The freezing weather was even more noticeable when we awoke this morning. Everything, trees, grass roads and whatever else were all covered in a thick layer of ice. Even though the salt that the other gentleman had put on the steps cleared them of ice, the rest of the area around the steps had a thick layer of the stuff making it difficult to walk on. 

The trick was to try to walk where there were handholds of some sort, whatever they were, outside chairs, stair steps, the underbelly of the RV, anything to remain upright. A couple of times I felt my feet slipping and grabbed onto the nearest whatever and just hung on. It did not look very elegant but better than banging myself up. 

I had already harnessed up the dogs and they had no trouble in negotiating the difficult walking, ice, and all. They were showing me how it should be done. Because the ice covered asphalt was too dangerous for me to walk on, we walked under the trees and in the grassy areas although it too was covered in ice. The difference was that it was not a solid sheet and was comparatively easy to make some headway. Needless to say, with the ice and the freezing weather, we did not stay out very long. Incidentally, many of the trees have lost branches and Daniel has a big clean up job in front of him. 

Back in the RV, it was toasty and warm, and I fixed breakfast all around and that first cup of coffee for me and then settled down to read emails and write in the blog. The heaters were doing a good job although it appears that there is a leak in the slide out seals as there was a very slow drip on my desk. I had not discovered it before until I heard it and then noticed that both my check book and address book were both totally soaked. 

I grabbed them both and stood them over the floor heater vents and after a bit, everything dried out although nothing folded as it should. Angry at myself that I had not noticed earlier, I sent Malinda a text as if it is a major problem, the original owners will pay for it. 

A little while later, both Daniel and Malinda stopped by to look at the leak and Daniel inquired if I had a generator running. When I stated that this RV is not equipped with one, he did not understand how the heaters were working along with lights and such. He must have noticed the blank look on my face as he said that there was a power outage, and the rest of the campground was either using generators or were shut down. 

He pointed out that eventually, the battery would run dry, and I would be without power on a very cold night coming up. Then he mentioned Quatro who is equipped with a generator and suggested that I spend the night in it which made a lot of sense. They had other business and said they would return shortly and to get together whatever I needed to stay in Quatro. I gathered some food and a couple of other items and then stripped the bed so that I could take the covers with me. 

We walked down to Quatro and after unlocking it, Daniel fired up the generator and I started the Coach’s engine so that we could defrost the windshield which was covered with ice. We left the coach defrosting and with the heaters on and walked back to the other RV. 

In the meantime, Malinda had been working on the Jeep which had a half inch thick layer of ice all over it, making it impossible to even open the doors. I went to help her and after about a half hour’s work, she managed to get the driver’s door open. Luckily, the Jeep had remote start and we had had it running all the time we were working on the ice, and it was thawing out the windshield from the inside. We managed to scrape enough off that I could just see out and after loading in my stuff, I drove it down to Quatro. We unloaded the Jeep and a couple of my new neighbors came over and both brought me food for the evening meal which was very nice of them.  

I started to settle in and decided to take the dogs for a walk as they did not get much exercise during the day. Daniel was approaching me from the opposite direction and told me that the campground had power again and what did I want to do? Without any hesitation, I opted to move us back to the new RV and continued walking to put the dogs back inside. 

I walked back down the hill, and we did everything in reverse bringing the stuff back. They helped me unload the Jeep again and once more, we settled down in our new abode. I remade the bed and put the food away including the goodies that the two neighbors had brought me and thought to myself, how quickly my loyalties change. Not so long ago, Quatro was my pride and joy and still is when we travel but with the newcomer, I prefer it for long term permanent living. I just got to find a name for it… 

The weather had turned very cold, and the campground power went off again. This time Daniel showed me how to use the Jeep as a “generator” by hooking the Jeeps battery to the house battery. The only thing was to keep the Jeep running for a couple of hours at a time to recharge the RV battery.  

The evening was spent in the usual fashion. I ate the sandwich the other couple had given me which, incidentally, also included a bowl of fruit and then turned my attention to watching some TV. I have still not found time to figure out the new TV resulting to having to watch on my laptop.  

I went to bed at 8:00 pm and left the Jeep running all night. 

Written 02/01/2023. Read my other blog at https://Pondblog2011.com