snowbird (noun): one who travels to warm climates for the winter
Everyone pays attention to the weather. Some go to the trouble to complain when it's bad. Like birds, some folks even migrate, spending summer wherever they call 'home' and moving south to better weather in winter.
Not many are willing to travel constantly in search of only the finest weather.
I can't help myself. I hate the heat. Um, and the cold.
Being born in Wisconsin, it's not that I can't deal with cold. Twice during my first 10 years we dealt with a temperature of -42F. For those of you keeping score, that's only -41C, since the two scales merge at -40. On any scale, it's cold.
Heat? I've coped with heat. Seven years of the dry heat of Sacramento, reaching 115 some summers, and 110 nearly all of them. But then, that's a dry heat, as everyone seems to love to say. I also endured seven years of Texas heat; days of 110 degrees and, literally, 100% humidity. The air is holding as much moisture as it possibly can; if there were any more moisture it would have to take a rain check. If you don't have air conditioning, you lay around gasping like you're a fish. Which, considering the air's water content, might not be a bad idea.
I've known people who thrived on extreme heat. I've known people who, given the choice, moved from San Diego, California, to northern Wisconsin. (Hi, Mom!)
Not me.
Humans spend an enormous amount of time and money creating living spaces to protect us from extreme weather. During our seven years in Roseville, a suburb of Sacramento, we dealt with months where we were sealed up in the house to prevent the furniture from melting. I've watched folks in colder places huddle by the fire, praying for summer.
Not me.
Those months in the airtight chambers of our house drove Best Beloved and I mad. We love air; space; light; room to move. More specifically, we love fresh air at a temperature fit for breathing. We love light that gently warms, not fiercely scorches.
We like a roof over our head, but otherwise, we'd sorta like living outdoors. We're determined to be where the weather invites rather than punishes.
Some of you will now point out that we used to live in San Diego, and we left. Doesn't southern California have perfect weather all the time?
Well, no; it doesn't. San Diegans all know about 'June gloom'; the marine layer of clouds that hangs like a pall over the coastal plain for the early summer. You can go days without seeing the sun. It doesn't rain; that would damage San Diego's status as a desert. (Note: the largest desert in the world is not the Sahara, as many believe, but the Great Southwestern Desert of the United States; start from the southwest corner and expand, oh, a lot; it's all desert, with less than 10" of rainfall a year, and in some years, no measurable rainfall at all.)
If you average San Diego's temperatures year 'round, it's not bad. But we don't live by averages, we live day by day. Knowing that the humid 87-degree day in August is balanced by the cold wet 53-degree spring day doesn't improve either of them.
No, I want great weather, outdoor weather, writing-in-a-lawn-chair weather all the time.
So, we're nomads.
Best Beloved and I packed up our Little One and our laptops and took to the road, working as unpaid house sitters, staying with friends, working anywhere there's an internet connection. We're not RVers; we're just nomads. We don't take our home with us; we find a new one as often as necessary.
House sitting means we go where someone is taking a vacation. When we first discussed it, folks suggested we'd be getting the worst weather all the time, since vacations tend to be time away from the bad weather. (Some new friends who live in Wisconsin take a week in Hawaii or California every winter just to break the frigid monotony.)
Yes, you might expect that we'd be settling for the worst weather wherever we house sit, while our hosts are off basking in perfection.
That's not how I roll. When I make a plan, I shoot for the moon. I'll settle for landing in the stars, but I don't aim for almost what I want.
I mentioned the heat in Sacramento; August is excruciating. Vancouver, BC, Canada, on the other hand, tends toward 73 degrees, which is not bad at all (and 40 degrees lower than Sacramento.)
Guess where we spent August this year? Three weeks in a gorgeous restored Victorian in a suburb of Vancouver, away from the heat of Sacramento.
Pioneer RV Park in Phoenix, AZ
We're hoping to spend two months of summer in Albuquerque, up in the foothills. A little warmer than perfect, but certainly not Texas or Sacramento. We'll be spending January and February in Phoenix, Arizona. We are not likely to either overheat or freeze.
We spent a month in Quebec, just east of Montreal, this fall. Glorious fall colors, brisk but beautiful weather. It snowed one night. We threw snow balls. It had the decency to melt away like a happy dream before we had to drive that afternoon, which we did on dry clear roads.
It takes adjusting, and we don't always hit it right. Our latest visit with my Mom was nearly a weather faux pas. The last three days it snowed, and the temperature dropped to preposterous single-digit numbers. Though Sioux Falls, South Dakota was next on our itinerary, we bagged it and headed south to Kansas City. Though the wind blew like a freight train all the way across Kansas to Denver, the sun was warm and pleasant. In the past couple weeks, we've rarely had weather requiring either shorts or heavy jackets. I aim to keep it that way.
I'm writing this in San Diego. The day we arrived, it was 87 degrees. Then it was 73 degrees. Today, it's supposed to be 62 degrees. Tomorrow, it's supposed to rain.
I can't wait to get out of this perfect (on average) weather for someplace, well, less average.
Joel D Canfield is a business author who, with his Best Beloved Sue, trains virtual workers to turn their existing skills into truly portable businesses. When they're done seeing the rest of the world they plan to settle in the west of Ireland, where, like Solla Sollew, the weather is Goldilocks-approved year 'round.
RVParking.com Picks for Locations Mentioned in this Post
Sacramento West/Old Town KOA, West Sacramento CA
"Nice enough park just outside the city limits." Read more.
Enchanted Trails RV Park & Trading Post, Albuquerque, NM
"Not a bad place to stay if you don't mind being near the freeway and 8miles from downtown. Management is friendly, sites are level and the facilities are clean (although the hot tub was broken when we visited)." Read more.
Phoenix-Metro RV Park, Phoenix, AZ
"Small park...great customer service...very friendly...nice outdoor pool and hot tub...nice and clean restrooms/showers and laundry facilities." Read more.
Pioneer RV Park, Phoenix, AZ
"With over 500 sites, most are seasonal and/or monthly but they have many that are dedicated to the daily and weekly rentals that are level, long pull through sites for the every size rig. A very accommodating and friendly staff. Nice size laundry facilities and restrooms/showers that are kept very clean. The activity center has something going on all the time and so many things to do, you could never get bored around here." Read more.
