Cross Country Redo – 8 – Stuck in Frozen Limbo

Waking up at a frozen RV park in Vinton, we once again felt incredibly lucky to have made it in one piece, especially after once again going outside and seeing just how much ice there was, it was covering everything.  It didn’t even bother us too much that our water pump had frozen solid overnight, which meant we couldn’t get to water in our tank.  The RV park water was still frozen solid so that was a no go too.  We ended up sticking our space heater into the bay that housed the water pump under the RV and it thawed in about 45 minutes.  At that point it was time for the adults to work and the kids to play video games, at least the kids weren’t complaining about our current situation.

After Lana and I put in a day of work we decided to attempt an escape from Vinton.  Originally we thought we were going to spend more than one night at this spot, but the road and parking spots in the RV park were pretty much thawed out by the late afternoon.  We also had a clear view of the I-10 and it looked like cars and trucks were moving along at a decent clip.  All signs pointed at this being a good time to make a break for it.  The main concern we still had was that power outages were still happening all over Texas, and no matter what, we weren’t going to drive through the state in one shot, even if the conditions were perfect, which they most certainly were not. We still had power where we were currently staying, although water lines were still frozen, so pushing forward was a bit of a gamble where we could find ourselves stuck in a much worse situation.  

One thing did concern me about our current spot was that our RV power management system (basically a big surge protector between shore power and our RV) was now throwing an error saying the surge protection had been used up (for good).  So there may have been a power surge overnight and now we were without protection from another one.  Apparently this RV park was destroyed during the recent hurricanes going through the Lake Charles area and whoever rebuilt the electrical systems may not have been the most qualified (according to the park manager – now she tells us!).  

After hitting the interstate again it looked bad, real bad, no exaggeration – the worst stretch of interstate we’ve ever been on by far.  There were giant potholes, and there still seemed to be plenty of ice on the road.  On top of that, the semi trucks were going way too fast for these conditions.  We made it a total of 17 miles before pulling the plug on our escape and exiting the freeway.  

We were worried that we had made a mistake by trying to keep going since now we were in Texas (Orange County) and the first few RV parks we called didn’t have power.  Eventually we got through to one with power that was right on the exit we had just taken, they had water, which would make this an improvement over our last stop.  That was more than enough for us so we headed on over.

This was a brand new park, but with zero frills.  It did  have great utilities though, including water we were lacking at our previous spot.  They even had the best wifi we’ve ever experienced at an RV park.  This spot would end up being our home for the next three days.  At one point we were discussing whether or not to hit the road again but then I came across a video of some brave idiot being pulled by a truck skilling down the I-10 on the ice in the middle of Houston.  We figured that was a sign to stay put for one more day.

This was supposed to be our one real vacation week of the trip, the boys had the entire week off and the adults were only planning on putting in one day of work, but obviously plans changed.  But that’s ok, we just had a different type of experience than we had originally planned on.  Even though we were stuck in what’s basically a parking lot for three days instead of visiting one of the best state parks in Texas we felt very fortunate.  We were warm, had food and water, and felt safe.  We realize that’s much more than millions of other folks in the state of Texas have right now.   Spending the days together, walking Boomer, and watching some movies wasn’t such a bad way to spend our vacation.

Today (Friday) is the day we’re making good on our escape from West Texas.  The weather around us has improved.  It’s now sunny and in the mid-40s, and most importantly, conditions to the west of us have also improved. It had snowed in San Antonio the night before but is now warming up there too, at least during the day.  Our plan is to hit the road and fuel up a bit more regularly since we aren’t sure how electrical grid issues on our route may impact our ability to get more gas.

Our plan is to see how far west we can go but we’re assuming we’re going to get as far as San Antonio.  Our worry is that even though the weather has improved, the roads are going to get icy again after the sun goes down.  And after our first  experience with sliding around on the freeway, we’re planning on being extra careful.

Things we learned in the past few days:

• Bridges can be extra nasty in this type of weather.  I’ve always known that bridges can start to freeze over at 36 degrees and below, but we’ve never been terrified of bridges as I have in the past few days.  
• RV water pumps start to freeze over in the low 20s (which happened to us one night).  If that does happen, try sticking a space heater in the bay with the pump and leave your water tap on until it starts flowing again.  Just don’t burn your RV down!  If you’re connected to city water and sewer and want to prevent this from happening in the first place, you can leave your gray water gate open and leave your water running a little bit.
• Speaking of space heaters.  If you’re connected to shore power, those are great for keeping your RV warm without using precious propane (RV furnaces use LOTS of propane).
• Most RVs are very poorly insulated.  Even when we got the air temp into the high 60s in our RV, my feet (in socks and slippers) eventually started to hurt from getting too cold.  Custom cut aluminum bubble wrap works well for mitigating the cold coming in from all the single pane windows.