Coldest December

[Rudy]

It is the coldest December in Tenn. since 1942. I was thinking of putting the heat strip on my holding tank today. I don't know if I have enough clothing to keep me warm out there. I have been awake for three hours now, and the temp. has stayed 14 degrees F. At least I am not in Illinois or Wisconsin with sub zero temps.

[ezrablu]

Hey Rudy, you should make sure somebody around there knows you are gonna be working under your bus. It's too cold and you just never know what can happen. In these cold temperatures it wouldn't take long

[graydawg]

Hey RUDY don't stick your tongue on anything metal while under your bus either!!! I could just imagine the headlines LOCAL BUS DWELLER RESCUED after spending a week with tongue stuck to bus, his dawgs alerted rescue personel when they could not get fed, after dialing 911 repeatedly and barking (our human is stuck under the bus) police showed up to cart someone off to jail for abusing the 911 system and while there stumbled over his feet hanging out from under the bus. The only thing that kept him warm and alive was he had installed heat tape on his plumbing the week before and wrapped up in it and stayed warm, he was very hungry after his ordeal and bought steak dinners for him and his dawgs at the local steak house. And everyone lived happily ever after. Sorry RUDY it was one of those moments and couldn't resist the temptation. James in da GRAYDAWG

[splummer]

coldest dec here was christmas day 1979,the highest it got was -19 ,that was the day time high, then went down to -55, these temps lasted for a few days

[Rudy]

Steve, I don't know of any bus that could withstand those temperatures. I am struggling with 8 degrees. I have a lot of heaters going. It's a lot better than last year since I did more insulating inside.

[ezrablu]

This is a cold December for us here in Wisconsin, too. This is the city I live nearest to...this guy was only 37...he never stood a chance out there in -35° below. It was a white out from the blizzard and high winds. He probably wondered in circles. Sad.

http://www.waow.com/Global/story.asp?S= ... ormat=HTML

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Rudy

Sleep in your cliths bif you have to cuz it much easier to keep your body heat then it is to try and get your body heat back once you lose it. There is times that I even ware a hat to bed. This is no joke buddy, ya gotta be careful with the cold.

[dburt]

Three years ago while living in my "4-season" RV trailer while working out of town up in the mountains of NE Oregon, the temp dropped in January to -20 at night for several nights, and never got above 0 during the day. Even though the underneath of the trailer was all enclosed around the waste holding tanks, and even heated with special heat ducts from the furnace my tanks still froze up! With the propane heater going full time, and two electric heaters the temp would not go over about 50 in the trailer. I had an electric blanket to sleep under, and wore extra layers of clothing in the trailer when I got back from work at the end of the day.

This is why God created Arizona, it was not meant for man to endure such cold!

[Rudy]

Dennis, I do sleep with my clothes on. The only time I might sleep in the buff is if I was lucky enough to have a woman to sleep with me. It's been ten years since that has happened. I also have a military goose down sleeping bag for when these cold temps persist.

Gonna go attempt to hook up the heat strip to my holding tank today by myself. It's gonna be tough to do a four hand operation with only two hands. I surely will laugh at the utter futility of the project.

[Rudy]

DB, no wonder why so many "full timers" flock to Quartzsite in the winter.

[ezrablu]

yes, Rudy, a lot of people I know are at Quartzsite. I lived in Arizona for 15 years. My brother in Gilbert, Az just wrote to me yesterday and said "Gee, it's gonna be tough going outside today to shovel all that sunshine off the sidewalk. guess it's time for me to pack away my swimming trunks and pull out those tshirts".

Same here Dennis...I have to sleep with my clothes on, too and sometimes with a hat and coat...usually a hooded sweatshirt. I do NOT like winter AT ALL. But Wisconsin is the only place I felt ok about being "alone" and safe so that's why I ended up buying land here. I guess this was the closest place where it felt like "home" although I've spent my whole life not knowing where home really was.

I'm thinking I'll be snowbirding it between Wisconsin and Arizona since I'm familar with it in Arizona and have family down there. Rudy and I were talking and I just said, I don't like weather extremes in either direction. So winter in Arizona and summer in Wisconsin will do fine.

[dburt]

Eblu- I sure like your brother's comment about shoveling sunshine off the sidewalks down in Arizona

We were down there about 6 weeks ago to visit the wife's dad and his wife south of Tucson, in Green Valley. We stayed for two weeks and then had to come back north to SW Idaho to the place we own there to babysit the old house thru the winter so the pipe's would not freeze up like they are prone to do. What a shock to to leave such warm, nice weather and come back to cold and snow.

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Ezra, Safe or not maybe but we're never alone

[Rudy]

Ezra, Safe or not maybe but we're never alone

You are correct, Dennis. The "bus family" will be united.

[GoodClue]

People, people ... One Word ... Woodstove!

I've been through some pretty extreme situations, is why I had a woodstove in my bus from the beginning ... and they're not that hard to install and use safely ... Sharkey's has some excellent info ...

I am hoping to get back on the road, and I do like the snowbirding idea, not doing as much snowshoeing and cross country like I used to ... cost is the factor to travel now, so a woodstove works fine ... and I have always slept in the buff ... maybe that's why I'm warm, even in my dreams

GoodClue