Winter Travel
This past winter (Dec 2021 and Jan 2022) I drove up to Cleveland to pick up my daughter from college and bring her and her cat home for winter break. I spent some time in Hot Springs so I could work and then worked my way up to Cleveland.
New Year’s Eve in Hot Springs, Arkansas
A few weeks later after Christmas it was time to take my daughter back to school. We left on New Year’s Eve Day and spent New Year’s Eve in Hot Springs.
Dolly relaxing in the van.
The Next day a cold front came through, bringing heavy rain for most of our drive. My daughter was driving her car so that she could have it with her at school, so she was following me all the way back. When we got to Memphis, TN we got just ahead of the front and pulled off to get gas. As we were at the pumps the power to the station went out and then straight-line winds came roaring through. The whole thing was captured on my dashcam.
This was a sign of things to come.
We got to our destination for the night, a KOA near Louisville, KY. The next day we drove all the way to Cleveland. It was raining all the way and as we got closer to Cleveland it turned into freezing rain. After dropping my daughter off I headed to the Canton, OH KOA. I had to stop a few times to get the ice off the windshield wipers.
I stayed a couple of days in Canton so I could work. Then I headed to the Louisville, KY KOA. The weather was cold but still sunny. They were predicting a snowstorm through Tennessee and Kentucky. I had to adjust my plans and stayed an extra day in Kentucky so that I wouldn’t be driving in the storm. On the day of the storm, I got up early, broke camp and went to a nearby Kroger to get a few things in case I was stuck for a few days.
The Day before the snow, Louisville, KY KOA
Snow!
By late morning, the snow started and by evening it was about 4-6 inches of snow. It was nice and cozy in the van. The temperatures got down to the 20s, but the van stayed nice and warm. I have tank warmers for my fresh and gray tanks, so I kept those on and did not have the city water hooked up. I did make a rookie mistake though. Since I was not hooked up, I did NOT need to keep a faucet dripping. I thought I needed to, and by doing so I ended up causing the water pump to freeze so I ended up not having running water.
The next day it was cold and sunny as I started out. Even though the highway was plowed there was a lot of truck traffic (probably because they were stopped during the storm) so I opted for backroads.
The wiper fluid was frozen so I had to stop periodically to clean the windshield. I made a stop at WalMart and got several gallons of water, due to the frozen water pump, a window squeegee and some washer fluid with antifreeze. The roads still hadn’t been plowed in most places but the AWD on the van handled great!
Sunset at the Memphis, TN KOA
My next stop was Outside Memphis and by the time I got there the snow was starting to clear off the roads. The temperatures were still below freezing so the water pump was still frozen. The next day I headed to Little Rock, AR with warmer temperatures - in the 40s. The drive was much less stressful, the wiper fluid started thawing and by the time I got to my next stop the water pump was working! There was a thunderstorm that passed through, the sound of the rain on the van was nice.
I made it home the next day and started planning my trip to Florida.
