Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

Cold and Windy Start to 2018

January 1- January 6, 2018                                                                    Most Recent Posts:
Sebastian Inlet State Park                                                                   
It’s a Wrap: 2017 Year Review
Vero Beach, Florida                                                                                Ending 2017 – Before and After Our Trip


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We’ve spent many winters in Florida and determined early on that if you want to avoid temperatures in the 30’s for winter you have to be south of Tampa in January and February.  So that’s what we do including this year.   But for January 2018 that didn’t work. 

Here we are in Vero Beach Florida latitude definitely south of Tampa and for our first week here, with the wind chill factor, we’ve been down to 29 degrees.   The temperatures were unusually low and the winds  HIGH as in up to 30 mph.

We didn’t been spend a lot of time outside.  The wind just made it too cold.  The opportuniaty to be outside in the winter is THE reason we come to Florida so I have serious envy of fellow bloggers in Desert Hot Springs California and Mesa, Arizona.  I learned that even folks in  Ouray Colorado are sporting shorts.   What IS going on here?


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On New Year’s day we leave Gamble Rogers and drive 149 miles south on  I –95 in wind and rain from Flagler Beach to Sebastian Inlet in Vero Beach.  We think we are escaping the 25 mph winds only to find ourselves in 27 mph winds.   It’s a gray day and takes 4 hoss pads on each of the passenger wheels to level up in site 24.

We are very lucky that just when we arrived there was a dry window and the rain didn’t come back until we had done a very minimal set up.  Thanks to the weather gods for that.

But over the next week there are very few breaks in the bad weather.  Of course north of us they are seeing single digits and minus numbers so we’re mindful of how much worse it could be. 


One day I stepped outside to get a picture of the white caps on Indian Inlet.  You can see the rain drops on the picture.  The winds were 27 or 28 mph and there was a kite surfer out.  I figure he must have been 16 or so to be that stupid.


IMG_8964We spent two full days with our slides in due to the winds and not wanting to take any chance of having them twisted.  We put them back out when the winds got to 20 mph or less.

Our Progressive Industries EMS kept cutting off when we tried to do almost anything.  I assume that everyone in the park, being inside, was trying to run electric heaters and use their hot water heaters and microwaves.   We just bundled up during the day and used electric blankets at night.. Yes, that’s 39 at 8:30am and a low of 37 overnight and that’s without the wind chill factor IN SOUTH FLORIDA.



We did get a big kick out of these guys in a site behind us trying to set up tents in this wind.   I think they must be related to the kite surfer.




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I really wanted to go out and see what the ocean was doing in this weather so when the rain took a short break and it was only the wind, we hustled out to walk over to the ocean.  David didn’t think it was warm enough.  He didn’t bring gloves, I did!

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I guess I should not have been surprised to see the fishermen out on the pier but boy they must have been freezing standing around in this wind over the water.


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Skimmers and terns were hunkered down on the shore.

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I’m not sure if you are allowed to surf on this side of the bridge but no one was out today except the  crazy dedicated fishermen.

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The strong winds were blowing the spray back off of the waves.  We walked straight out, took these pictures and hustled back to Winnona and out of the wind.

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We were actually able to keep the coach warm just by doing some cooking.  What’s better than soup on a cold day?  So I made a big pot of sweet potato and black bean soup one day and we warmed some of that up when David used our cast iron tortilla press to make fresh tortilla chips to go with it.  We were glad to have all of our boondocking tools like our cast iron griddle for the gas stove available given the low electricity problems.

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I forgot to take the picture until David was on his second bowl and I was nearly finished with my first.  It was a delicious soup.

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The weather did make for some beautiful sunsets and after color.

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Other ways to occupy your time in bad weather.  Play board games like Sequence and The Birding Game which we are playing here.  If you can’t go birding outside then go birding inside.

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We also took advantage of the down time to do a thorough inside house cleaning. Nothing like bad weather to force you into chores .  Look carefully, you are actually seeing David with a broom in his hand.  HA!


Over our second week, the weather began to clear and we actually did get out on the beach.  We also celebrated David’s birthday but more on that next time.

One last sunset over the Indian River.  It was wonderful that the sunset was literally right out our back door since there were no sunrises visible this week over the ocean due to all the cloudy weather.

