Here Comes The Sun and Making Other Plans

Another year has come and gone and I find myself still in Las Vegas.  I obviously had other plans.  Yet here I sit.  When I first started my trip I experienced delay after delay.  I guess that is where the phrase “life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans” comes from.  An interesting parallel to the last time that I tried to get out of Dodge is illness.  While I was trying to leave last time I got sick.  I got pneumonia and had to have surgery to have a tumor removed.  This time I again am having trouble with my health.  I never knew a nasal infection could knock you off your feet.  I had to go to the emergency room and have been on antibiotics for the last week.  I still have not knocked out the infection and will need to go back to the doctor. 

The problem with Las Vegas is that it is either too hot or too cold.  There are a couple of windows of descent weather during the year.  Round about October you get a couple of months of mild weather.  In late November it starts to get cold.  The weather stays cold until early March.  I know Vegas cold is not really cold.  I talking about into the 30’s at night.  Vegas rarely see snow and if it does snow it never stays around for any length of time.  Then a couple of months of mild weather until your reach May.  About mid May the temperature starts to reach into the nineties. Soon thereafter the weather gets to the 100’s.  The first year that I was here there were 110 consecutive days of plus 100 temperatures.

Las Vegas hot is not everywhere else hot.  There is hardly any humidity in Vegas.  This translates into a less of an impact when the temperature reaches into the 100’s.  The sun itself is brutal.  It you’re in the shade no problem.  But in direct sun light, you’re toast.  Staying out of the sun is important in Vegas.  I know people who reverse their schedules in the summer.  They sleep during the day and live their lives at night.  

The particular problem that I face is that it is very hard to live in a motor home during a stretch of 100 degree days.  A motor home is a metal box with a few small holes in it.  The temperature is magnified inside the motor home.  If it is 100 degrees outside, it is 140 degrees in the motor home.  I have roof fans that help with this problem.  I can leave my roof fans on during the day and they circulate the air and prevent the buildup of a heat load.  But it is still 100 degrees plus in the motor home.  It is almost a necessity to plug in during the summer.  This means I need to spend $450 to park the motor home.  

I have considered moving up in elevation.  Flagstaff is not too far from here and it is at a higher elevation.  The temperature is milder there and because of the elevation the nighttime temperature drops to a very comfortable sleeping range.  The problem is that I would have nothing to do the rest of the time. 

Decision, decisions.  I probably need to make other plans and see what happens.