Winter Camping

This is our first experience with winter camping. The first week we were in MN was still warm with temps in the 60's. The second week temperatures started to drop (more November like) and we were headed towards our first significant snowfall.

After starting as rain, it turned to heavy wet snow. The worst thing was having to get up on the ladder to brush off our slide covers. Andy had the honors of doing that, although his comments indicated that he really didn't consider it to be an honor. :) If we hadn't removed the snow, it would likely have frozen, thus potentially damaging the slide covers.

Picture of the snow in the campground, a good amount had melted by the time I took this

Then yesterday we had thunder, lightning, a downpour of rain and hail! On November 28! This was all in a span of 2 hours or so. By the time we left to run errands, we had bright sunshine. 

Pea size hail on the sidewalk outside the laundry room 

We've been pleased with how our aqua hot is keeping us warm both inside and out. The key is not to have anything in the water compartment freeze and so far we've had no problems. 

The biggest hassle (as mentioned before) is no water hook-up at our site. This week we will move to a closer site to the office building which will allow us to be able to fill water without having to move the motorhome (a combination of our hoses and the campground hose). That will make things a lot easier. 

It's still unusual weather for the end of November/early December. But we will take all of the nice stuff we can! 

Goodbye Alabama, hello Minnesota?

Contrary to most RV'ers who are headed south, we traveled north to MN to spend time with our kids and grandkids for the holidays. Before leaving AL, we headed to Tupelo one more time. This time we traveled a new section of  the Natchez Trace (a part that we hadn't been on before). This time we stopped at a few places along the way and took a couple of short hikes.

This is an Indian Burial Grounds Area

One of the Mounds

An area of Dogwood Trees

Part of the original Natchez Trace

Burial Grounds for 13 Unknown Confederate Soldiers

We were glad to finish up at the Tiffin Service Center after being there for 5 weeks (the other week we were in southern AL at Lake Osprey). MN welcomed us with sunny skies and mild temps, unusually warm for November. This weekend will bring about a winter storm with rain turning to snow. This will be the first time we will camp in the snow. 

We're at Dakotah Meadows Campground, near Mystic Lake Casino. It's one of the few that stay open year round. The only bad thing is we have to move every 3-4 days so we can dump our tanks and get more water. Doable, but we'd much prefer to have water at our site. Guess we'll have to wait until January when we head south to get that again. 

Meantime, here's a picture from Alexander's birthday party last Saturday. he is 3 now. 

Alexander and his truck birthday cake