Snow? Seriously?

The term "snowbird" is used to describe a northerner that moves to a southern state during the winter months to avoid northern winters. In December of 2019 we sold our farm animals, bought an RV, and headed south. We traveled all over the southeast, with the exception of FL. We'd been there before and felt it was too hot and humid, even in February. We wanted warmer than northern NH but not as hot as FL so we traveled to NC, SC, GA, AL and TN.

This year we decided to try the southwest as part of our travels. It wasn't as warm in southern UT as we had hoped, but AZ was perfect weather. People describe the desert as beautiful. We thought it was interesting, but not beautiful. It was kind of all the same - miles and miles and miles of nothing but sand and cactus. We said we probably wouldn't go there again next winter.

Not how I anticipated dressing in TX

We started meandering eastward this month, landing in south-central TX as our first stop in February, just west of San Antonio. This was more like the northeast, except warmer. Trees, grass, lakes and streams felt more like home.

If you google the average temperature this time of year for this area you'll find that it's mid to high 60s for the day and low 40s at night. Perfect, right? Except when it isn't.

We just had a freak and rare winter storm pass through that brought record lows and 5" of snow! It was 7 degrees last night with 20 mph winds. The wind coming across the lake felt like needles hitting my face. I felt a little silly packing my winter clothes - jacket, mittens, snow pants, boots, even a balaclava. If nothing else, I was going to be prepared for anything. Little did I know how useful these would be.

Everyone says the snow is so beautiful. It may be, but we could have stayed home and experienced beautiful, even shoveled it! Texas, not being used to snow and cold, declared a state of emergency. They're just not equipped for snow and ice and many roadways throughout the state are currently impassable. Last Thursday there was a 133 car pile-up in Fort Worth, which is about 4 1/2 hours north of us. Apparently, the roadway on a bridge had a thin layer of ice which caused cars to skid, with others from behind unable to stop. There were tractor trailers on top of trucks on top of cars. Looking at the pictures made you wonder how anyone managed to survive.

So everyone just waits for it to melt, which may be a few days, since the temperatures aren't supposed to warm up significantly until later in the week.

Cactus in snow

Feels like we went to sleep in TX and woke up in NH

The wind coming off the lake felt like needles on my face

We may have to re-think our opinion of AZ. Perhaps miles and miles and miles of sand and cactus aren't so bad after all.