Polar Vortex is keeping us on our toes!

It's Super Bowl Sunday and Ground Hog Day (2/2/14). Once again we are hunkered down in the RV keeping warm from the blowing winds while snacking on smoked salmon and cheese and watching the game. We are in Del Rio Texas staying at the family campground at Laughlin Air Force Base. Del Rio is right on the Rio Grande River so Mexico is a spit away. Yesterday I was sitting out in 77 degree sunny weather. Today it's 47 with wind chill to low 40's.... Let me start with where I left off from the last post..... We left Homochitto National Forest and went to Junction City Arkansas were it was COLD (in the 30's on Sunday 1/19). We parked the RV at Greg's step-sister's (thank you Nan and Donny Cole). The next day we took Greg's step-mom (Jodie) to her lake house about an hour away. We parked the RV next to her place in the yard of her son's house (Barry Walton). We stayed there until Friday the 24th and stayed in doors almost the whole time! It was COLD the entire week. I got out one afternoon when the wind died down for a walk/run but that was the only time I really got outside. Greg ran outside once. He couldn't even get in the boat and go fishing because the wind was blowing so hard there were white caps on the lake. We had a really good visit with Jodie despite the weather. She is still recovering from surgery in October. She has come a long way but still has a way to go to get her strength back. Greg wanted to go to north Arkansas to visit cousin Harold and Joyce Sherman. The weather was going to be warmer on Saturday and Sunday (1/25 & 1/26) so we headed to Harrison AR (south of Branson MO) We found out that cousin Harold had to be put into a nursing home due to heath issues so we didn't get to visit with him. We spent Saturday night with Joyce. I went to church with her on Sunday (in the 60's but breezy) and Greg did a few repairs for her around the house. Greg kept checking the weather and decided we needed to start heading south because Harrison's low was dropping to 14 overnight. We hated leaving Joyce so soon. We really enjoyed being with her. Our plans are to hook up with Greg's sister in Austin for her birthday. On the way to Austin (Sun. 1/26), we stopped overnight in McAlester Oklahoma at the US Army Ammunitions Plant (Army Depot). RV camp on post called Murphy's Meadows. Lots of deer. Very quiet. No sleep though because the winds BLEW all night. We woke to 24 degrees. Temp at 33 when we pulled out at 10:30. Oklahoma has a lot of casinos and FYI...you can only order wine and domestic beer at restaurants on Sundays...we tried to get a margarita with dinner last night. I guess they hadn't heard of a wine or beer margarita. I didn't want to push the issue so I just ordered a wine. Monday the 27th we stopped at my uncle and aunt's (Bob and Carolyn Holland)in Weatherford TX. We stayed 2 nights with them. It was still cold and windy so we stayed indoors and had a great visit. We got to Austin on Wednesday the 29th. Parked at McKinney Falls State Park. Really nice campground on the south end of Austin really close to the airport and downtown. It was very wooded and had lots of hiking/biking trails. We rode our bikes for about 5 miles on Thursday. Greg went for a short run in the afternoon then we took Joanne (Greg's sister) for dinner. On Friday we went for a 5 mile run on different trails from yesterday. We had to ford a creek that flowed into a waterfall. It was pretty cool. Greg was the only one who didn't get their feet wet (guess who got wet?). This was a great weather day. 55 at 8am hitting the 70's by noon.....Lovin' IT! After our run on Friday then a nice shower, we headed west to the Caverns of Sonora. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive in the blinding sun. The caverns have a small RV campground where we easily found a spot. Lots of peacocks running around. We had a very pleasant evening under the west Texas stars. On Saturday Feb. 1, we took the 1hr 45min tour of the caverns. It was truly incredible! There were too many formations to take pictures of. It was almost 2 miles of tunnels and caves with unusual and unique formations like "fish tails" and heliographs. There was a cave which was covered with formations on every square inch of the walls. I know our pictures don't do it justice. It was a great tour. There wasn't anything else to do here so we packed up and headed south to Del Rio. It was HOT all day and I wore shorts and tank top ALL DAY!!!! The reason we picked Del Rio is that we are heading to Big Bend National Park but we wanted to be somewhere where we could watch the "Game" on Sunday. Which brings me up to date....... Sitting at the FamCamp in Laughlin AFB, no showers, no laundry facilies, no wi-fi but YES....there is cable! (on the wi-fi issue, I am pirating off of an unsecured wi-fi.) We'll head for Big Bend tomorrow (2/3/14) Oh yeah, not that I care a lot, but did the ground hog see his shadow today? I didn't but I don't know what that means!