Yes, it’s miserably cold here in central Florida. Yes, I am chilled to the bone. Yes, it sucks. But I shall not snivel. Yesterday evening we watched news coverage of the blizzard that is blanketing the east coast, and all of those folks stranded in airports, and others who were busy shoveling snow, or getting stuck. Compared to them, we have it good.
But just because I’m not going to snivel doesn’t mean I have to like it! If my fingers ever thaw out enough that I can type again, I plan to write a strongly worded editorial!
We knew the weather was going to be ugly yesterday, and we had no place to go and nothing to do, so we slept in, then stayed in bed snuggling for a long time, because neither of us was in a hurry to get out from under the covers. When we finally did get up, we wore our sweats all day long, and put on our warm Teepee Creepers sheepskin slippers. While Miss Terry has to have her morning kick start, I don’t drink coffee. But I sure didn’t turn down the cup of hot chocolate she made me for breakfast!
I spent the day catching up on a backlog of paperwork I had let pile up, and managed to make a big dent in it. Terry kept busy doing some laundry, puttering around the kitchen, and working on some other chores she needed to get out of the way.
It never got much above 50 degrees all day long, and the wind kept gusting up. Looking out the windows, we saw very little activity most of the day, except for a few people bundled up, walking their dogs. That’s another reason I don’t have a pet. I love dogs, but I’ll go play with theirs when it warms up, and leave the dog walking in the cold to them.
We love our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage motorhome, and it has so many nice features we didn’t have in our MCI bus conversion. The one place where it is lacking is in insulation. When we built the bus, we put several layers of different kinds of insulation in the floor, ceiling, and walls. We didn’t have a furnace in the bus, but with an Olympian catalytic heater, or a small electric heater, we stayed warm and toasty even when outside temperatures got down below freezing several times.
The Winnebago has two furnaces, a heat pump, and we use space heaters as needed, but it was still cold inside it yesterday. But I’m not sniveling!
Since the overnight temperatures were going to be in the mid-20s for the next few days, I went out in the late afternoon and disconnected our water hose to keep it from freezing.
Today and tomorrow look like more of the same thing. Terry has been saying that she needed a few days of down time to spend at home, and it looks like she’s getting her wish. but I’m not sniveling!
Thought For The Day – I used to be lost in the shuffle. Now I just shuffle along with the lost.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
I will snivel for you Nick. This morning I woke up to over 24 inches of white stuff. It was enough that my beagle went head first into a snow drift last night and briefly disappeared. Today, we had to shovel an area in the backyard, just so he can do his business. The snow is 1/4 of the way up the door of my coach! My car WITH roof topper is burried, yet there is no snow on my front landing. It has all blown away. I will post pictures on facebook later, but this is not a nice storm and I really do love snow. I hope it all disappears before we are scheduled to “run away from home” in 18 days. The airports are closed and we are in a state of emergency which means “stay off the roads”. I’ve got plenty to pack up inside, so stay warm down in Florida.
I’m not going to snivel either, but I’ll sure be glad when this cold front is over. I saw a prediction for 78 degrees on Saturday!
We’re in Odessa (outside of Tampa) and we did the same thing yesterday that you did. Al watched football and I watched tv in bed. I’m hoping that wind dies down today. My weather on the Droid said it was 20 mph, but it sure felt stronger to me!
Stay warm!
Well, I will snivel!!!! It was 28.8 degrees here this morning and it’s only supposed to get to 54 as a high today. UGH UGH UGH!!!!!! I’m a spoiled Floridian!!!!!!!
While our recently acquired coach remains parked and snow covered right now, fully winterized, I was curious when you began to worry about your coach water lines and your valves? Have you installed heaters on the water / holding tanks / valves? Or do most RV’ers not fret about short dips below freezing ?
For example, when you were in AZ in April and you had a late spring snow storm … Other than unhooking an exposed hose, when would everyone start taking some action on the coach itself ?
