Winter Trip 2015: Reflections

• Sometimes I really feel we’re charmed as we travel. This is especially true this year as we encountered such wonderful weather in Texas; then since we left they have had snow all the way to Big Bend. We had good enough weather to enjoy Mardi Gras while we were in Louisiana, when it changed and we drove all the way to Florida to find better, and it has been cool and rainy there ever since. Florida had a freeze that went all the way to Miami before we came. Since then it was in the seventies and then eighties with just one day of rain that was easily worked around. And the final week of our trip was all sun and in the eighties. In the meantime at home there have been record breaking low temperatures and snow that has hung on and added on since just after we left in January. Even as late as Tuesday before we returned they had a Winter Storm that dumped 5 more inches followed by below zero temperatures. Yet the week we got back the forecast was for temperatures in the forties and fifties with mostly sunny skies and no precipitation. How lucky are we?!?!
• We are doubly blessed to have easy communication while we travel and good friends (including relatives that feel like friends and friends who feel like family) to meet as we travel. These dear people punctuate our time away from home with love and connection that is very, very important to me, especially. I’m not sure I could be absent from the familiar for 6-7 weeks at a time and enjoy it so much without them.
• I must also mention one more time how incredibly fortunate to be what I call RoHMs—Retirees with Health and Means. I don’t for one moment take for granted the fact that we are healthy and wealthy enough to go out for nearly two months every winter and see this beautiful and diverse (in scenery, animals, plants and humans) country, and enjoy it in comfort and safety.
• We traveled 6371 miles and averaged 16.0 miles per gallon, using 396 gallons of gas. The truck and camper make for very comfortable traveling and we will continue with them for the next few years, at least, as long as everything (vehicles and our aging bodies) holds up. This was really some of the easiest driving going down and coming back that we have had in the 6 years we have been away for the winter. We had some very long drives but we didn’t have to deal with ice, snow or rain (except briefly in northern Florida), which was a relief. On the other hand, we returned to the most snow on the ground that we had ever found.  We usually come home and pretty much can begin some early yard work to be ready for spring. That time will be a little later this year!
• In less than 48 hours we emptied the trailer, get everything put away, did all the laundry, washed the trailer and got it put back in the garage…all in forty degree temperatures with no precipitation.
• Our next trips are to the Virgin Islands with Heidi and Kris from April 19-30, and a “Journey to the Black Sea” river boat trip on the Danube from June 4-21 with Pat and Ross. Come back then and read all about the journeys of The Savage Traveler.

Snow greeted us on our return