It has been cold here! I guess that just makes us all part of the country as from what I read and hear the only part of the 
country that has not been in the deep-freeze has been Arizona and California. I think that we may have picked the wrong year to spend the winter in Texas! At least we have begun a slow warming trend, according to the weatherman. It was funny in that the day yesterday was warmer(make that less cold) than the day before, but the night was colder! I guess that is what I get for wanting clear, sunny skies. Last night was one more for the record books with a low of 17 degrees.(I didn't catch the picture at the low.) If you look at our thermometer, you also notice that it cooled off inside as well!
We didn't leave our furnace turned on as we heat mostly with electricity here because the cost runs a little less than for propane and is much more convenient. We do use the furnace early in the mornings and late in the evenings but not at night. With a heater in the wet bay and the other wet bay having the 120V/12V converter & water heaters in it we had no problems with frozen pipes, but of course were using water from our fresh water tank.
One nice feature of this thermometer is that it has three channels for remote thermometers so I keep one outside, and one in each of our two wet bays, thus allowing us to keep track of the temperatures in them. It is also set to alarm if either wet bay should go below 34 degrees.
It sounds as though we have one more night of this before low temperatures once more get above freezing. We did get all of the way up to 35 yesterday and expect 44 today!
Texas is experiencing some really nasty cold weather and Livingston area is not missing out! In fact we got up this morning to 22 degrees. The high today so far has been 30 and since it is now 3pm, I'd say we have passed the high for the day. The TV weather is predicting a low tonight of 18, which will be a new record for the area if it happens as the previous low was 19 ever was 19. It has been more than twenty years since this area has seen cold like this.
Most stores have sold out of electric heaters and most other heating appliances, clothing stores are selling out of coats and warm clothing. I guess our bodies have forgotten winters in Wyoming where se spent eighteen years, as we are freezing!
I am truly humbled by the frequency that I have to opportunity to meet folks who we have contact with on the internet as we travel. Yesterday it happened again as "Trainer" from Escapees forums had occasion to visit our neighbor here for a service call and he was kind enough to make the effort to meet us as well. While we were at Lavon Lake, there were three different Escapees who contacted us so that we could spend some time with them. If you travel by RV and are not a member of Escapees, you truly should become a part of this group as no family could be any better!
Since Livingston is a pretty small town and has limited shopping, we made a trip on Saturday to Beaumont, about an hour 
away. The afternoon was spent shopping, and experiencing city traffic. I think that we need to have some hectic traffic at times just to remind us of how nice it can be in the small towns of this country!
Anyway, we got a few things we could not find in Livingston as well as a good dose of bad traffic, before we met friends at a Japanese Steak House for the RVer's favorite activity. Eating, of course! We had a great meal and some great conversation.
We spent New Year's Eve with friends at the recreation hall here at Rainbow's End. Everyone brought finger foods to share and their own liquid refreshments and the park provided coffee, table service and live music. With most of us the age that we are, it was not the wildest party in the community, but nobody had any better time. There were several hundred folks in attendance, although a fair number of us slipped out before midnight to sleep the new year in.
The park is not full, but it is probably running about 80% or a little more at this time. We had wondered since I know that some travel is off and even Escapees have been hit by the decline in the economy. It does look as though things are improving, at least here.
I do hope that everyone had a great holiday season this year and that your coming year will be a very good one!
On Monday, Dec. 29 we moved south. We had enough cold weather to last us for some time and the forecast was for sun on Monday but for rain on Tuesday & Wednesday so we hit the road south!
We arrived at the park at about 4:30 pm and settled in for at least three weeks. About noon on Tuesday the rain moved in and the reports from Dallas have been that they had snow.............. Not sorry we left that behind. We met Mark and some other staff members for lunch. We got up on Wednesday to discover that we have developed a small leak at one corner of our bathroom skylight so repairs will be in order. (The life project of an RVer!) Near evening there was a knock on our door and it was "John on the Road" from the Escapees Forums, who had just pulled in behind us. Weather is improving so things are looking up!
here. Every morning there are one or more that for some reason seem to attempt to come into our RV! Now some of the nights have been pretty cold so I can't blame them, but it don't really seem to have anything to do with the weather. As near as we can tell the birds are actually being very aggressive toward the reflected immage that they see in our window glass at certain sun angles. We have also seen them do that same thing to the mirrors on the motorhome and the CR-V. But mostly they sit on the edges of our windows and peck at something. It seems as though they knock to ask to come in. I took the picture of one at the window just beside my chair. We will miss them once we are gone on down the road.
So who was it that dreamed of a White Christmas? Not me....... Christmas Eve was a roaring gale here. Ft. Worth and west had a pretty major snow storm with 6" or more of snow, D/FW airport had a record ever snowfall with 3" or a little more. To the far east at the lake we
had only enough to cover most of the grass, as far as accumulation. It actually snowed off and on all afternoon but most of the snow melted as it came down. '
As evening came the wind began to howl and our motorhome was rocked all night and made it a bit drafty, but near morning the wind died down and by morning it was clear. Today dawned clear and sunny with the temperature in the mid 40s.
Tonight at some point there is supposed to be a cold front coming into the area. Like spring, this may bring some big storms. But reality is due back as it is expected to be rainy most of the day tomorrow and the low tomorrow night is expected to be only 24 with a high Christmas day of only 42. That is a thirty degree change in two days. Oh well, I suppose winter is inevitable.