Staying in the cold

It is very cold outside, 27° F, but it is cold almost anywhere in the US right now. As cold as it is, it is the warmest day of this week. I am dreading Tuesday and Wednesday. but decided to stay anyways, and try to make it work.

Adjustments

Sunday, January 9th, 2011 – Remember I said some time, not so long ago that life have their own pace, and that we are observers, and can join the ride or miss the opportunities? Well, this is just another example of that saying.

Let’s try to summarize where things are standing now. It has been a while since we enjoyed hiking and nature. We spent summer and fall with family commitments and work, waiting to go south and restart our exploring season. We were on our way to CA starting in TX, trying to avoid the cold weather.

This is where the change came in. We had an opportunity we decided we should not miss. But with this opportunity some strings are tied – We will have to stay in KS and stop travelling. At least for a while. This is a heavy price, that will take us some time to adjust to.

Our plans for now are to wait here until the end of the month. At that time we are planning a trip to Israel to visit my family and after we are back, I am planning to go and visit my kids in CA as I promised them. After that – I hope Patti will be able to take a project with her on the road, and we ill get to see AK after all. That was one trip I was looking up to very much.

Back to the present

For now, we are in an RV Park in a middle of a city. NOTHING excited about that - Walnut Grove – it is the only RV park around here. City living 100% with all the noise and sound of the city. Not only that – it is the coldest week of the winter. They are expecting –2° F on Tuesday night – this would be the coldest temperature we have been with the RV ever.

The initial research we did, showed that the average high in January is 38, so I was thinking – how bad can it get. Colder days would be in the upper 20’s, and some days we will have warm 40’s. I can deal with this. But we didn’t expect that cold. My first urge after we got here was to turn around and go back south, but then I got to think about it – 1 day driving each way, over $200 in gas topped with rental car and hotel for Patti – that is a little too much, and I can’t afford missing so much work myself.

So the other option is to get ready for the Winter storm.

Winter-Ready the RV

Being in a city – you have any kind of store you need in a matter of minutes drive. Home Depot, Wal-Mart or an other store.

First run was to Home-Depot to buy heating strips for the water hose and insulating material: foam sleeves for the hose, HVAC insulation rolls and insulating tape. I also got some HVAC insulation material to wrap around the sewer hose, but this is not for now. Maybe by the W/E.

Another stop at Wal-Mart for the shortest water hose I could find.

I brought everything into the RV (too cold to work outside) unrolled the hose and started wrapping the heating wire around it. Patti took the split foam sleeve and wrapped it around the hose with the wire. We put to zip ties on each side for enforcement. When we were done we wrapped the connection with insulation tape and the hose was ready.

We also emptied both black and grey tanks and made sure the sewer hose was completely drained. Filled the fresh water tank about 2/3 so it won’t freeze and hooked up the city water. I wrapped some of the heating wire and insulation around the connection point, just to be in the safe side.

Our unit has insulated tanks and sealed bottom. The furnace is heating the instruments area and the tanks, so as long as we use propane for heating we should be fine.

BTW – the new background picture in the blog was taken last year at the sunset point of the North Rim at the Grand Canyon NP.