The Freezing Weather Made for a Difficult Two Months

When Tim and I decided to go to Texas to escape the cold Colorado winter, we knew that we might encounter a few chilly days. This part of Texas is not Arizona or Florida. What we never expected, however, were three extended cold spells with sub-freezing temperatures, ice storms, and snow.

While we will remember our time at LYJO for the interesting project, we will never be able to forget how cold we were for much of our stay.

After finally securing propane on New Year’s Day, Tim and I continued to experience challenges on the home front. We had several nights below freezing, which is never fun, and the park’s water pump for our area went out. That meant that we had virtually no water pressure. So much for using our nearby washing machine.

On one of the coldest nights, we even lost power. Luckily, power was restored in a few hours, but we began to wonder what would go wrong next. We went to headquarters on Sunday to take showers, and mine barely drained, leading to overflowing water. Trying to use the washer/dryer at the other volunteer campground was also frustrating since the washer took forever, and the dryer did not dry.

We thought that our fortune had turned around on the weekend of January 14-16. A new water pump was installed, and we now had plenty of water and could use the washing machine. We went into Fredericksburg to get propane in anticipation of more freezing weather.

We can handle a night or two of freezing temperatures in our RV as long as the daytime temperatures rise above freezing. It’s not that we will be too cold inside. Our propane furnace and electric heater are relatively efficient. Our systems, however, cannot handle days of extended periods that remain below 32°. Our water pipes would simply freeze and burst.

Over the next five weeks, we were “treated” to three periods of extended freezing temperatures. We debated our options and decided that we would check into a hotel. First, we would have to winterize the RV, but finding RV antifreeze was no easy task. Once more, Tractor Supply came to our rescue.

We ended up winterizing and de-winterizing the RV three different times. We also spent 13 nights at La Quinta in Fredericksburg. Our volunteer gig became quite costly.

The weather was so bad that schools and the park were closed for two days. Freezing rain, snow, and cold! Not what we were expecting!

In between the bouts of cold, the weather was lovely. We just wish there had been many more of those lovely days.

Brrrr!!!