Traveling with the Weather

How many times has the weather ruined your vacation? I bet it's been more than once! Join us today as we discuss what to look out for (weather related) when planning any road trip or vacation in the US. And you guys can just go ahead and call us snowbirds because that's what we're aiming for in our future travels!

Transcript

We're the Essary family and we're exploring America one destination at a time on this episode of TravelEssary . We are going to discuss traveling with the weather let's chat.  

Welcome and thank you for joining us on this episode. As we talk about traveling with the weather. And this is going to be very general. And then we're going to break it down into some specific topics. Um, that we actually got to experience on one of our vacations that we just recently did. And we're super excited to talk about it and we're going to be also joined by a special guest today. Tori our Otis say hi, Tori. Hello, everyone. She has some experience as far as traveling with the weather as well. 

And so we're going to bring her input into this so that we can get as much diverse. Information as we can possibly get to help y'all 

and one of the things that I want to start this off with is traveling. With the weather in the United States of America, because.  America is so vast. I mean, it's the third largest country in the world is the third populous country in the world. And it's so diverse in almost everything that you could possibly think of. I mean, we have the Arctic, we have subtropical, we have rainforest, we have arid deserts. 

We have  rugged mountain peaks. We have flat Prairie's. I mean, you name it. We have it. We have coastal. Everything. You can find as far as the different regions here in America and . There's such a vast difference from one thing to another. 

Yeah. I actually saw this map on social media the other day. And it was just of the United States and it was showing how you could travel all year long. And stay within like a 65 to 75 degree temperature range just within the U S. , but we do get the really extreme, hot. You know, we're from Texas. 

So we know it gets hot, Texas, Arizona, Florida. But then we get really cold too. You have a Laska and you have Michigan. It gets really cold and in the Northern states, but there is a way. To travel where you can stay in that 70 degree. Tamps almost all year long. And that just sounds like the life to me.  That does sound like.  Something that we're definitely going to be trying to do. But, you know, Ms. 

Stephens was talking about how hot it is here. And yes, it gets extremely hot. But yet you travel one state away. Into New Mexico, or even if you go into Arizona, two states away.  Their heat is totally different from our heat. Like temperature wise, it could be , three to 10 degrees hotter over there. But it's a different type of heat than it is here in Texas. And the same thing with the coastal. 

You can go from South Carolina, which we've been to, or you can go to the coastal in Florida and it's totally different. The water's different. The temperature is different.   Just the way that , it changes just within the states of the United States is.  I mean something that's really unique.  I think the more west you go, the drier, the arrogance, and the more east you go, the more humid it tends to get. 

Like, if you're traveling into. New Mexico and Arizona, it's definitely a dryer heat, or even a dry or cool than it is here in Texas. But once you head into Florida, it is so much more humid or even Louisiana. That is one state over is quite a bit more humid than it is here in central Texas. We've just had some of those trips where we've gone to different places,  you're like, oh, it's gotta be 70 there. 

And there's 70 degrees is totally different than what Texas 70 degrees is just because of the humidity and I know that Tori has some insight into this, but going up north, like into where did you go? Was it Michigan, Minnesota? I went to Wisconsin, Wisconsin. 

Okay. And.  Even at like in the same month where we're still here in Texas and you go up north, like there was what. Almost 20 degrees of difference. Oh, yeah, it was like a hundred degrees here, July 20, 23. And I went up there and it was probably like in the 60 seventies, it was really nice. 60 seventies. Here in Texas, we get sixties and seventies for like two weeks.  Throughout the year, just because of how drastic our weather is. 

You know, the old saying is , if you don't like the weather in Texas, just stick around a couple of hours, it's going to change. And.  We're going through.  Some changes even right now . In Texas, because we're kind of in February and it is. It's up and down. Yeah, it's really extreme. 

Two days ago, it was 80 degrees. 80 degrees. And two days from now, it's supposed to be 13 degree.  So, yes, it does get quite extreme. I think that's where most places, I don't know why. We as Texans think. Our weather is so special and unique, but I think that's true for most states in general, you go through. Some extremes, depending on what kind of friends are coming through and things like that. 

There's definitely. Parts of the country though. That you want to avoid during certain times of the year. 

