It's Getting Colder

After over two months in Key West, Florida, we are now slowly making our way north towards North Carolina. The one thing we knew we weren't ready for was cold temperatures. As such, it is just our luck that our drive north coincides with a terrible winter freeze that is causing almost 2/3rds of the people of the USA to experience sub-freezing temps.

Our last day in Key West was also our coldest during our time there. We left this past Monday, 21 January, with lows in the upper 50s. Overall the average temp for our days and nights was probably in the mid 70s. It was warm and it was nice. As family and friends had been talking about snow and freezing temps, we were warm and cozy in the sun, or capturing a cool breeze in the shade. We quickly became very unaccustomed to cold.

Yesterday and today, 26 and 27 January, we are up at Cape Canaveral, visiting highlights of US space travel through the past century. Yesterday it was really chilly, and the temps continued to drop with a heavy cloud cover rolling in the morning. Today it has been a continuous rain storm and cooler temps. So far, luckily here it is not too cold to handle. Hopefully that remains the case.

During our build we tried to insulate and ready the van to be a 4-season van. However, it still gets cold when it's cold out and hot when it's hot out. We are not a 4-season van -- we definitely cannot withstand freezing temps in any shape or fashion. And we are trying to determine what our options are to be able to travel to North Carolina. (For those who have been following our journals, we are traveling up to celebrate with Orsuré's cousin as he is retiring from 30 years of service with the US Marines.)

We're not going to get into the limited affordable options we have available to us to try and stay warm, as that will be too boring. ... So, up until now we had done a great job of avoiding the cold. But alas we want to celebrate a lifetime of dedicated service along family and this requires us to prepare for the worst. We have some cold weather clothes packed up under our bed that will soon be claiming space in our living area. We're still figuring this out.

For the time being, though, we are still in Florida, watching the cold sweep over the central eastern coastline. It's supposed to be getting colder before it gets warmer. Hopefully by the time were in North Carolina next week the worst of the storm will be passed. ... And then, back to warmer temps for us!

. . .

#ShaVandasSojourns #ShaVanda #vanlife #itsgettingcolder #florida #capecanaveral #winter #stayingwarm