Imagining the worst

"For the want of a [strap] a kingdom was lost"

I can't lie John. I'm like that to some point. If I go anywhere on vacation I always take a tool box packed with whatever I may need should the vehicle I'm in break down. As for wallets, I keep mine in my front pocket for that very reason she states. 

We just made a 2000 mile round trip from Chicago to Denver. In the back of the SUV I had a tool box that contained a tow strap, lug wrench, air compressor, battery charger, extension cord, hammer, wrenches, screwdriver, electrical tape and duct tape, and an empty 1 gallon gas can. Fortunately, we did not need any of these things this trip, although I have had to use most of them in the past. 

My wife got a bad sinus headache one day and we had to purchase sinus tablets at a truck stop paying 10x the normal price. That is one more thing that will be packed on the next trip.

When I was a teenager, my family went on a trip from southern California to Alaska, flying in our small plane, a Piper Apache. On that trip we had a more extensive emergency/survival kit than usual, including signal flares and a .22 rifle. At one point we were forced to land in the Yukon Territory by bad weather and wing-tip icing, and we found and set down at a small air strip with a Canadian Air Force radar station, called Snag. The radar operators were very hospitable, lodging and feeding us for 3 days and even taking my dad and me out on a lake for excellent trout fishing. At that time Snag had the record for the coldest temperature in North America at -84 degrees F; fortunately it was not that cold when we were there in the summer. I still wonder if we would have been able to find a clear area in the dense forest to land if we had not found Snag - and whether or not our emergency kit would have been sufficient.
(And I still remember my mother's horror - and her covering of my eyes with her hands - when we first walked into the station and saw Playboy magazine centerfolds pasted on all the walls.)

... In the back of the SUV I had a tool box that contained a tow strap, lug wrench, air compressor, battery charger, extension cord, hammer, wrenches, screwdriver, electrical tape and duct tape, and an empty 1 gallon gas can. ...

You forgot the wire coathanger.
I don't know how many times I've used one to replace a broken muffler or tailpipe strap.

Also handy for other . . . travel emergencies.

She is worried now by the fact that she can see my wallet sometimes in the back pocket of my pants, and she is afraid my pocket will be picked. So she is insisting that any new pants I buy from now on will have a button tab pocket closure.

You could use the Jeff Foxworthy redneck solution…if your dog and your wallet are both on a chain…you might be a redneck.

Point well taken. 

I did not have a wire coat hanger in my tool kit, but I did have a dress shirt hanging on a coat hanger that could have been pressed into service should the need arise.

If you are going to Alaska flying over the Yukon, a 0.22 rifle might be suitable for killing Arctic Hares to provide sustenance if required. However, it is not going to offer much protection against a charging brown bear or moose should they be encountered. For that a .500 magnum or .454 Casul handgun or high powered rifle would be more appropriate.

The big bore gun will also decapitate a hare with no damage to the meat. I'd go big. Dead is dead, right? Just no body shots on the hare.