QC41-02 The Cold South

January 2, 2014 (Thu) Mars Hill, NC (3) 30/41° - We've spent the afternoon watching the progress of a storm moving into the northeast. Snow and cold are even expected here in the North Carolina mountains. The temperature is expected to go down to 19° tonight. But we've been here before when it's gotten colder than we like for camping. 11° in February several years ago. We have a small electric heater and plenty of warm blankets. We survived then, we'll survive this time.

January 3, 2014 (Fri) Mars Hill, NC (4) 13/40° - Q's pipes froze last night. Fortunately it was only in the pipe supplying water to the toilet but we're a bit worried about what may happen in the next few days. It's been a nice sunny day so the pipe was thawed out by 11:00 even thought the thermometer still reads below freezing at 21°. The forecast is for temperatures to go down to 9° Monday night, maybe even lower. If we're still here, we'll have to think about some additional protection or we're going to be in trouble.

Every Friday Bob meets three or four of his friends for breakfast at a local greasy spoon. When we're here Mark joins them. This morning, because Bob had to leave the restaurant early to go into Asheville to pick up Tom, Barbara and Louie, Mark was going to take our car. But he found the doors frozen shut! We had had freezing rain before the snow came yesterday. He worked for over a half hour with hot water and a hair drier to soften the ice but the door still wouldn't budge. By then the snow were sufficiently cleaned off the windows to see that the door was locked, not frozen! Instead of unlocking the doors as he'd thought, he'd locked them! It's not supposed to be this cold in the south.

For lunch the whole gang went into Asheville to a wonderful pizza restaurant - the Mellow Mushroom. The pizza there is as good as the best in the New York area which is a real accomplishment.

January 4, 2014 (Sat) Mars Hill, NC (5) 11/36° - Another cold night! No pipes frozen though - that we could detect. The forecast now is for temperatures below zero Monday night, maybe as low as -7°. Now that is way below our ability to protect the pipes from freezing with anything other than total winterization, meaning they have to be drained and filled with antifreeze. We had planned to maybe leave here on Monday and go down into the Ocala National Forest for a few days but with that kind of cold coming, we need to be where we can plug into shore power for our little heater. We will also need water and sanitary facilities closer by than in the Walmart parking lot where we'd planned to be Monday night.

Today was the day of Bob's 80th birthday celebration and a celebration it was. 30 plus people from Bob and Pat's church came by in the late afternoon bringing gifts of food for the banquet table. The mingling, chatting and eating culminated with carrot cake, cheese cake and humorous cards. A great time was had by all.

January 5, 2014 (Sun) Mars Hill, NC (6) 37/43° - After church this morning it was a day of rest, relaxation and anticipation of the sub zero night to come (tomorrow night).

Q090559 Bob and Pat's driveway