Not a reasonable "oh, I can put on a sweater" cold. Not like rosy-cheeked cups of cocoa around the fire cold. It's bitingly, bitterly cold, with a windchill of zero degrees. As Ron White said, when asked what the temperature was, "There doesn't appear to be one."
We stopped in a small backwoods town called Vernon, which apparently was the location of a documentary in the 80's. It was ever-so-originally titled "Vernon, Florida". We ate at Dee's Diner which served up fried meat and pickles in truly mind boggling quantities. The waitress warned us of the incoming cold front in a slow Southern drawl, with temperatures supposed to drop to 17 degrees overnight, with a windchill below zero.
We slept at a Water Management District area last night. These are all over the state and are similar to our forestry areas, with long, sandy backroads leading off in all directions. The dominant vegetation here is some type of pine, puny little thin sticks with tufts of long needles on top. I had seen similar pines in the forests of Idaho, but they look out of place here when surrounded by white sand, palm fronds, and climbing vines.
As we drove down one sandy track we let Jax out to stretch his legs. He ran ahead and we paced him in the van as going 15 miles per hour! He ran until his tongue lolled out and he collapsed into a happily panting pile back inside the warm confines of our steel abode.
The land outside has been eroded by past rains. We found a shotgun shell on a pillar of earth, and tiny miniature Martian landscapes less than an inch tall.
As the temperature fell outside, we passed the time by drinking cheap beer and playing Backgammon. We watched a few episodes of "An Idiot Abroad" before falling asleep. It's a hilarious British TV show about a very unwilling man being sent abroad to see the 7 wonders of the world. I highly recommend it!
When we woke up in the morning the world was frozen solid. It had indeed fallen to 17 degrees, and possibly even colder, in the night. My water bottle had been sitting in the footwell of the passenger seat and was completely frozen. We passed a fountain that had formed itself into an intricate ice cascade when someone carelessly left it running through the night.
Today was a day for errands, including the purchase of a second house battery to run in paralell with our current one. This will give us greater lengths of time between necessary charges, and let us stay out in the boonies even longer! Tonight we're headed to the Apalachicola National Forest to wait out the last cold day before the weather breaks.
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