We are a little south of you in Vero Beach and it is cold & I am sniveling, too. That wind yesterday was awful. We stayed inside most of the day except for going out for breakfast. We stayed warm inside with just a small electric heater. I did have a sweat shirt on. Put the trailer heater on this morning to warm up. It is supposed to be in the 70s by Thursday & hopefully last a while.
Forgot to mention we don’t unhook the water hose, we just make sure the holding tanks are open & run a trickel of water & they don’t freeze up.
I would like to show you how we spent our Xmass in Eilat on the Red Sea
http://danyshula.blogspot.com/2010/12/anniversary-sunny-xmass.html
Happy Holidays to you all and try to keep warm…
We’re in the Florida panhandle area with hard freeze warnings! Snivel, snivel. Our Winnebago’s furnace routes heat through the basement bays–I think it does that instead of routing it into the house! We put a light in the utility bay to provide extra warmth there just in case. Yesterday was supposed to be a travel day for us but after seeing the wind predictions we decided to stay another day. We’ll be out of here in a few minutes but, unfortunately, we aren’t going far enough to get away from the cold yet. Apparently this was a good winter to be in Arizona. Wish we were there.
Im parked about 50 miles north of Tampa in what appears to be florndiana. my hose has been frozen half the mornings since the 6th of Dec when I got here and there has been frost on my car almost every day. my coach has 3 electric and 3 propane furnaces not coounting the small heaters in my water/sewer and fuel bays. I only am using 2 electrics. I have only turned on the bay heaters 1 nite and I dont think I need them unless we get extended cold. I filled my 100 gallon water tank when I got here so all I have to do is close 1 valve and flip the pump on and Im in business but its sure not what I came south for
Nick not only am I sniveling about the very cold tempts we are still having here in TX nigh before last it was a warm 19 and then on top of it I have picked up a flu bug that somehow survived the cold. We have had no problems with our pipes freezing, it seems that when the tempts drop below a certain degree it automatically switches to propane so the bays stay warm. Our water hose has frozen several times but we always have water in out holding tanks so it is not a major problem. It is OK to snivel.
Good idea to unhook your hose to the RV, Nick. It could freeze and then continue to freeze up into the RV water lines. By unhooking, you avoid this possibility.
Nick, do you have a friend or experience with the no vent propane heaters? A story or website for studying up on this would certainly be welcomed by many RV users. First hand references are always better than manufactureres websites where their’s is the best system. Let the RV fulltimers tell us whose system is best. Regards.
Al,
We have used the Olympian catalytic heaters with good success. They use much less propane than an RV furnace, and are completely safe if used properly.
However, with any propane device, you should always leave a window or roof vent cracked just a bit, for safety’s sake.
Nick
Who shall I credit the thought of the day to? You? 🙂 Nice one.
Howdy Terry & Snivel,
I told you two weeks ago to GET OUTTA THERE, but no you were going to Florida for your vacation and ‘warm’ weather!!! Elaine is 200 miles S of me and having worse cold snaps.. Come on out to the RunningStar and we’ll give y’all a real ol’ hot time with a
real mesquite bonfire and warm our ‘tootsies’ at Joyce’s fire-ring!!!!
Or y’all can go on to Hondo and freeze your hoses off… Swing by Livingston first and see Dennis’ RED barn…
AND ITZ OKAY TO SNIVEL!!!!!!!!!!!
Nick,Terry
I am retirng in (3) days and my wife and I are anticipating spending a minimun of (12) months on the road to see what’s out there.
Your discomfort with the lack of heat may be solves by talking to a very smart guy Richard Watson , owner of a company called SSHC in Connecticut.
I beleive that he may have a solution to the lack of heat in a motor home.
I have experienced his product first hand and am a convinced belevier in his technology
It is refered to a radient heat. And he has published a textbook on the aplication.
I think that for all RVers he may just have a solution to the problen that you described today in your blog.