Travelversary Blizzard! (Things went from bad to worse)

Before we get into our recap of this storm, we need to put a few things into perspective. Lots of non-New Englanders think that winter is this bad every year. It's not. We used to experience about 1 big snowstorm per year on average, plus a couple of smaller but noteworthy storms. Then in the past decade, the big snowstorms were few and far between. On average, coastal Massachusetts – where our home-base is – receives between 2 and 3 feet of snow per year. We had already reached that total before this blizzard hit. We always had our reasons for escaping the North before February – it is our snowiest month. However, this winter was unprecedented. Some areas reached snow totals higher than recorded ever. At times, snow was falling at 4 inches per hour. Our home-base hadn't been hit this hard since we began RVing, and we just happened to be here for the mayhem.

We could go all metaphysical, wave our fists in the air, and proclaim with resounding fury, "DAMMIT, HOME-BASE!" But this time, we'll just stick to the facts of what we experienced. It's true that we weren't supposed to be here this winter. It's also true that, even before this storm, we were already stuck here. We won't lie, it's tough to emotionally grapple with those facts, but we didn't have time for emotions. The blizzard was immanent. Forecasts kept getting worse and we had only a couple days to prepare.

Sustained winds were predicted to reach the 50mph range, with gusts up to 70mph. This was well beyond our cut-off point. We would need to take refuge inside Nicole's parents' house. The snow was supposed to start the evening of February 22, so we made sure to be all settled in by sundown.

For those who have followed our blog since the beginning, you know that February 22 is a special day for us. We finally launched into our travel life, after some stressful stationary time for 2 months at this very home-base. Looking back, if 2022 had had this much snow, we wouldn't have been able to launch at all! My, what our lives might have become. At least this year, we had all the equipment and resources we needed, knew the ins and outs of our trailer, and had mentally prepared to weather winter here. It still wouldn't be easy, but we were ready for whatever was to come.

The storm picked up during the overnight hours, and by morning, the blizzard was in full swing. We could barely watch the storm out the window, between the whiteout conditions and all the snow caked on the glass.

The gusty winds and heavy snow meant a high likelihood of widespread power outages. The house loses power in far less intense weather than this, and so we soaked up every hour of electricity we had. We watched Max Velocity's livestream, amused by the fact that, for once, he was talking about our neck of the woods. He streamed storm chaser footage from our town! He also shared one of Nicole's mom's videos, where she captured winds up to 70mph in the backyard:

Here is another angle of the wind roaring through the trees:

We had a couple of short outages and lots of flickering lights, but the power lasted until around 2pm. Since we have our battery bank and generator in the RV, we would be able to get power there, but we wouldn't have access until the storm died down and we could shovel a pathway across the driveway. By that point, we had close to 2 feet of snow and lots of snowdrifts. How high is 2 feet? About one American Eskimo's worth.

We decided to stay inside the house through the night, which meant trying to stay warm as the temperatures dropped. As soon as the worst of the storm passed, Anthony dug our path to the RV and cleared the generator exhaust pipe so we would be ready to move back in the next morning. We took the opportunity to charge some of our devices. That's when Nicole noticed something really unfortunate: a leak coming through our bathroom LED light.

We hoped for no damage but weren't surprised when we found some. The winds were so high, branches blew all over the place. We were sure some hit the roof. Nothing we could do at 10pm but shut off the circuit that powers the lights and place a pot underneath the leak to catch the drips.

The amount of snow and ice caked on the RV exterior was unbelievable. We had never seen anything like it! Looking at the mess, we had to think about how much worse the damage could be. Buggy could have blown off-kilter, but he stayed strong...and frozen to the ground. We could have had a full tree hit our roof! One leak? We were getting off easy...

...or were we?

After our cold, powerless night, we packed up the pets, gathered our stuff, and made our way back to the RV. Now that we had been running the heat on a higher temperature, the snow had started melting off the exterior. (For the record, when we went inside the house, we kept the thermostat at 50°F to save propane, and then turned it back up a couple hours before we returned).

We may have had the heat, but we kept our lights off until we could disconnect the bathroom light from the circuit. Cutting power to that light would need to happen before dark, but we had one pressing matter that needed to happen ideally in full daylight.

When the electricity went out, so did the home internet, of course. We had been mainly using that network, but we did have Starlink set up in the backyard. Despite the dish having an integrated heating element that melts snow off it, it had gotten buried by the blizzard. The router and cables had been buried for quite some time. We would have just left it and used cellular internet, but we didn't have that either. Mobile data wasn't working, likely due to the high number of people trying to use the network at once. Sometimes, cell connectivity got so bad that we couldn't even make phone calls!

If we were going to have any connection to the outside world, we would need to dig up Starlink. We didn't know if it could be done, but we had nothing to lose. Commence Operation Starlink Retrieval!

At first, we didn't get far. One step off the back deck, and Nicole sunk waist-deep in snow and got her boot stuck. Good thing we had our snowshoes in our truck! With shoes on-foot and shovel in-hand, Nicole trudged across the yard to the Starlink dish. We could still see a slight divot where it got buried.

