Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Freezing in Florida

Here in west Florida, like most of the country, we're cold.  No,  not -13 degs perhaps, but below 20 at night and mid-30's during the day.  It's balmy compared to home, but it presents challenges to those systems not designed for freezing temps.  Our campground had all of us disconnect from the water system so the hoses wouldn't freeze.  To keep our pipes warm, we put a trouble light with a 60 watt bulb in the wet bay where out water connection is located.  We propped open the cabinets under the sinks so the heat would get to them and ran 2 electric heaters all night to keep the coach warm.  We kept the water heater going all night also, something we never usually do.  We were going to run a trickle of water all night but a quick flow test (running the trickle into a gallon milk jug until it was full) showed that a trickle was 4 gallon/hour.  Over 10 hours that would fill our grey water tank (where the sink drains) and leave no room for washing or showers since it's too cold to dump the tanks.  So no trickle, just heat and hope.

 The good news is that we survived the night, we have running water and we're leaving the Florida panhandle today.  The bad news is that we love this area where FL and AL meet and didn't get to enjoy as much as we'd like due to the weather.  Also, we've really had fun hanging out with Rock (my college roommate) and will miss her.  
Interior of UU Church in Pensacola
Activity-wise, not much to report.  We ate again at Lucy B. Goode's, the restaurant owned by Jimmy Buffet's sister, and again had a good meal and great experience.  On Sunday I found the Unitarian Universalist Church in Pensacola and enjoyed their services.  It's a congregation of about the same size and demographic as BCCUU (my home church).  They are starting to work on a strategic plan for the next few years and allowed me to sit in on their meeting and take notes for the same process which is starting at home.  Oh yeah, we got good TV and watched the Packers lose and the new season of Downton Abbey.  Some things are the same on the road as home.
UU Pensacola church-former funeral home
Today (Tuesday) we're off to Tallahassee for one night and then tomorrow on to Cedar Key and above freezing temps for over 24 hours.  Yippee.
Sunset at Gulf Shores Park, Orange Beach, AL
Stay warm wherever you are.  Better weather is ahead.
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 8, 2014 at 11:52 AM

    This series of posts has me re-thinking my admittedly mostly knee-jerk anti-Panhandle bias. That and the fact that I haven't felt much of my toes for the past 72 hours. - Mike

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thrifty PoshJanuary 8, 2014 at 2:46 PM

      By contrast, among those of us who have a somewhat negative view of Florida in general (& that would probably include most native Californians -- it's the citrus war, dontchaknow), the Panhandle gets an exemption & is therefore more lovable.

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)