Brutal Cold

    We had some cool days in early December, but things went off the deep end with the temperature right as Christmas rolled in. We had Christmas dinner with my family on Christmas Eve. The high that day was 40 degrees, whereas it was 62 the previous day. We had church to start the morning, then had an afternoon dinner with the family. I rode over to the dinner. It was drizzling rain when I left. After studying the radar, I figured it would just be some light drizzle and then stop for the rest of my ride. I wore my amphibious waterproof tights just in case and that turned out to be a great decision. It poured on me about 10 minutes into the ride and lasted a good half hour. Then it stopped and the sun actually came out for a while as I climbed my way around Coopertown and Joelton, catching a few roads that I don't ride very often.

A scene from my wet Christmas Eve road ride.

     I took on one of the steepest descents in our area on Edgar Dillard Road and not only was it wet, but there was oil all over it. You could see it shining on top of the damp road. I made it down safely without incident and enjoyed the sunshine. Dark clouds were in the distance and caught up with me before I ended the ride. The final few minutes were in rain and then sleet. I got absolutely soaked and was getting really cold as I arrived for dinner. I don't think I would have made it were it not for those tights!

     We spent Christmas Day with my parents and Dina. We had breakfast, exchanged gifts and then went to the woods. We first spent some time shooting our guns as I got a box of ammo for my 9mm and targets to play with. Then we got on the mountain bikes and took some laps on a frozen trail as the temp never broke the freezing mark all day. 

     Cold temperatures make Christmas feel more like Christmas, but they decided to hang around this year. That was the start of over two weeks of high temperatures in the 20s and lows near 0, which is just crazy for December in Tennessee. We usually get a few days of those kinds of temperatures during the entire winter, but that is usually in February and nowhere near two weeks long.

    We trekked north to Indiana to visit Shannon's family for New Year's where it was even colder. I did another practice cross race at home before we left. It was 23 degrees during my ride, which I thought was cold. That turned out to be my last ride over on the neighbors' land before they moved out on December 31.

     It snowed on us for most of the drive to Indiana, getting heavier through Indy where traffic was a mess.

Plenty of snow on the ground near Kokomo, IN

     When we got to Elkhart, IN it was a whole 10 degrees. It didn't get above 15 degrees the whole time we were there. I didn't even bring a bike as I knew I wasn't going to be out in that kind of cold. I had ridden a good bit in the week before, so I could afford some rest from the bike anyway. The Toneys have been working hard on their remodel project. Our room had drywall this time and the bathroom is now complete.

This bedroom looks a lot different than it did in August when it was just a few studs and a toilet.

Finished bathroom. Love the sink!

     It snowed almost every day while we were there and was brutally cold. We did not get to go see the part of the family in Michigan as there was a big lake-effect snowstorm in South Haven that took place nearly the entire time we were there. The last morning we wanted to get out into the snow and do some sledding at the local park. It was -13 degrees that morning and the sled park was closed because the local news was reporting wind chill readings of up to -34 degrees. We were determined to get out in it though. We settled for making designs in the snow in the backyard. There was a good eight inches on the ground so we had plenty to play in. Shannon made some snow angels and then we made snow circles like crop circles. 

Snowy view out the front door our first morning in Indiana

The backyard on our last morning as we ventured out to play in the snow.

Shannon's snow angel

Our "crop circles" in the snow.

A little bit of southern Utah influence on this one.

It doesn't take long to accumulate some ice crystals on your eyelashes at -13 degrees.

     It was up to a balmy -10 when we left Elkhart. The electronics on our car went nuts and we had all kinds of warning lights going on and off until the car got warm. Driving south usually warms the temperature quickly, but it was still below 0 all the way to Indy, even in the warmest part of the day. It was only about 20 degrees when we got home, but it sure felt better than -13!

Driving through Indy and still showing sub-zero temps

     It was a crazy Christmas and New Year's week to end 2017 and begin 2018. I'll post some stats from 2017 in the next post and close out the year now that 2018 is already 1/3 over.