Adventure Location:
Decatur, Alabama
Date: January 17, 2024
A day to be especially careful we found out. All the white stuff in the photos is not snow, it is 2 inch thick ice and incredibly slippery. The OFM did not fall but he did get lessons he did not want in ICE DANCING. He even tried out Sierra for driving. Several working folks were seen leaving for work. Here is some of the small tracks their vehicles left in the ice.
Sierra behaved very well as we slipped around the campground very carefully trying out this new driving on ice thing. We slowly went back to our campsite and carefully got Sierra parked with no new damage.
This stuff on the window is a thin layer of ice on the morning window opening. It slowly melted as we did our morning computer mess around.
How about some dripping history about the OFM? All his life he has had an important habit of letting water drip at an inside faucet in bad cold weather. Well yesterday morning we went somewhere and he left the bathroom lavatory dripping the usual amount so the pipes will not freeze. We got back from the excursion to we have no recollection of where and the dripping had stopped. Hmmm A bit of checking and we found the water line into the Castle frozen solid. That is not good. We had some water in the on board drinking water tank but we did not know how much. So we went to work on thawing the hose. It turned out even the campground water service and valve were frozen. YIKES.
Today we went to work fixing our error. Our water hose was removed and brought into the Castle and hung in the bathtub area with an electric heater blowing on it. In about twenty minutes the hose dropped a load of partially melted ice rods in the tub. Now it was ready to use and was reinstalled outside.
Now the hose was ready but the outside supply line and faucet were frozen. We wrapped a rag around the faucet assembly and poured some boiling water on it while we did some more thinking. Finally The OFM remembered we have an incandescent drop light with a 40 watt bulb. So we grabbed a plastic storage box and the light . The light was hung on the frozen valve and the box put over it all.
The black stripes are tree shadows on the ice. After about two hours the water came back on with a wonderful splash.
It was a very wonderful song it was playing.
Now we know that in low single digit temperatures, the dripping stream needs to be a stream closer to a pencil in size.
Having that knowledge is wonderful for peaceful times in miserable cold weather.
Well done. Hope you have no cause to use that knowledge again.
ReplyDeleteME TOOOO
DeleteIce sucks.... "Chains for boots on ice" are a thing, when I HAD to wear them to get to the vehicle it was not a day to be driving unless there was no way around it.
ReplyDeleteA driving in packed show and/or ice tip, if you have a rear wheel drive put it in "N" when you want to stop.... I have seen truck & cars with the front tires locked up and the rears still spinning away (I think it was front disk & back drum brakes) as the vehicle continued in the direction it's momentum took it.
Sierra is an empty bed pickup so the rear has very little traction on even pavement. It has disc brakes all around with electronic anti lock up system and the rear still locks up anyway. It is NOT a good slippery conditions vehicle when empty.
ReplyDelete