifies, southern doesn’t) and far from a factory spewing out mercury or something, just boil your water. You’ll be fine that way. Environmental microbes haven’t changed too much as far as anyone knows, so it’s just a matter of avoiding unhygenic things and practices.