The last time the Hanson's headed south for some of the winter was 2020, the year covid struck. The next two years were in dealing with covid and so we stayed home and sufffered through a WI winter. Then Margo's health took a turn for the worse and so 2023,2024 we stayed home. Margo died February 6, 2025 and so that year was also at home.
However, Scott and I decided to get the camper out this summer, clean it out after 5 years parked in the garage and found mouse messes and mouse eaten spots in the screens and canvas, so tossed the curtains, cleaned it and decided to try it this year with the idea of patching the holes and seeing if it was reasonable to use again (1990 Jayco popup)
Last week we loaded up our camping gear, planned to stay in state parks and decided to head out today, Jan 16th for 2-4 weeks somewhere warm,. uncertain if to go to TX or maybe Alabama, but at least 1000 miles south to where it was warm enough for a popup camper
We took off from the WI farm today about 9:30 and reached our MN house at about noon, did some more packing and evaluated the camper after 120 miles of hauling it behind the 2011 Impala. It towed well, the car purred along fine and so we will take off tomorrow from MN heading to Witchita KS for the first of three days driving south. That is about 8 hours and maybe 500 miles.
We checked the coming week's temps and found that Arkansas, Louisiana and Alabama were going to be very cold, below freezing whereas SW Texas was to be much nicer -- Laredo TX in the 60s and 70s. Margo and I stayed there in 2020, a nice state park and an interesting city to be a tourist.
In Cushing, WI, the snow is pretty deep, where as in Pine Island MN, more of the land is bare than snow covered, so we already feel like we are going the right direction. However, the wind is strong, cold weather coming in and so tomorrow morning at dawn we will be on our way.
The gas price in Cushing, WI was $2.49. Along the way in MN it has been $2.69 or so. We expect it to be lower as we head south.