Yeah, because during the summertime, Wisconsin, it's absolutely beautiful, but you would not catch me there during the winter. It is too cold for . My liking. And especially us Texans or anyone really down south who is here during the summertime. We like the heat. , we like  for it to be a certain degree. You know, kind of on the hotter side, my perfect temperatures are like around 80. With a light breeze, just because I like it warm. 

I don't want to be cold. And there's other people that have either moved down from Texas or move to Texas, or have migrated down here that. The summertime is too hot for them and they have to go somewhere else whenever. Whenever she was talking about Wisconsin. It reminded me. We just spent, you know, our week in south Padre. In February and half of the license plates there said Minnesota or Wisconsin. 

Well, I'm going to go with more than half because I believe that there was a lot of Texas license plate, but those people are going to work there anyways. But people that are actually like there for vacation, like we were definitely the minority as far as people on vacation. Right. It was all north people.  And they, they do that because they're traveling with the weather because they don't like. The other extreme, right. So, unless you're looking for maybe a white Christmas. Something like that. Um, the Northern states may be a place you would not want to visit or travel to or through in the winter time. 

 That brings up a really good point because whenever you travel with the weather, it's all going to depend on where in. The calendar year, what season? We're in. Of where you're going to go. Right, because if you were to hit those states during the winter time, and one, you're not used to driving in winter weather conditions, it could be an issue and you have to do things to prep your car. 

You have to put chains on your tires and there's, there's all kinds of things that you have to do and know in order to drive through. You know, some pretty severe wintery and cold weather. And like, if you're going to be staying in an RV, which we're starting to talk about that a lot more, you have to prep your RV, cause your pipes are gonna freeze. 

And the heating is different. Like they'll use different sources of heating you than we do here in the south because they need more heat than we do. It's a, it's a whole thing. I mean, it's a whole thing. Even going up north into most cities, they have either an ordinance or a rule or a law that you have to clean off the driveways and sidewalks from the snow. 

So you're going to have to go out and you've got to go. We'll take care of all that extra stuff. If you go on the wintertime now, like Missy said, if you're going and that's your destination and you want to go, like, we want to spend.   Uh, Christmas, maybe not an extended stay, but a Christmas. In.  The upper north United States, where there is snow, because I, I can count on one hand.  That there was snow on the ground in Texas on Christmas is a very rare sight during Christmas. 

That usually comes late January, early February.  And so going up north, we would love to travel up there. To get a.  A white Christmas.  But we don't want to stay there because it's too cold.  Going back to what my mom said about the chains on the tires that does not sound appealing in Texas. Thank God. 

If it gets too cold, most of our schools and our works, they closed down. So we're able to spend that time.  In her house, just cozying up. To a book or a movie.  Yeah. I mean, that's one of those things that we actually get made fun of from Lakeside. To say the same thing. Everyone there there'll be memes all over Facebook. 

Like it's going to be below 30 degrees. Texas is shutting down. Yes, it's true because. Uh, for the most part, unless you're up in the panhandle where they get a lot more of the winter weather than we do. Uh, our infrastructure is not prepared for ice and snow and really extreme cold weathers. We're just not prepared for it because it's such a rare thing. 

It does seem to be. Coming more common.  I believe it's coming more common, I don't remember such extreme winters when I was a child. As what we're having now. That's because we just stayed at home and played on video games or watch movies all day. 

 I really feel like it's gotten colder, but for the most part, we're just not prepared for it. Um, you know, I read about. Countries that don't have air conditioner. And to me that's such a foreign concept, but I guess if they don't have the heats that we have here down in the south, it makes sense in Texas is kind of like that we. We don't normally get extreme winter weather conditions. 

And so we're just not prepared for it. I'm going to go beyond the  Even some Northern states in certain parts. Do not have ACS. So whenever we're traveling up north and in the summer, they're not going to have AC, right? They don't get those hot temperatures like we do here.  And so they just opened up a window. Yeah, that is such a foreign concept to me. 