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19 comments:

  1. Your version of cold and our version of cold are two very different things. Dazzling sunsets!

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  2. If it makes you feel any better, it's snowing hard today in Lovely Ouray :)

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  3. Wow, David looked really cold standing in your kitchen! Good idea to warm up with cooking. Your black bean and sweet potato soup and homemade tortilla chips sound delicious! We had 12 degrees in West Texas last week but not as much wind as you've had. Brrrr!!!

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  4. Darn! I forgot to wish David a Happy Birthday. Great men are born on January 8th. ;c)

    For once I didn't miss staying in the Journey, last weekend we saw temps around 10 degrees. We even had a frozen water pipe...in the house. Of course today it was 70. More to my liking. A few more days like that and I'll be firing up the motorcycle.

    I have to admire the dedication of those fishermen. Or maybe they're just hungry...

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  5. I miss photos of palm trees and sunshine....soon, I hope. Soup is a great way to warm from the inside out. Texas has been unusually chilly too. Recently Amy and Angela packed up in Terlingua in 15 degree temps. Ever the optimists, they said it wasn't bad because...."there was no wind." Hoping the Big Chill has passed and the temps are warm and the sky sunny.

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  6. Brrr. We've had some cold temps here in Central coast CA. Running heat in morning and windows open in afternoon. Seems typical I guess. Nice sunset pictures!

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  7. Hate to say I'm actually getting tired of the high temps in SoCal - but not so much to envy your cold wind!! The pics of the wind blowing the tops of the waves are wonderful. Happy Belated Birthday to David. Can't wait to see what the king for the day did this year!!!

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  8. You are South of us and appear to have endured worse weather. Just finished 3rd day in shorts, T and sandals, my kind of weather. EPCOT was almost empty today, 15 min Soarin standby and walk on living with the land. Nice Sunsets and wave pics.

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  9. We've had some cold when visiting Ft Myers in the winter but never as cold for as long as you have been cold. There was no where south for you to go to get warm. Sure hope all is warming so you can thaw out. Meanwhile, we have been too warm here in southern CA. Finally, after a day of rain the temps dropped to the high 60's...perfect! Of course, my family has NO sympathy since they have been in minus and single digits. Love that cast iron griddle!!

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  10. No oil from scratch tortilla chips no less. Takes a while but it was the perfect day for it with that soup ready, especially with the gas fired grille to keep them hot and crisp. Always a silver lining in my view ...

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  11. Being a former backpacker I can related to having to set up a tent in strong winds.

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  12. It got into the 50s here today...after single digits last week, boy that was nice. The soup, chips and games look yummy and fun! Hope you had some tunes on while cleaning. Beautiful sunsets!

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  13. Slides in does make for some tight living. I've never had to do that on purpose. But with that much wind force a good idea. Hard to believe it's so cold in FL as we're having a heatwave in the SW. I do love this warmer than normal but know we need more moisture than the brief bit this week. Soup and chips looks delish. Happy belated Birthday David!

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  14. Florida is overdue for a cold winter and I'm afraid this might be it. We got back from north Ga the middle of November, so we were getting used to cold weather since we'd seen snow already before we came back. The cold spell didn't bother us. We just made sure to keep the propane topped off and kept the furnace running. I remember some very cold winters in Tampa in the 80's. All of our citrus trees froze when the temps got into the teens. Hopefully, we don't see anymore of those this year since we will not be able to go to the Keys. Stay warm. I hear another cold front is coming next week.

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  15. Wow, that's cold Sherry! Sorry to brag about it but we are in the hight 70's here in San Diego. We only have one mild winter storm and we are back in the warmth of the sun.
    The sunsets were pretty cool! If the chores could talk, they must have said, its about time David gets a broom!

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  16. Sorry about the wind but the ocean pictures you ran out to get are great! Also the sunsets. Hope the weather improves! We went out to dinner last night and nearly froze just getting from the parking lot to the restaurant- cold and windy. Blah.

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  17. It has been a tough winter in FL temp wise. We are running a space heater and the fireplace in the house to give the heat pump a break. Went to a FMCA rally in AL over the weekend and everybody left early due to the temps down to 23:(

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  18. Sweet potato and black bean soup is certainly a good way to warm up. We had roasted sweet potato and black bean tacos just last night! Thanks so much for showing us how to make homemade tortillas! We've shared the recipe with many friends. We are snuggled in OhP while it's a brisk 17 degrees outside with a beautiful covering of the white stuff here in Tennessee. Here's to warmer weather and a Happy New Years to you both!

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  19. Wow- can't believe your weather!- So glad you had the electric blankets, which you probably never envisioned needing in Florida! Those poor tent people! :-(

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