Winter came in like a lion on December 21, 2013. The rain came down and down and down and froze all over the trees. Although it was pretty and didn't have a huge affect on the roads (except bridges and overpasses) it was horrible for the trees. In the RV park we stay in near Blanchard, OK it devastated probably 80% of them. So very sad. The good news is that it doesn't appear that any of the RVs
or vehicles were harmed. The few vehicles that had tree limbs come down on them, had them come down softly rather than cracking and falling several feet.
The owner of the park told me that she has seen it worse one time and that was about 2006 or 2007 and that the trees actually recovered. It just takes so long.
I assume we will see and hear lots of chain saws once the ice has melted. Most will have to be cut way back if not all the way to the trunk. There are a few that will have to be sawed down completely.
When the storm started it dawned on us that we had not topped off our gas tank in the RV the last time we were on the road and we only had 1/4 tank of gas in it. Ugh! The generator will not run with only 1/4 of a tank and if the power goes out we are in a bit of a jam. We certainly did not want to have to winterize the RV in the dark and freezing temps and have to find a place to go until the power came back on. So off to Walmart John went to get some gas cans and gas. He arrived home safely with 15 gallons of gas if we needed it. We then found out from the park owner that they typically do not lose power in the park in ice storms and that she had lots of gas for us to use if needed. She has it for all their heavy equipment they use in the park. In the end the power only blipped off and on twice and for a very short time so all was good and we didn't need to fire up the generator.
I wonder what is in store for us the rest of the winter. Hopefully not more ice storms. Snow is not a problem but I sure hope the ice and these bitter cold temps we have been experiencing are over. Looking forward to sun the rest of this week and warmer temps. They are predicting 60 degrees in a few days. Awesome.
Well winter has arrived with brute force on December 5, 2013. This is our 3rd winter in our motorhome and I think this one is going to be the hardest so far. Winter for the last 2 years wasn't bad -- very little ice or snow. I'm not sure that will be the case this time around. An arctic blast has blanketed a huge part of the country and we will not see anything above freezing for a week. This is the coldest we have seen here in 30 years. Our days are going to be in the low 20s and our nights as low as single digits. I'm very happy we live in kind of a deep hole between two major roads so we are protected from the wind. While others are seeing 15 mph or more we are well under 10 mph so wind chill isn't much of a factor here like in the city or up on the hills.
Yesterday we saw some freezing rain and mostly sleet but this morning woke up to 1-2" of snow and it is still lightly snowing. It's very pretty and about 20 degrees. We are having to put sweaters and winter coats on the dogs to take them outside.
This week we are dog sitting for some friends who are on a cruise in the western Caribbean. Boy are they in for a shock when they arrive home Sunday!! So we have 3 dogs to get ready to walk each time they need to go out but they seem to like playing in the snow.
Life in a motorhome in this type of weather can be interesting. Since this is the coldest we have ever experienced it makes me a bit nervous but so far so good. We are under a metal cover that has metal walls around it on the bottom as well so we are a bit more protected than the others in the park. We have a thermostatically controlled heated hose hooked up so we don't have to wrap our hose. Where we connect to the water is in a hole in the ground that is quite deep with a cover on top of it and that seems to work well keeping that part from freezing up as well. We are leaving all the lights on in our storage bays to give it all a bit more heat underneath and we have central heat that heats up where all the water pipes are underneath. Where we hook up the hose to the coach is behind a bay door and when you open that up and feel the area with your hand it all seems to be warm as well. So hopefully we should be good to go with the pipes not freezing up.
Inside we are needing to keep all the night shades pulled down to help hold the heat in a bit better since our windows are single pane which is a bit of a downer. I love light and want to be able to see the snow but it just makes it harder to heat. We finally broke down and are running a space heater at the front of the coach where it is the draftiest. So all that is left is putting on some extra clothes and watching the level of the propane tank. We have a wonderful guy that delivers propane directly to us once a week but I'm sure he would come on an off day if we were running out.
For all of you that are experiencing this very cold weather, stay warm and safe.
I assume we will see and hear lots of chain saws once the ice has melted. Most will have to be cut way back if not all the way to the trunk. There are a few that will have to be sawed down completely. 