Like I can't imagine life without AC, but down here we have electric heaters. Um, the vast majority of us do right. Have there. They have boilers and furnaces, right. And it's just a totally different way to combat the extreme weather that we have. Yeah. So on the flip side, In the summer, the Northern states, maybe where you want to travel because here in Texas and in, you know, Uh, New Mexico, Arizona, Louisiana, you. The really Southern states that are really south. Um, it's like you're living in the pit of hell. 

Sometimes in summertime we have had 40 plus days of a hundred plus degree weather. Like several years in a row.  No rain. That's with hardly any reprieve, like any kind of cloud covering or anything like that. It was just straight up heat. And that makes your night temperatures. There were steel in the low nineties. So it's not like we ever got any kind of real break from the extreme heat that we went through.  She was just talking about traveling up north during the summer. 

And that summer that I did in summer 20, 23 to Wisconsin, whenever I got off the airplane, it was like refreshing the air whenever it hit me. But whenever I came back home to Texas, it was like someone was blowing a blow dryer in my face. When I got off the plane, it was very dry.  Yeah, I can only imagine if you're not. From America. Um, we have a lot of international listeners and thank you guys for tuning in every week. 

We have 13 countries that tune in every week minimum. So thank you guys, but if you're not from America and you're going to come visit America and you're from a country that. Your temperature is so cool or mild that you don't have AC. Um, you might want to avoid our Southern states in the summer, because like she said, once you come off of that plane, That heat and that humidity is going to punch you in the face. 

I've actually heard of people that have came over where they've came with like little light jackets on to help do their thing. And as soon as they stepped out, either in Texas or in Florida, They like shed, all of that. Like they had too many layers on because.  It was very comfortable for them where they were coming from. 

And then they come into heat and humidity and it was just so overwhelming that they immediately. Had to start shedding things. That reminds me of one of our Disney world vacations. Yes. We thought it was so lovely outside. It was like 88 degrees with some mild humidity, you know, what's Florida. There's always going to be rain and humidity. And we thought it was such a lovely day and we were standing in line and these people from the UK were dying.  Like sweat, just pouring off. They were like, it's so hot. 

It's.  Sorry for them. And they did. I mean, their faces were red and like Jeremy said, they were sweating. They were, they were not having a grand time and we thought it was pretty nice temperature.  Beautiful for us, because that was kind of when we were going through.  One of the extreme droughts that, that Texas has kind of on a rotating schedule. 

Um, and. They were just pouring drenched with sweat. They were not having a good time. You could tell that they were getting tired. 

 And here in the U S it's not just temperatures that you need to be aware of certain time of the year. There's different weather type of situations that you might want to avoid. Um, if you're going to come. The east coast or the Gulf coast during the fall time, you, you have a good chance of running into hurricanes. 

Yes,

we're always looking out into the east coast to figure out where the tropical storms that could be building up, um, where they're going to be landing hitting.  One of the reasons you might want to avoid those, like planning a vacation. During, you know, We'll call them hurricane hotspots during the fall time is because you may have to be evacuated. And that hotel, Airbnb, everything that you've paid for, you're not going to get your money back on it, unless you have some sort of travelers insurance. 

Yeah. So any of the activities that you do that you will not be able to get to do because either high winds or because of torrential rain or something like that. I mean, Most of those, don't give  refunds. We're from Texas, but we don't live along the Gulf coast. So we, we personally don't have to deal with hurricane season. 

Um, there was one time we went to South Carolina. And a hurricane, which turned into a tropical storm came through. And that was probably the most intense hurricane, I guess we can say we've been through it. Well, there is one and one time we were in Disney world, a tropical storm came through. But I don't think we've ever been anything. Higher than a tropical storm, but, um, the weather did get pretty intense there, you know, trees and lambs all over the road. 

When we woke up the next morning, a tornado spawned from it. Uh, but luckily there wasn't, you know, flooding or, um, you know, life-threatening situations, rough. They didn't evacuate anyone or anything. Uh, it was a tropical storm in South Carolina that came through then I'm so glad that it came through during the nighttime and not during the daytime. But you could see, so. It didn't mess up our beach. The super days, but they were so. And I don't want to say accustomed to, but they had a really good plan of action in place. That we went out that afternoon after the storm to go get some lunch and everything was cleared. They have taken care of the trash and debris that was blown around. 

