Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The Bad Part of Full Timing

Lutz, Florida

We have been living in our motorhome 10 months now and are perfectly happy.  We never moved out of the motor home last spring when we went back to Georgia to get the house ready for closing. 

However, one thing I hate about living in an rv is when there is severe weather.  Some people seem to take it all in stride and don’t freak out.  I’m not one of those people!

There is huge low pressure system in the gulf that’s heading our way.  They have pretty much ruled out any hurricane or tropical storm development, but it could still produce some strong storms with the possibility of isolated tornados and strong winds.  Yikes…..they said the “t” word!  It’s not coming onshore until this evening, of course.  Why is it that severe weather always comes at  night?

Fortunately, we are near Mom’s house so we could go there for the evening.  Maybe we should  stick it our and see how we do.  We will not always be near Mom’s house.   I am a lot more comfortable in this motor home than old one.  This one is much larger and heavier and wind doesn’t seem to affect us as much.  Plus we must have better insulation in the roof because it’s much, much quieter when it rains.  In our other motorhome, you could barely hear the tv when it rained.  It was noisy and that noise always made me nervous.

So, we’re going to watch the weather and make a decision.   I probably won’t get any sleep tonight…and if I don’t sleep, nobody does.  Smile

12 comments:

  1. Batten down the hatches. I've pretty much decided not to move on for the next two days because of rain and strong winds. Some times it's better to just sit tight.

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  2. I agree with Judy!..batten down the hatches..sit tight and ride out the storm..hopefully it will just be a big ole bag of wind!!

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  3. I so agree!! I hate the bad weather in the MH....especially the wind. We have had to vacate once to the bathhouse and twice had to pull in the slides. The time we pulled in the slides it sounded like the wind was taking the roof off and we didn't want the slide toppers ripped off. Very scary stuff.
    You guys stay safe. If tornadoes are in your area I would go to your mothers.

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  4. My RV's rockin' right now, but only due to high winds. No storm.
    If you feel safer at your Mom's house, then go there this evening. No need to totally stress yourself out when you really don't need to. Thank goodness that the storm in the gulf won't turn into a TS or a hurricane then. I saw it yesterday.
    I don't mind storms when I'm in the RV, but I don't like the lightning! That's when I cover my vents so I can't see it flashing.
    Stay safe!

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  5. You are definitely not the only one who freaks at bad weather. We've been doing this three years and I haven't gotten any better. I've just learned to live with my fear a little bit better. And let me tell you, I pull in the slides even when nobody else does because it makes me feel better. Let us know how everything goes. And I also do not get any sleep during a storm.

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  6. When I saw the title I thought, "There's a bad part?", but yes, that kind of weather would be a little freaky.
    We had to replace an awning once due to a "micro-burst", but that was mostly due to my inattentiveness.
    Close up the slides and put your stuff away. Have a "bug out" bag at the ready.
    Good luck.

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  7. All good suggestions above. In my house I use to love to watch the storms come in but in the trailer I worry a lot more. We are out on the plains of Kansas and the wind is really whipping here too. Stay safe.

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  8. We're also near Mom's house. I was, all, WHERE IS YOUR BASEMENT??? but I remembered no one has a basement.

    We're not very insulated, either, which made our wintering over in NYS last year really fun! I'm still not warm! Rain is loud.

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  9. So far in five years of full timing, we have not left the motorhome because of weather. Several times we would have liked too, but there just was no place to go. Closest call so far for tornadoes is a about 1.5 miles. For tree falling on us about 250 feet.

    Be safe and if you have the option of having a shelter near the RV strongly consider it. You can check for shelters on county web sites. Also, while not perfectly safe a large box store like Walmart would still be better than the RV if a tornado was to hit.

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  10. It's always a concern. I saw on Sunday night's show Stormchasers, the aftermath of a tornado. There was a panning around of the camera and it passed over a motorhome laying on its side, totally ripped open.

    If I need to seek shelter, it won't be in our motorhome.

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  11. Hope the storm wasn't as bad as you thought. I think I might be a bit more nervous if we were in Florida.

    Kevin and Ruth
    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  12. We rode out a storm once while on vacation last winter... we knew the winds would be sustained at 50 mph and gusts up to 70-80 they said. So we found a long solid brick building and parked on the lee side of it till the next morning. Whew!

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
    Karen and Steve
    (Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/

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