An upcoming appointment back home forced these snowbirds to return north early this year. A series of February winter storms made it quite challenging. We planned our trip home from South Padre Island knowing we would probably not be able to avoid all the storms – ice in the south and snow in the north, so we were prepared to stop as necessary along the way and wait for clear passage.

We left the island on Monday, February 10 and made it to Waco, Texas before dark. No rain or ice along the way, but there was plenty of mist and fog, especially as the day wore on. We stayed at the Magnolia RV Resort. We had overnighted there once before so we knew it was a bit pricey, but very nice. We wanted to make sure we had a good place to winterize the van before reaching the freezing weather toward the north. We awoke during the night to pounding rain, but it stopped in the morning while we blew air through all the water pipes and performed other winter prep steps on Usain.

We did another long haul on Tuesday and made it to Wichita, Kansas. Along the way we stopped at a Wal-Mart for the pink stuff (aka RV antifreeze) and finished the winterization process. We also managed to sneak in a stop at a Buc-ee’s (which, if you’ve never been to one, it is a MUST!) for fuel, lunch, and snacks. We called ahead and reserved an RV site at the Air Capital RV Park in Wichita. We stayed there on our way down to Texas so we knew it was close to a grocery store and several restaurants in case we got snowed in and had to spend more than one night. No running water in the van makes preparing meals and cleanup difficult.

We awoke Wednesday morning to a few inches of snow, grey skies, and a brisk north wind. We probably could have left later in the day, but the entire route towards home was getting heavy snowfall with high winds so we stayed put for another night in Wichita. Since we had winterized the van, it meant venturing out to use the park’s restrooms, but we had plenty of propane on board Usain to keep us and the cats warm.

Thursday brought lots of sunshine and the interwebz told us road conditions across Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa were mostly clear. We set off for home and found the roads were very good and had no problems the rest of the way.

1,300 miles in 3 days of travel and 4 days total in Usain definitely broke a record for us in terms of speed and is one that we hope will stand a long time.