Brrrrrrrrr
Last fall we had made the decision to venture down to south Texas for January - March. We had seen many fellow RVers make the winter trek, so why not us. Having lived in Southwestern Ontario for over fifteen years, we thought we knew what January weather was normally like. But there is no such thing as "normal" weather in this day of climate change, as we were soon to experience.
We had already delayed our departure by a week because of some predicted bad weather. When we set out on January 13th that weather all seemed to have passed, looked like it would be a cold start but clear. As usual parts of the 403 & 401 between Hamilton ON and Windsor ON were icy where the wind was blowing snow from the fields across the highway. Nothing that wasn't manageable.
Much to our surprise we actually had a personable US CBP agent. Passed inspection, with the exception of a disallowed tomato. One tomato lighter, we were wished a pleasant vacation and sent on our way.
After a night in Ann Arbor, we started, what we had hoped to be 4 days of heavy driving getting us into Texas. From then on we could stay in Our Casa and make a more leisurely pace down to Mercedes TX.
Not the case. After a cold drive into Indiana, we soon learned the driving cab of our A-Class Casa is not meant for drives in -20C with -29C windchill weather. We could not get warm let alone stay warm.
We woke up in Terre Haute IN to winter storm “Inga”. I soon learned how valuable those interactive road condition maps were going to be. By 10am we decided we were going to sit tight in Terre Haute for a day, not taking any chances on the road.
Next morning looked much better but still bitterly cold. After dressing in several layers we ventured out. Road conditions were pretty good, however we passed many cars, trucks & transports in ditches or jackknifed on exits. We took it slow.
We continued through Indiana, Illinois and Arkansas slowly, continually monitoring the road conditions ahead. Road conditions improved but the bitter cold did not. It was that cold that slowed us down the most, we could only take 5 to 6 hours of driving before we longed for a warm hotel room for the night. That cold followed us well into Texas, even our final destination, Mercedes, was experiencing an unprecedented hard freeze.
First thing we treated Our Case & our little car to upon arrival was a much needed wash & wax. With all the road salt & dirt off they look much better. We have shed our many layers & are now sporting shorts & sandals as it should be.
We made it, we can now relax and enjoy life at the Llano Grande Resort and the Rio Grande Valley
