Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Days 43 & 44, Monday & Tuesday, January 15 & 16 - Cold Days for the Rio Grande Valley

 I know some of you folks reading this have been experiencing real cold weather but for south Texas it has been cold here the past few days.

Normal high/low temps here are 71/54 this time of year. Yesterday the high was 58 and the low Sunday night was 30. Last night the low was 26 and todays high was 40. Tonights low is forecast to be 27. When combined with 20-25 mph winds, with 30-35 mph gusts, it feels cold.

About all I accomplished yesterday was filling our onboard water tanks, dumping our waste tanks, unhooking our water hose and storing it, along with our softener. The seals around RV slides do an OK job of keeping the wind out but not so good when the wind is 25-35 mph and the temperatures are around freezing. We pulled in our living room slide, and have left it in, to minimize wind infiltration. Our heat pumps keep the temperature comfortable until the outside temp gets below 40 when the winds are this strong. Once they can't keep the temperature up to the setting on the thermostat it automatically switches us over to the two small propane furnaces. They don't have any  problem keeping it warm inside.

Today we forced ourselves out of the coach to attend the 9:30 campground meeting where the upcoming activities are discussed. Management had cancelled the meeting. They put out a notice on Facebook but Kathy did not see it, and I don't use Facebook. We did learn that the electricity was off in some of the park model units (no doubt another problem with the campground electrical distribution system) and that at least one person waterlines had frozen. 

Rather than come directly back to the camper we went to the puzzle room and worked on the current puzzle. After a half hour I gave up and went back to the coach, and read. Kathy came home around 11.

Next it was off to HEB for some grocery shopping. After having lunch back at home I drove 20 miles over to Donna, TX, to a big RV place. When we had our annual maintenance done on the way down Bryan )Lakeshore Custom RV in Iuka, MS) told us that we had a small leak in a valve on the suspension system. It would have taken him a week to get the part, and he said we would be okay delaying the repair until we got down here. I went to the RV place to talk to them about doing the work. They don't do any chassis work. I need to get on Tiffin's website and find the closest facility that does chassis work. I'm considering just calling Bryan and telling him to get the part and that we will drive the extra 400 miles to go back through Iuka on our way home, so that he can do the work. His hourly rates are much better, and I trust his work.

Yesterday I talked to David, my brother who lives near Coldwater, MI, he is on pins and needles waiting for their cold weather to freeze the lakes hard enough so that he can get on the ice to go ice fishing.

I talked to Tom, Kathy's brother, this morning. They have 7" of heavy snow on the ground at their house near Crossville, TN. Their driveway is a quarter mile long, uphill, to get to the county road. The first section of his driveway is steeper than the driveway we had on Black Rock Lane. They won't be going anywhere for a few days, actually it wouldn't surprise me to learn that a neighbor came by and plowed the drive.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has certainly  blessed me.

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