Weather

It did this fall. I waited a day before driving through Flagstaff due to snow. But I don't drive a MH.

Tom/Barb wrote:
How much do you allow the weather impact your travel plans?

We only view it as effecting road conditions.

road conditions for sure but also wind, fog, heavy rain etc. we generally have no place to go and have all day to get there.

When we are to leave for FLA we will not leave if the roads are snow or ice covered. We do watch the weather and will leave a day earlier or later to miss conditions like that.

If traveling and it snows we park it in the nearest parking lot.

If I don't have the MH then we don't worry about it.

We LOOK at the weather and it will determine when we drive to/from or how far we go, but we don't let rain or a bit of snow deter us. We have camped in almost all kinds of weather from tornadoes (we hit the storm shelter) to flooding rain (we were above the creeks/rivers by 20-30 feet) to hot and cold temps. We have camped in temps down in the teens and into the 100s. It might determine what we do while we are "there", but we still go.

It's a major issue for us. We try to move to temps that would have us running the furnace a little and not running the AC at all. We can run the AC on a 3000 Honda on those days when the afternoon is a little hotter than expected. I'd rather need to run the furnace more but when it gets into the low 40's or 30's it's time to move on which is a combination of moving south and or adjusting elevation.


I never pull into a place in the dark and don't see a need to risk much wind when we have all the time in the world. I also try to never move in the rain.

Our target is to be in ideal weather while dirt biking in the best places in the country and as safely as possible. It's not always easy but we are committed to toughing it out.

A few years ago we were on the return leg of a trip from FL to the Northeast. We knew an ice/snow storm was coming but were confident we could beat the storm and make it home to the mountains of MD before it hit. Well, storm came quicker and traffic made us slower and we were caught on I-95 in a horrible ice and snow blizzard. NOVA did nothing to cover the roads, temps dropped quickly into the teens, and cars were sliding everywhere - some literally crashing right in front of us. I could not find an open CG - they all close up in the Northeast in the winter. Longest, white knuckle drive ever. We made it but I am not sure how. I vowed I would NEVER do that again. Heck only one more day in the South would have prevented what could have been a catastrophe. Having a MH allows you stop virtually anywhere and I ignored that. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Look at your forecasts very carefully, and always err on the side of caution. Leverage all the self containment of your MH you bought it for and avoid bad weather and dangerous driving conditions if at all possible. It's just not worth it.

We used to travel a lot this time of year. We always allowed at least an extra day. When traveling in the coach, we always departed with provisions for three days.

Why Three Days?
Several times the weather turned out worse than was predicted. So, we just found a place to hunker down, stay warn and watch the chaos around us. We were held up for a big part of a day twice. But both of those could easily have become two days. So, the third day is just in case we did get held up for two, it was still not a worry.

Matt

Agree with other comments, that is, I will adjust travel departure time and/or route for weather conditions like strong winds, freezing conditions or heavy rain.
Being retired allows us to be flexible. We have laid over a number of times, for as long as 2 days, for a winter storm to move on, or high winds to drop, etc. On some lucky occasions we found a camp site, but many times a nearby Walmart has become the safe place to park and they are usually easy to find. I use this web site to check weather conditions and forecast for locations along our planned route.

https://www.wunderground.com/

For me, there is so much more to that question than just "how much do you allow weather to impact your travel?"

First, is the weather issue some rain for a day, couple days of showers, a blizzard, a downpour for several days, high winds for a week, etc.?

Second, is the weather something I have to pass through? Or is it at my destination?

Third, why am I going to that particular destination?

Last week, I wanted to go camping for 4 nights because I had 5 days off work. Purpose: just to get away from home for a relaxing time. Weather: rain from the time I would be leaving home through days and nights 1 and 2, high winds and rain for day 3 and overnight, sun for part of day 4 and all of day 5 (for travel home). I went - because the weather didn't interfere with my ability to enjoy the trip. Waiting a day or two until the travel weather would have been better, would have made it an overnight trip and not worth the effort for me.

In comparison, if my purpose had been specifically to be outdoors doing something OR the weather was to have been horrid the entire trip OR I could postpone the trip without impact (aka retired), then I probably would have pushed it back.

We mostly travel in the Winter, out West, in the mountains. Snow and cold temps have never bothered us and the big dog loves the snow. We do keep an eye on the weather, which affects the route we will take to our next destination. If it looks like we may encounter a snow storm, I usually keep on the interstate highways. If there is a lot of snow on the ground from a previous storm, then I try to stick to the major roads. If it is just cold and it has been awhile since the last snow, then we drive the back roads, which we prefer. We also check ahead so that we can find a place to park. We once had to wait in Williams, AZ for the RV park owner to use his front loader to clear the snow out of a parking space so we could spend a few days there. Basically we are pretty flexible as to where we are going and just don't like to spend more than a few days at a location. The weather might cause us to change the route that we will take but it very very seldom stops us from traveling for a day or so.