Yep! This does call my position on the Darwin scale of endangered species into question.

As you all know, I live in Florida. And, I not only live in Florida, but I live South of Tampa. This means that this mornings temperature of 64 was pretty darn Cold, relatively speaking.

But, we are heading to Virginia on Saturday for a 2-3-week stay. In my RETRO-WINNIE.

In case you haven’t been reading my other Blog Posts, I have an older Motorhome that my wife and I are fixing up to meet our needs for more travel and adventure.

Don’t get me wrong, I ended up with a Motorhome that is in excellent shape,a nd it has operated well for us so far. But there are things we want to upgrade, but we are doing this in  logical manner with minimal investment.

So, this will be our first real Winter trip to the North for us. And, although i have checked out the Propane Furnace and the AC/HeatPump operation, a trip that requires daily (or more importantly nightly) operation will tell the true tale about how comfortable out trip will be.

I have written several articles on HubPages on How to Keep Warm in your RV that You might want to check out, and I will be re-reading my own suggestions while we are there.

We have no real idea what the weather will be like, because in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains one day might be in the fifties with nighttime lows in the thirties, at this time of year; and the next day might be in the thirties with nighttime lows in the twenties.

So each day will be a coin-toss for us weather-wise.

Anyway, I have a plan of preparation I go through for cold weather situations and we will be finished loading up by this afternoon. Our typical plan includes;

1. Fill our propane tank [We not only cook with gas, but we might need our furnace on some nights]
2. Check engine anti-freeze temperature [This is a basic thing, but we don’t need any kind of engine problems for our trip up or back]
3. Check Roof gasket seal condition [Cold weather can cause the sealant used on the roof to pull and crack allowing winter wter leaks if it rains]
4. Make sure we load our Cold-Weather comfort accessories [ It’s a long list but things like; sweat pants and shirts, lots of warm socks, throw blankets for lounging, at least one warm jacket each, real shoes (not flip-flops, LOL), roll of painters tape for temporary seal of any air leaks we find, small ceramic heater, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
5. Wash the Windshield inside and out, [ You never need a windshield that fogs up because it has that thin coating of pollutants on it that impairs your cold-weather driving vision]
6. Fill windshield washer reservoir with antifreeze [I use Rain-X].

So, here I sit, drinking my morning Coffee and preparing for our “one more time” trip to the stores for those things we thought we had but do not.

Then, its ON THE ROAD in the morning.

by Don Bobbitt, 2014

Copyright, Don Bobbitt, 2014, All Rights Reserved