Snow long!

Harrisburg PA – We’re on the road again! Finally! Our official snowbird escape has begun, delayed by one day because of a huge swath of rain, wind, snow and ice that passed through between Friday and Saturday and triggered all kinds of dire warnings about road hazards and poor travel conditions. Our destination is Dunedin, Florida, where a lovely little park model awaits us at Dunedin RV Resort.

Our decision to wait a day was a wise one; all the highways we covered today were clear and safe, and, because it was a Sunday, sparsely traveled compared to a weekday. Our route took us to the Thousand Islands Bridge just west of Mallorytown, Ontario, and then south on Highway 81 through Watertown, Syracuse, and Binghamton in New York and past Scranton, Pennsylvania and on to Harrisburg.

Snow-laced trees and white fields whizzed by in the early hours, and temperatures hovered around minus 20 Celsius. With no clouds in sight, the sun sparkled through ice-clad tree branches and glittering farmers’ fields, while shrubs by the roadside looked like they were made of sugar. A winter wonderland that charmed the eye, but if for any reason we’d had to stop and get out, we’d have frozen in no time. We had originally thought, since we were headed for the balmy south, we could get away with light jackets and layers underneath for the first few miles, but I for one was glad I’d changed my mind and worn my winter coat, especially when I was the one pumping gas at one of our stops, in a brisk wind!

As we passed a couple of car dealerships, we felt sorry for the poor employee whose job would be to clean a white cap of snow off each of several hundred vehicles. The spray kicked up along the highway did a number on our own vehicle. We have our two bicycles on a carrier at the back and they, along with the front and sides of our Honda SUV, are now coated in salt and gunk! We will also have to top off the windshield washer reservoir before we head out again tomorrow.

Before the temperature began to rise a bit, our wipers were so stiff with the cold that they groaned each time Val pumped them, and they left quite a few sections of glass with dirty smears. Finally, they warmed up and got a bit more pliant so that, as the sun began to dip lower in the sky, they actually did clean the window properly.

We even saw patches of green grass by the roadside as we approached Harrisburg, and there is no snow anywhere now. With any luck, we’ll have seen the last of the white stuff for several weeks! Sunshine state, here we come!