Same thing in Florida, whenever the tropical storms came through and whenever the tornado happened. They didn't shut down Disney world or anything like that. And so you were able to continue on your vacation, but  there is a good chance that during one of those times,  Something in your vacation is going to get messed up.  

Yeah. And then, you know, speaking of tornadoes, if you are in tornado alley, Specifically? Um, well actually, In Texas, we get tornadoes all year round. I don't know. Some people are aware of that, but because our weather does vary, we get tornadoes all year round, but for the most part, the most big. Um, excessive dangerous tornadoes happen in April and may. Throughout the year in tornado alley and  um, if you're not from the United States or even from those regions, you may not realize, but tornadoes are the least of our issues. 

During that time of the year, the main concern we have is hell storms. HealthSource does play a massive role in.  Pretty much our livelihood down here,  a hailstorm can come through. And decimate an entire crop. Really easy. 

We've seen quarter size. So us American quarter size. Which isn't bad. We're like, that's nothing. We'll go. You know, through a normal routine with quarter size hell and not thinking anything about it, or even marble size. 

It's not really that big a deal to us. But you start getting into the bigger ones. You start getting into the golf balls.  Those start causing some damage.  It's not unheard of to have baseball. So major league baseball. You know, that's the size of hell. But we've even seen him go up to softball or even grapefruit. Those are massive. 

Those do damage beyond they come through roofs.  They decimate a car. There's nothing you can do to protect your car. Whenever something like that comes through. They've destroyed houses. , it almost looks like a tornado came through with just the destruction that happens. 

And it's even so much that it even looks like snow on the ground sometimes.  Well, unless people want that car payment. That's not, it's not very good for us.  Yeah, you definitely want to make sure you have that full coverage on your Gar. Um, we've actually one time we had our whole family.  Was in  one location when these. Three hailstorms in one day three. Within hours within four hours of each other and five vehicles in the driveway were total that day, total, the roof was totaled. Uh, there were several windows that were broken that had to be replaced. Like someone just came through the sledgehammer and like smashed in windows and hoods. 

And it was it's crazy. So I'm not going to say you don't want to visit tornado alley Darren spring time because it's a beautiful time to come. Especially here with the blue bonnets and all the wild flowers. It's a beautiful, it's the most pleasant time of the year to visit temperature wise. So I don't want it to say, oh, don't come to this area on the spring because. Any other time he come, the temperature's not going to be that great, but, um, make sure you have your weather alerts set up so that if there is extreme weather, you can seek safety if you need to. 

So what are we talking about? Looking at weather.  During the certain times, especially the times that we've talked about whether it's hurricane season or tornado season. The national weather or the local weather, wherever you're at, they are tuned into that. They know that season. They know what to be looking for. They usually do a really good job to give you as much information as possible so that you can either plan or alter your vacation to make it the best vacation you can still have while something  out of the blue might happen. 

A tornado does one of those things out of the blue. Uh, hurricanes more like you could see it coming. Yeah. And if you do visit, you know, tornado alley area during, especially during April, may there, there are other months of the year that we get it. But I feel like April and may have been our most extreme tornadoes, like just wiped out entire towns. And also when we get like some of the biggest hell storms that come through, if you are going to visit. During that time. Um, Do some research of what to do in those types of situations, because if you've never been through a hell storm or a tornado,  one, am I, you know, freak you out? At first and your adrenaline is going to start pumping. 

You're going to get scared and not know what to do. But, um, there are a lot of things on YouTube or articles online. Um, like Jeremy said, you can go to the national weather alert system. You can sign up for. , to get notifications, text messages to come through on your phone. If you're in an area that has something. But research know what to do in a tornado.  If you're caught on the highway and a tornado comes through, you need to know what to do. 

A lot of people want to hit those underpasses or something like that. And that's one of the worst things that you can do. So do some research. If you are going to come to this area for the first time. Um, Darien spring  and know what to do if you're going to be in one specific location during that time, find out where the emergency shelters are. 

So if you need to run to a local emergency shelter, you're able to do so.  , let's talk about. How to travel. With the weather. Now, especially here in the United States.  There are certain months wintertime. 

