Let's hope this is the last spring storm.
Maybe I've always misunderstood what was meant by a "windy day." Didn't it mean high average speed? But that certainly isn't what happened the other night.
The average speed wasn't unusual, but the gusts were violent and a little scary actually. Since air is a compressible fluid it shouldn't be able to produce the hydraulic hammering that my RV experienced. Sleep became impossible. And wouldn't you know it: the "ship" was parked abeam the west wind. What happened to sailors pointing the ship directly into the face of the storm?
I was camped alone at the northeastern mouth of the Chiricahua mountains, where these vertiginous mountains debouch onto the lonesome horizontalness of high desert. Hmmm... sudden elevation changes seem like they could make large pressure gradients, i.e., wind.
What does a camper do when wind becomes a hateful nuisance, besides staying indoors that is? I headed up into the Burro mountains between Lordsburg and Silver City, NM. It sounds stupid doesn't it? The day was cold enough as it was. Why make it worse by gaining altitude?
But it helped. Forests really knock those gusts down to size. But then it started snowing...
It must seem silly to mainstream RVers to camp like this, instead of parking in a nice, tidy, small, rectangular spot in an RV park, sucking down 50 amps of electricity to heat the RV to 72 F, and following the storm on the Weather Channel. You can buy large-screen televisions these days at a pretty good price, and then fill an entire slide-out with the monster. And the picture is so clear -- why, it's almost like being there.
Maybe I've always misunderstood what was meant by a "windy day." Didn't it mean high average speed? But that certainly isn't what happened the other night.
The average speed wasn't unusual, but the gusts were violent and a little scary actually. Since air is a compressible fluid it shouldn't be able to produce the hydraulic hammering that my RV experienced. Sleep became impossible. And wouldn't you know it: the "ship" was parked abeam the west wind. What happened to sailors pointing the ship directly into the face of the storm?
I was camped alone at the northeastern mouth of the Chiricahua mountains, where these vertiginous mountains debouch onto the lonesome horizontalness of high desert. Hmmm... sudden elevation changes seem like they could make large pressure gradients, i.e., wind.
What does a camper do when wind becomes a hateful nuisance, besides staying indoors that is? I headed up into the Burro mountains between Lordsburg and Silver City, NM. It sounds stupid doesn't it? The day was cold enough as it was. Why make it worse by gaining altitude?
But it helped. Forests really knock those gusts down to size. But then it started snowing...
It must seem silly to mainstream RVers to camp like this, instead of parking in a nice, tidy, small, rectangular spot in an RV park, sucking down 50 amps of electricity to heat the RV to 72 F, and following the storm on the Weather Channel. You can buy large-screen televisions these days at a pretty good price, and then fill an entire slide-out with the monster. And the picture is so clear -- why, it's almost like being there.
Comments
I keep on thinking about Tom's quote. I have come to the conclusion that we have all been robbed of such freedom nowadays. It's taken away as soon as we get our SS#, as soon as we work for benefits which we intend to use in our old age, as soon as we buy insurance, or open a bank account. For then, the government owns you and one must follow their rules.
But 100 years ago, people could still be free. If a person wanted to escape their life, they simply did, and no one knew what became of them. Men went out west and lived until they died, answering to no other man. They only answered to the wind and the mountains, and died with their boots on. Even though anyone who is alive today never actually knew that life, it is something we all long for, something we seem to still know deep inside.
You're right about the big screen TV's.
We do surrender our freedoms one by one... but putting food on the table is not enough anymore. There are sooo many costly and draining things to fund starting with health insurance. Then there's the IRA, in case we live long enough to enjoy what we've been missing on the treadmill... vehicles, more insurance, homes with 40 year mortgages, and so on.
Be honest Boonie, aren't there times when you wish you could roll into a nice RV resort and suck down a few amps... soak in a nice hot tub, maybe do a few laps in the pool before happy hour and potluck"
Box Canyon Blogger, I like the clean, inexpensive laundry rooms at RV parks, and that's about it. You wouldn't have even asked the question if you had seen Coffee Girl celebrate the end of the snowstorm this morning: running on that snow, leaping and bounding, and chasing rabbits. Try that at an RV resort.
@Box & Boonie: There's something to be said for using electric hookups for A/C on a hot day or an electric heater on a cold/freezing one. Add in the laundry, dump station, and water and I'm OK with paying their fee when the weather is troublesome.