Arctic Air and High Winds

Our barefoot weather changed overnight to 40F degrees of cold arctic air. I am in Melbourne, Florida which is midway between Jacksonville and Miami. Winds were clocked at 51 miles per hour here last night. I was up and down all night. The awning was tied down to the picnic table on one end and the other end was held down with 2 water jugs tied to a rope. No kidding!

The motorhome rocked and rolled. I dreamed I was trying to explain to the insurance company how a 6 foot picnic table crashed through my roof. Good grief.

Thankfully none of that happened.

I saw the jug of water trick in another campground and borrowed it. That really works! In my case I had a one gallon water jug and a half gallon vinegar jug, so about 12 pounds of weight dangling off a strap hung down from the awning (on the right in this picture below.)

In this picture I am using Master Lock 12-Foot-by-1-inch Lashing Straps.  I have two looped together to reach the picnic table bench on the left side. Both have a twist in them so that they don't sing when the wind blows.

On the right side, I have one strap dangling off the awning with a one gallon water bottle attached about a foot off the ground. Later I added the half gallon of vinegar. A gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds. So in all, I had about 12 pounds of weight dangling off the awning frame.

If you've read my blog for years, then you know I've had awning troubles during high winds before. Now I've finally solved the problem. Of course I could close up the awning, but it's cantankerous due to the prior "injuries" so this let's me leave it out and apparently it can with stand 51 mile per hour winds, as last night was a test.

Speaking of vinegar. Now that I am in the land of hard water, I fill up a Downy ball with vinegar for the final rinse in my compact washing machine. I don't like artificial laundry softeners and the chemicals and weird smell they give off, but plain white vinegar does magic to soften clothes and towels. No odors, just softness.

I love it when things around the motorhome do triple duty or more for the space they occupy. Like a bottle of white vinegar is used in recipes, softening laundry, cleaning windows and floors and so on. Vinegar can also remove pesky stains in the toilet simply by soaking overnight. When I first bought my motorhome, I had to soak the toilet in vinegar to make it look new and acceptable again.

Harley loves it that I soften his sweaters and jacket with vinegar in the final rinse.

Harley dog was thrilled to wear his new birthday jacket today. Actually, the little bugger went shopping on Black Friday! Can you imagine that? I won't even set foot in a store on Black Friday, but my pooch did!  Well, I did too, after all he has no pawkets for his allowance, so the human has to carry his wallet.

What happened is that on Black Friday we rode with a friend to the grocery store. We had no groceries to buy, so doggy and I went for a walk. Next to the grocery store is a Pet store and it was nearly empty. So Harley and I went inside. Well, we looked at the sweaters and jackets and Harley was super excited about this long suede shearling coat. He has a short one, but this one was much longer, covering his rear end too. He tried it on and pranced around, clearly in love with it.

I told him maybe I would get it for his birthday in December. Be patient.

But he pointed with is wittle paw, that it was Black Friday and all their sweaters and coats were HALF PRICE!

So I caved in and bought his coat on Black Friday for half price for his December birthday. He LOVES it.

This morning he surely needed it.

I had to wear 2 shirts, a sweater and a coat, just to walk him. Brrrrrr!

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