The plan was to first dig up the dish and then see if we could free the attached data cable. The cable had been acting faulty since October, and we already had a replacement. This gave us peace of mind; if we couldn't dig it up, we could just use the new one. However, if we could retrieve it, we could follow the cable to find the router. The router was somewhere by the back corner of the house, about 30 feet away from the dish, and it doesn't have a heating element, so it was even more buried than the dish. We knew it could end up being a long treasure hunt.

Because the dish was only buried in the recent snow, we didn't need to do much shoveling before it appeared in a hollow cave. First mission: complete!

Only, when we tried to pull out the cord, it wouldn't budge. It was encased in ice. We wouldn't be able to follow it to find the router, but Nicole was confident. We knew its general area, between the back corner of the house and the woods. It needed to be in line-of-sight of the trailer. For the rest, Nicole said she'd just use her intuition. With a statement like that, how could Anthony not go along with it?! We trekked over to the corner of the house, and before she started digging, Nicole looked at her watch: 1:40pm. She wanted to know how long this endeavor would take. Time to go geocaching!

Nicole started digging while Anthony went to grab a second shovel to assist. Only, he barely made it to the side of the house before Nicole yelled, "Found it!" Time check: 1:42pm. Level of impressiveness: 10/10. Was it intuition, or a combination of remembering the router's whereabouts and the fact that it felt hollow where she started digging? She'll never tell.

The router was the main component, but we still needed to dig up the rest. There was the other end of the data cord, plus the power cord and power supply. Anthony grabbed the power cord and pulled. It came free without issue. Power supply, same thing. We were pleasantly perplexed. Might as well see if our good fortune would continue and try to free the data cord from the router side. Nicole grabbed the end, wrapped it in front of her, and used her bodyweight to pull it out of the ground, all the way back to the dish cave.

This time, there was no issue dislodging the other end from the ice. Mission accomplished!

Operation Starlink Retrieval was complete!

If you're wondering why we set Starlink up in the backyard in the first place, it was so we could use the house power and have the clearest view of the sky. Our parking spot is nestled in the trees, and in order to get unobstructed views, we would need to place the dish in the driveway. Since we certainly couldn't do that now, we opted for the next best thing: placing it on the truck. At this point, we would take interruptions over the alternative: no internet at all.

Turns out, we did need the new data cable after all. We got a notice that the old one wasn't connecting properly. Normally, we'd say it was due to its burial – they're not supposed to be "submerged in water" – but since we were having issues with it for months, we can't say if the snow hindered its functionality or not.

Once we connected the new cable, we were up and running, with surprisingly few interruptions. Winter helps with this because the trees are bare. We also need to attribute some of it to the constantly increasing number of satellites. Ironically, we went from having zero connectivity to the best connectivity we've had since we got back to the RV in November! We took this as a huge win. Unfortunately, we didn't get any others that day.

We headed back inside and immediately got to work disconnecting the bathroom light. We removed the LED, cut and stripped the wires, and wrapped them with electrical tape. The dripping had slowed down, so we were able to replace the pot with a towel. We'll need to cap the wires and use the over-sink bathroom light until further notice.

Remember when we said one leak was getting off easy? Turns out, we weren't so lucky. As we spent more time in the RV, we found 2 more leaks: one coming through the bedroom AC unit, and one dripping down our kitchen wall. For the AC leak, we removed the Wacko AC silencer and filter and placed a towel inside the unit. At least we won't be needing to use AC for a while! For the wall leak, we checked the nearby cabinets to make sure nothing was getting wet, but inside the cabinet was bone-dry. This was good news; the crack was likely right at the edge of the roof and causing drips along the edge. That leak is the smallest of them all, so we're just keeping an eye on it and sporadically wiping the wall dry.

What's the gameplan? Honestly, not much of one until we can get up on the roof. The snow and ice need to melt enough for us to safely place our ladder. We expect the leaks to worsen before then, as the roof snow starts to melt. We already have a couple other small leaks that come and go, so a thorough roof check will be necessary. Then we'll seal up all the holes and cracks we find, and eventually reconnect our bathroom light. We've had leaks before. We've needed to patch holes before (some very, very large). We've even gone months without a working bathroom ceiling light. We just need to focus on the fact that the damage isn't bad enough to make the trailer unlivable. We're okay.

On the home front, the house remained without power for 47 hours. Buggy served as a charging station, food truck, and cafe for Nicole's parents. That day, it snowed some more, just a dusting, but enough to add slipperiness to the remaining packed-down blizzard snow. It was nothing compared to the blizzard, but it did feel like a little middle finger from nature, letting us know we weren't out of the woods yet!

That leads us to the big questions: Is this it for winter storms? Will the snow melt enough for us to get out of here soon? Something remarkable has happened this winter. Turns out, these storms are the perfect cure for travel fatigue! We wanted stillness, and we got stillness. We embraced winter at first, but this is far too extreme for normal living, let alone RV living! We've had enough. We can't do anything about it yet, though. The snow needs to melt and the ground needs to dry enough to tow out of our parking spot. Even if nature opens a window, we still have all our non-weather circumstances to contend with: our job transitions, money situation, and elderly dog. But one thing is for sure: If nature does open a window, we will do everything in our power to be ready.