Friday, January 29, 2010

Welcome To Iowa

After packing late into the evening on Wednesday, we were preparing for an early departure on Thursday when we made a most unwelcome discovery. The slides that make living in a thirty-five foot long space with six other people possible refused to move. Not in and not out. The motor for them made not a sound, and the button only gave us a very, very disheartening "click." After a meltdown or two, we decided to plug in the camper and wait until morning. Morning came and offered only the revelation that the slides are run by the same motor as the leveling jacks. The leveling jacks being the persnickety beasts that they are, this was not exactly comforting news, especially since the breaker that the jacks pop wasn't popped. Fuses. How many fuses are there in an RV? Dozens, and all in different locations. And what are the odds that the bad fuse would be exactly the one that the Commodore pulled out? I don't know, but that's what happened, and that is why we were only a few hours late getting out of the yard of Thursday morning.
Those few hours, however, were critical. As anyone who watches the weather knows, there is a fairly horrible storm threatening the south. Terrible Winter Storms are not things that one desires to drive through. Especially not in a thirty-five ft long thirteen ft high bus. No indeed. Winter Storms are things to be raced and circled around and avoided. Fortunately, despite our late start, we made it north of Tennessee by mid afternoon and just at nightfall we pulled into camp in Mt. Vernon, IL.
We started alright this morning, but immediately after pulling out of camp, we realized that all of the stores we needed to stop at for supplies existed in the very town that we were in. Nowhere else in Illinois would this unprecedented phenomenon repeat itself. We stopped, of course, and completed all of our errands at once before heading on to Albia, IA.
We have never been to Iowa in the winter. Quite honestly, we have never been in winter. I cannot actually recall ever seeing temperatures drop below 10 F. in AL. We did experience 9 F. weather, back in Douglas, WY, but somehow, 9 just seems so much warmer than 1. I think that that 1 degree has completely changed my outlook on the weather. Really, what IS that degree thinking? Why is it still holding on? Why can it not summon eighty or so of its brethren? I do not know.
Actually, right now, it is much warmer than that. It is a full 10 F. So we're good. It isn't supposed to get down to 1 degree until around 2:30 AM. Whew! Am I glad to hear that!

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