One part of RVing is choosing where to go. The OFM uses lots of Internet resources as well as personal recommendations for choosing where to go have fun.
Sometimes folks forget that when you go to a place can be very important also. For example Phoenix Arizona is a neat area with lots of great walking/hiking to enjoy. However if you go there in August it will not be a fun place for outdoor activities in general. So what method to the OFM Teams use to attempt to be in the right place at the right time.
Again it is the Internet to the rescue. There are a few nice sites that give historical weather information on locations. We have been using this one http://www.usclimatedata.com/ . We have found it to be easy to use and versatile enough for our needs. Over the years we have looked up a lot of places and saved a lot of data. Early on it proved to be very valuable for staying in more comfortable temperatures during our travels.
The way we use it is to first decide the upper limit temperature the OFM’s body can handle. Then we chose the lowest temperature the OFM’s arthritis can stand. For us those two temperatures are 85 for the high and 45 for the low. Those temperatures likely will be a lot different for different folks, so just choose your comfort zone.
Ok now we have a comfort zone to work with. The OFM then looks at the date that the high and low temperature happens. For instance city Fun, Tx in the spring may average starting to get hotter than 85 on May 12. That lets us know, that in general, we want to not be there after May 12. Get the same date for the fall when the average high starts being below 85 on October 3. So the same thing for the low temperatures and now you will have your high and low times defined.
In this case say you have this data.
Goes over 85 on May 12 in the spring.
Goes under 85 on October 3 in the fall.
Goes over 45 on Feb 19 in spring.
Goes under 45 on Nov 22 in fall.
This data lets you know that your probable best time to go to Fun, Tx is in the spring between Feb 19 and May 12. The fall best time is between October 3 and November 22. We quickly found the data pile for the USA to be huge. The OFM wanted an easier way to read the data.
He came up with a graphic spread sheet that helps. We only put places of current interest on each spreadsheet and color code the spread sheet. They are named Where/When 45-85. The too hot times are colored red. The too cold times are colored blue ( like his fingers get ) . The better times are colored green. This gives him a good graphic to read and guess about timing our travels.
Here is an example from a few years ago.
Naturally we store any graph generated to keep from having to start from scratch on a new one every time the OFM gets a wild hair to go somewhere. Since he started this project many years ago, it is very seldom we get caught in a temperature unpleasant area unless some other outside event (Sierra wreck, medical emergency) keeps us there. It has worked for us very well in our pursuit of trying to have tooooo much fun.
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