Snow Day

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in these parts. Our "major winter storm" dumped a light dusting of snow - maybe an inch or two. The moose, squirrel and cats are all experiencing their first snow. The big story, though, is the cold.

Today's "official" high will likely be something like 28 degrees. But, that was at 12:01 a.m. Since then the temperature has plummeted. Currently, it's something like 16 degrees, on it's way to anywhere between 4 and -4 for tonight's low.

Yes, it's cold.

And, it's been windy. Before the howling winds began last night, we pulled in our north-facing slide. Who needs to subject a frozen slide topper to a 40 mph gust? Our slightly smaller house stayed toasty enough all night, and we were pleased to still have running water and propane this morning. At midday, our propane tank was just a hair under half. If we can make it through the next night or two, the forecast for Friday is calling for sunny skies and temps a degree or two above freezing. Now, that's propane errand weather!

With no precipitation falling this morning, we decided to bundle up, brave the sub-zero wind chill and get out. Yes, our coach is lovely, but even the walls of a new 40-footer can begin to close in. In yet another propane saving move, we headed out for a tasty hot breakfast at the nearby Bob Evans. (Love that place!) Then, we visited the local UPS store to pack and ship the original Bullwinkle's bedding back to the dealer. (It was one of the things we pulled out of our POD last week.) Back in our toasty rolling home we settled in for an afternoon movie.

Before we turn in tonight we'll pull in our other slide, which will make the moose extra cozy but still quite livable. Reducing our total cubic feet for the night should make our heat sources more efficient. At least we hope so. The top, sides and bottoms of these slides are the least protected parts of the coach, so we hope our space saving efforts pay off. Besides, with the slides in, we'll be ready to roll if we need to make a propane run. We'll just unplug the power and pull up the jacks. (Check that. We'll unplug power, press a button and pray the jacks work in the cold.)

Then, dear readers, we'll head to Texas!