You want to be down south. And the summertime you want to go up north, but there's also times in between where you want to hit some of those mid states. And it all depends. I mean, we have two mountain ranges. One on each side of the, of the United States. 

 So just be very mindful on where you go and kind of plan it out. I mean, you can definitely stay in the seventies and eighties. 

You could definitely stay in , really nice temperatures and you can always hit the beautiful stuff. 

We've dreamed about going up.  Two. Upper state. That is like, one of my goals that's my dream is to become a snowbird. A snowbird is the ones that we call people who follow the warm weather, basically. So if you're going north in the summer and you're getting mild temperatures and nice weather, and then you're going south as far south, as you can, during the winter, you're hitting south Padre, you're hitting the Florida keys. 

You know, you're going. As far south as you can to stay within that moderate temperature regions. Uh, that's definitely a goal of mine. Whenever I saw that map the other day it has the dates of where you need to be at, um, certain parts of the United States. And what days to keep within that weather range. 

And that may be a road trip. We have to take one year.

And that is something that we are definitely trying to, we're trying to do. I mean,

the more we travel. And the more that we've experienced, like going to south Padre and February going to South Carolina in July. I mean, there's no way I'm going to go to Galveston in July, but I will go to South Carolina. On the coast in July, just because of how the different temperature is, but you're still getting beautiful weather and you're still getting awesome water temperatures. 

And it's a really great. Or even going up north into Wisconsin during the summertime where it's mild , We're definitely looking forward to that. Definitely looking forward to going to  Washington and places like that. Whenever it's warm 

, south Padre, the Florida keys during winter time. And you're looking at 75 degree temperatures. You can't beat that. 

Yeah, no, that sounds pretty good. You definitely can't beat that.  Whatever you can wear your bathing suit all year round. There's nothing better than that.  Go ahead and call me a snowbird guys.  We're definitely going to be going in that direction. 

 And whenever we move into the RV and we start traveling that way. This is something we're going to try to stay on top of, for sure, because.  Whenever you live in an RV, of course, you know, your,  insulation of how well, you know, your house is going to be insulated, kind of drops off a little bit. And so we want to stay in those mild temperatures to make it a whole lot easier on the RV, either to cool or to heat that way we're not running into extremes. Yeah. The weather is something that we've really been looking into  since we're going to be traveling in an RV, extended, extended travel here in an RV pretty soon. Um, whether it's something that I have been researching. Quite a bit, because like we said, I don't want to go winter in the north and have to worry about pipes freezing, and  I don't want to die in this, in this.  I mean, we do already, but. I'd like to not have to do that anymore in the summertime. 

So we've been doing so much research of, you know, what places in the United States has the best weather at what times of the year. And if you're looking to do activities, especially outdoor activities, , check into the weather of where, you know, you really plan to be, that will, you're not miserable, either freezing or just burning up. Because the United States weather fluctuates so much. But you can still have an amazing, wonderful trip. 

  And we love traveling. And all types of weather. Unless it's 12 foot of snow.  I don't know what you're talking about. We don't travel on all types of weather. I don't want to be cold. I don't want to be in a hurricane. I don't want to be hot anymore. Almost every summer of my life. . Um, you know, this is information that's.  Necessary, even for us who live in the United States, talking about traveling all of the U S I'm here pretty soon. It's information that's necessary because if you're going to pay for a vacation and you're going to, you know, do all the things that it takes to make a trip, you don't want to go and be miserable because you were not prepared or have knowledge of how the weather was going to go. 

So I think people know they want to spend their money and have a good time. And if you can't do that because you're too afraid to drive on ice or you're too hot to go outside, or you're being evacuated because of a hurricane. Uh, it kind of puts a damper on your not. Your vacation on your trip.  

 Next week we are going to share. Some of our personal tips and tricks of how we save money. When we travel, we get asked all the time. How do you guys afford going to. A trip once a month, all the time.  Oh, which, um, you know, we really don't spend that much money. Uh, according to the, to the us  government, we are actually on the low income. 

So it's not like we are just, you know, Flying high and live in life of luxury. If you, if you knew us at all, you knew that's not the case, but we have found things throughout. Our travels and our experiences that, um, allows us to travel rather inexpensive. So join us next week. As we chat about that.