Water, glorious water. I am grateful for unlimited water access in my life, yet I also (gasp!) take that access for granted…
So, when the water hoses in Vanda froze yesterday afternoon, our first day out on this short 12-day trip, we were somewhat stunned. At home, we kept Vanda warmed from the inside, by plugging in a small heater via an extension cord from our garage. Draining the water system and pump, including the hot water heater, requires a bit more effort than we wanted to undertake, and we want to be able to hop in the van for a spontaneous overnight without having to fill the water system, then drain it again; hence our path of least resistance decision to use a plug-in heater. The heater was an effective temporary measure, maintaining an inside temp around 50-degrees — until Sunday night when local temps plummeted to 5-degrees overnight, (that is Fahrenheit measurement for my more sophisticated friends who use Celsius!) causing Vanda’s inside temp to drop to 28-degrees.
Nonetheless, the water flowed just fine, while we were in the driveway getting ready to begin our adventure. Maybe I should not have tested it, as that brought water into the hoses, I suppose, which apparently set the stage for mid-day freezing as we drove through continued cold temps of 10 to 16-degrees. We did continue to run Vanda’s extremely effective living area heater, to prevent the very freezing that occurred, despite our best efforts. It was after our usual #vanlife lunch of apples, cheese, and crackers that I could not coax water out of the faucet to wash my cutting knife and board. Yikes! Not the end of the world but surely a diminishment of convenience and more importantly, a concern about the integrity of the water pump, as we do not wish to burn out that precious device!
I was able to fill our plug-in tea kettle and one of the cook-pots with fresh water from the campground bathroom, so that washing dishes from our delicious tomato soup and salad dinner was not a problem. I had enough water left over for the first pot of coffee this morning–a significant priority for us–with my own personal water bottles from home providing water for the second pot. Gotta have our morning coffee…
We are cozy inside Vanda as I type, in spite of awakening to 11-degrees at 0500. There was a bit of ice on the inside of the windshield and the side door window when we took down the window covers–ice from condensation, even though the inside temp remained between 66 and 70-degrees overnight. What an adventure!
We are at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee, where we did take a short walk to the falls overlook yesterday, to be rewarded with these stunning views. I should have called this blog, “When Heaven Freezes Over”, to reflect the marvelous winter beauty here, but that title would not have been quite as catchy!
Onward! We are hoping that the 32-degree high temperature expected at our next stop will allow for thawing in the water hoses…Stay tuned!
