CELEBRATING MOTHERS DAY IN A SNOW STORM

Yes, the title is not a misprint. We had been in Colorado for about a week and had already experienced below normal temperatures and plenty of rain showers.  We had rain most of the day and night on the Friday and Saturday before Mother's Day. Around dinner time on Saturday, we watched the rain change to snow. When we woke up on Sunday morning, Mother's Day, there was about 8 inches of snow on the ground on May 10! Our picnic table was barely visible.

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Prelude: On the final 30 mile leg of our journey from Colorado Springs to Larkspur on May 1, we drove through heavy hail for about 15 miles. The hail was so loud on the roof that it was hard for us to hear each other. These weather conditions caused everyone to drive extra slowly on the highway, so we stayed behind an 18-wheeler while we drove to our destination. We could see the hail bouncing off the interstate highway and, within minutes, the hail was deep enough so that you could see tire tracks. This view is from the passenger seat of the motorhome. 

One afternoon about a week later, there was so much hail in Colorado Springs that the city had to use snow plows to plow the hail off the highways. Little did we know the month of May would be so wintry, with plenty of violent weather.   


Now, back to the snow. On Saturday night before Mother's Day, we went for a walk in the snow after dinner. We couldn't remember the last time we walked in a snow storm. Being residents of Florida, this is not something you can do everyday. The photo below was taken about an hour after the rain had changed to snow. The ground was wet from all the rain, and the snow was being blown around by some fairly strong winds.

The snow is even sticking to the back of Paul's raincoat.

When we returned to the motorhome, the snow was about an inch deep on our steps. With the door open, the inside of the motorhome sure looked warm and inviting.

On Sunday morning when we left for work, you can see how much more snow was on the steps of the motorhome.

Paul forgot something as we were leaving for wor,k so he walked back towards the motorhome. Look how deep his footprints are. Can you see his feet?

The snow covered everything. This close-up shows the snow piled on the windshield wipers, the passenger side mirror, and on the slide on the motorhome (left front of the part sticking out behind the mirror) and all over our car, including the bike rack in the back.

We saw this Christmas card view as we walked to work. You can barely see Boo Boo's box car on the right, the campground game room.

Even Yogi Bear was covered with snow. Is Yogi trying to make a snowball with the snow in his left hand?

There was snow on the campground sign with gray sky in the background. The front entrance of the campground was just beginning to get plowed as we walked to work at 7:30 in the morning. Notice the train approaching on the lower left of this photo. We will share more information about the trains in a later post.

After work, we returned to the campground and were alarmed to see the vinyl tops of the slides sagging so much that it looked as if they might tear.  They are meant to keep leaves, debris and rain off the slide itself but are not meant to hold several inches of wet, heavy snow.  So Ann, being the lighter person, was designated to climb on the motorhome roof and push the wet snow off the slide toppers with a broom, a nasty but necessary job.  Sunglasses were now needed to cut the glare off the snow.

We enjoyed this view is to the east from the campground. Raspberry Butte is covered in snow, but the sky is now blue at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

This day reminded us of the days when we lived in Pennsylvania prior to moving to Florida in 1973.  Winter weather was one of the big reasons we moved to Florida.