On the Road Again - January 2011

We pulled out of Bismarck Wednesday, January 11--a very wintry North Dakota day! As you can see from the pictures, in addition to cold tempera-tures (-5 Fahrenheit), we have a LOT of snow already, with a heavy snow period for ND still ahead. We pulled a snow-covered camper off the driveway and headed east to Fargo, then south, bound for Rockport, TX, initially.

This evening, the end of our second day on the road, we are in Emporia, KS. There is still significant snow on the ground. The temperature when we arrived was 14 degrees.

For most of the past two days, we drove through blowing snow, overcast skies, snow fog , and, most of the way, deep snow in the fields and ditches along the highway. It's not surprising that people from other parts of the country who drive through the northern Great Plains during this season of the year, come to the wrong conclusions about the climate in this area. We might have been driving across Siberia, if you based your conclusion on the weather! Coincidentally, however, the national news reported this evening that there is snow on the ground in every state in the nation--except Florida!

At this point, the plan is to spend a couple of weeks in Texas with our friends, then to begin a journey along the southeast Gulf coast, eventually going through the Everglades, then to the Florida Keys. We will head back north through Augusta, GA, then Dayton, Ohio, and Iowa City, Iowa before getting back to Bismarck around April 1.