Monday,
2 April 2018
April
Fool’s Day came a day late here: I heard it rain a lot during the
night, and I guess there was thunder which I didn’t hear, but about
2:00 AM I did hear Gracie trying desperately to insert herself into
the shower next to the cat box. When I went in to the bathroom to
check on her, she was trembling, all of which meant to me there was
thunder. When I woke up again about 5ish, it was quiet, and I found
out why when I took a quick look outside to see how muddy the road
was.
I
have no idea how muddy it was because it was completely covered with
at least 3” of snow. I know it was 3” because I used a tape
measure on the snow on our picnic table. Imagine my surprise.
 |
| Jasper making tracks |
In
my defense at being clueless, this park doesn’t have internet
access when the nearby Pine Grove General Store is closed (ever since
I got here), my hot spot doesn’t get a signal, and my TV isn’t
picking up any channels at all . I can sporadically get a phone
signal, but that doesn’t help with the weather since it’s not a
smart phone.
Anyway,
the dogs and I enjoyed a very silent walk in the snow. The dogs
loved it. I loved it too but had mental distractions.
I
immediately junked my plan to visit Gettysburg today and pinned my
hopes on the roads not turning to ice overnight tonight
so we could leave on Tuesday. During our mid-morning walk, I accosted the campground host plus the
woman cleaning the bathroom and then we walked down to the office,
asking
everybody for the weather forecast. Everybody assured me it wouldn’t
get down below 35°
tonight
so the roads should be fine tomorrow. In fact, it’s supposed to
warm up and rain tomorrow.
Well,
we’ll see. I’d planned to stay at the Walmart parking lot in
Harrisburg for the next 2 nights, so I’ll charge up all my devices
and keep an eye on the propane level and we’ll see how it goes.
I
still want to go to Gettysburg, and it’s only about an hour away
(actually much less if the roads weren’t narrow and wind around a
lot and possibly have ice patches) and I didn’t come all this way
to miss it because of a little act of nature. By the time
I get there,
it’ll probably be raining.
I’m
hoping I can find a wi-fi signal before I get too far down the road,
so I can locate the Walmart and so I can check road conditions.
Well,
I wanted to experience Pennsylvania, and unexpected snow is
apparently part of the experience. And it’s just like those girls
at a previous campground told me – it’s not yet 4:30 and the
majority of the snow is gone. They said that’s what happens to
snow here and they were right.
One
of the reasons our walks have been so quiet is that the birds haven’t
been saying much. They started perking up in the afternoon.
Even
on our first walk I could tell the snow was the heavy wet variety. The campground host told me 2 different campers had left the awnings
on their RVs rolled out all night and the struts on them broke from the
weight of the snow.
The
campground is now almost totally cleared out. I don’t think there
are more than 5 of us left, counting me and the host. Well, it’s a
Monday and it did snow quite a bit.
Don’t
know if I mentioned it before, but PA state parks rarely provide
water hookups to individual campsites. Electricity or no hookup at
all, but not water. There are pumps at intervals around the
campground. PA state parks also have very restrictive dog policies. Some of the campgrounds won’t allow dogs at all. At this one,
about half the sites allow dogs, and I’m not allowed even to walk
the dogs past the non-dog sites. I have no idea why.
In
a bit, I’m going to pour some red wine (because it’s what I have
that’s not refrigerated) and watch “The Martian” and have some
Stouffer’s lasagne. That all sounds like a program that should
keep me warm without using the heater too much. I set the thermostat
at a level that keeps it about 60°
in
the cabin (I’ve got warm clothes, the critters have fur, propane
that can be pumped into RVs isn’t sold on every corner). Spring is
allegedly on the way.
(Yes,
I know Texas is already setting heat and drought records. Pennsylvania is not.)
It’s
all a learning experience.
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