I have no doubt that soon we’ll be pining away for those hot muggy conditions we were just complaining about. -Me, in the last post
More prophetic words have rarely been written.
The interwebs informed us that it would be cold when we’d get to Copper Breaks, and that it would most likely rain as well. Turns out that both those predictions were rather understated. We were scheduled to spend two nights in the park, that also proved inaccurate.
We pulled into the park rather late and quickly set up (did I mention that it was cold)? Without much to do that late at night we put our efforts into preparing a tasty meal of wild pig back strap on the stove (it was too cold to BBQ) and watching some football. At some point in the middle of the night both Lana and I woke up due to the sounds of a storm. The temperature was in the high 20s but somehow it was still raining and not snowing. I actually had to look that one up. Apparently that happens when there is some warm air sitting above the freezing air at the surface, and the rain doesn’t have time to turn to snow (but will happily turn to ice once it hits).
We woke up to a layer of ice covering every imaginable surface. RV? Covered in ice. RV steps? Covered in extra ice, because why not. BBQs? Covered in Ice. Cacti? Covered in ice. You get the point. The temperature was pretty consistent all day, with a high of 28. There was also a freezing mist coming down regularly, but there were enough breaks to allow me to get out to take some pictures. At one point I even squeezed in a nice little hike. Unfortunately I was the only one to pack cold weather gear so I had to do most of the outside activities by myself. The cold weather also meant that we were stuck in the RV for school and work. Surprisingly enough, even though we were deep in the boonies we had sufficient internet for work, school, and were even able to watch Monday Night Football in HD.
It seems obvious in retrospect, but that morning of our first full day at Copper Breaks we learned that water lines tend to freeze over when the temp stays in the 20s. This was just the first of several weather related challenges we had to overcome during this stop. Fortunately we had an extra hose and were able to fill our internal tank. Somehow our water pump (which we use when on tank water) didn’t freeze over. Our neighbors were not so lucky, their pump actually froze.
Our second challenge was how quickly we were burning through our diminishing propane supply. We hadn’t actually filled up the propane tank after we bought the RV. It came with ¾ of a tank and we seemed to be using it very slowly. The stove, BBQ, and fridge (when we’re not plugged into power) all used propane very efficiently. The RV furnace? Not so much. After that first night, we realized just how quickly we were burning through it at these temperatures (RVs tend to be about as well insulated as a colander). If Captain Obvious was with us, he would have undoubtedly reminded us that we should have refilled our propane tank at our last stop (which actually sold propane). Unfortunately there was no creative way out of this one. The roads were too icy to leave the park to get more propane and no one would deliver. We ended up turning the thermostat down and hoping we’d have enough to last. We had plenty of clothes and blankets if we ran out, so it wasn’t a matter of life and death. In the end, we did manage to squeak out with just enough propane.
The real storm hit our second night at Copper Breaks. I’m not sure what the volume of freezing rain was, but it was way more than the first night. There was also more thunder, lightning, and wind. Sleep was a bit tough to come by . This was supposed to be our last day at Copper Breaks, but after waking up we knew we weren’t going anywhere. This didn’t make us feel any better about the propane situation. But at least we had plenty of food, water, and power. We did have power, right, right? This brings us to our third challenge. Some time around midday the power went out. Apparently power poles don’t like ice storms, or is it the other way around? Either way, no power.
We’d later learn that there were hundreds of thousands without power in the Texahoma area due to this storm. This lack of power meant that we’d need to start using our batteries and running our generator to keep recharging those batteries. Fortunately we had plenty of gas in our tank to run the generator (which works until we’re down to a quarter tank). So let this be a lesson to you boys and girls, always keep your gas tank relatively full when RVing, you never know when you might need it.
Most of the rough weather had passed over us by the morning of our second full day so I did manage to get out for a bit more exploring. Walking around was pretty awe inspiring. There were zero human sounds. The only real noises were the wind, the chime like crackling of the ice covered trees, and occasionally the coyotes howling in the background (check out the video to hear for yourself).
On our third day the weather was starting to improve, and by that I mean that it warmed up to the high 30s and wasn’t raining anymore. With this super nice weather we were able to go on a hike as a family, which was welcome after everyone (but me) being cooped up in the RV for a couple of days. By this time the noises had changed. We still had the coyotes in the back ground, but instead of gentle crackling of the ice in the trees, now the tree branches were breaking under the weight of the ice. During that morning, every minute or so we’d hear the staccato crack of something substantial breaking. Virtually every tree of any consequential size was taking damage.
In the morning the snow plows came in to clear the main roads, and by mid-day what ice was left on the smaller campground roads was quickly turning to slush. With that we decided to make a break for it. We were hoping that the warmer weather would have melted all the ice off of our slide topper, but it hadn’t, which meant we couldn’t put our slide in. With no other option I ended up climbing up on the slick roof to push the ice off. Somehow I managed to not fall off the roof and we were able to get our slide in and hit the road.
On a side note, when we first found out about the inclement weather at Copper Breaks I was a bit disappointed. This park is designated as a Dark Sky Park and taking starry night pictures is one of my things, but after this experience I’m glad it happened the way it did. We definitely had a more unique experience then we would have otherwise, and in the end, I took more pictures here than anywhere else on our RV adventure. I have no doubt I’ll get more opportunities to take starry night photos, but not sure when I’ll have another chance to document an ice storm.
