WINTER GETAWAY 2026 - We Were Safe From Storms in Oklahoma... But WISCONSIN Wasn't!

We left the stormy weather at the south end of Hugo Lake by Kiamichi Park.  We just couldn't take those high winds anymore plus we were underneath some dangerous looking trees.  The storm gusts coming across Texas and Oklahoma were originally straight from the south. During the night they were due to swing around and come from the north. That type of upheaval really means we shouldn't be parked under any trees anywhere.

But being right out in the open has its dangers too. The winds were battering us so badly at Kiamichi that we were scared our slide toppers we're going to rip right off the motorhome.  We did pull in the one slide with the living room loveseat, to help protect that. But the rear slide is also our bed and it's pretty hard to sleep on a folded up queen size mattress when there's two of us and a dog! LOL

We were glad that we pulled into Rattan Landing up on the North side above Hugo Lake. This campground is still part of the Corps of Engineers system, but is located a little further north of the lake on the Kiamichi River instead. 

We found nice beautiful clear open sites along the river. We had our choice of any one of them because there wasn't anybody else in the campground.

We went online to pay for our site, but because our America the Beautiful Senior Access Pass was already tied up with the previous reservation, we did have to pay full price here for the night.  So instead of the discounted $9 rate, we had to pay the full $18. On top of that, we were already still paying for the site over at Kiamichi which is another $9 we had already paid. We will wait to see if they contact us back about a refund due to weather conditions. (On edit - they didn't)

Most of the sites along the river were level and many were pull-through. We were happy to have the wide open space around us and no overhanging trees.

The river was down this grassy embankment. It was running a little high, due to all the rain from the day or two before. But the birds were singing and it was lovely sitting here in the sunshine and soaking it all in.  It was still windy, with some pretty heavy gusts. But at least we felt safer here than at the previous place.

While I started cooking dinner, Nick was all confused why we had moved again. So we had to take him outside so he could sniff sniff sniff and explore the new area.  That is the most entertaining thing for a dog to be able to do when traveling. At each stop, getting out to sniff new things is pretty exciting!

While we were all curled up and safe from the storms at this particular time of the day, we tuned in to the various weather channels showing what was going on back at home. We knew that the blizzard was hitting the Midwest, and we could see things on our security cameras that were definitely more exciting than the wind we were suffering with down in Texas and Oklahoma.

LOOK AT OUR BACKYARD!

We were watching record-breaking snows blasting wisconsin. Our home received 30 inches of snow over a period of two days.

I have more videos of the storm on my YouTube link below at the end of the blog. 

Of course the schools were closed, as well as almost every business and grocery store and gas station in our small town. It was the same all throughout Wisconsin. Basically, Wisconsin was CLOSED. Except for the essential workers, everyone was told to stay home and stay inside. Even the snow plows were getting stuck, and the big front end loaders and skid loaders couldn't get them out. 

The next morning, our neighbors took this photo of our house from their front porch. Because it was blowing so much, the wind was drifting and pushing up the snow in huge drifts on our roof and front porch. Unbelievable!

The snow was plastered tight to the front of our garage on the doors and even on the siding. There was a huge drift 3-4 ft deep directly across the entire driveway. It was going to take quite some work for us to be able to get that stuff moved. 

The snow was plastered tight all around the house from every direction. The danger is that it can cover over the exhaust and intake pipes for our gas furnace. Although we had the thermostat set down about 50°, the furnace still needs to operate safely to keep our water lines and toilets etc. from freezing.  We have the water shut off at the main valve, but there is still danger of freezing the pipes even without pressure. Our wonderful neighbor to the south of us went over and dug away around our pipes repeatedly throughout the storm to keep them clear. Each time he would text us and ask us to kick up our furnace on the Wi-Fi connection to be sure it was still operating. Technology is really handy!!!

On the other side of our house is a natural gas meter. The utilities company put out warnings to be sure to remove all snow from around the gas meter because there is a small vented valve that needs to be clear. 

So our other neighbor on the other side went over and cleared that area around the gas meter for us. It was buried underneath all the snow right where this arrow is pointing!

We have such wonderful neighbors! 

Here is one of them, whom shall remain nameless, but gave me permission to put his photo in this blog. He was going in and out of his house in shifts to try to keep ahead of the storm with his snow blower. His efforts were pretty futile and it took him many hours just to try to keep his driveway open.

Our kids and grandkids over on the east side of the state near Lake Michigan were totally snowed in. Fortunately, their power never went out. They heat their home with a wood stove and they were quite cozy, regardless. Even if it had gone out, they were prepared. It took them two days of shoveling to even get anywhere near getting out their truck. And then another day to try and shovel out their car. This had been totally buried and they hand shoveled all of it away to get around the car.  Plus they have a long long driveway to get out to their little country road that wasn't even plowed yet either.

Our other kids and grandkids here in town went to work trying to clear the sidewalk and the driveway around their house. You can see 9-year-old Claire, the snow is up to her shoulder!!!  The kids had fun though, there was no school for two days and they could burn up their energy by getting outside and helping with the snow removal.

Here is our son-in-law, trying to even make the smallest dent in the drifted snow in front of their home.  He tried to get to work down in Green Bay, and had to turn around at the edge of town and come right back. The highways were closed! So he might as well just get back to trying to clear up some of snow around his own home.

While we were dodging these horrible storms in the south, they were busy back at home battling the snow. At first we breathed a sigh of relief, but then we started checking out the upcoming weather for us in Texas and Oklahoma... Rut roh!

The HEAT DOME was coming! 

And it looked like it was going to get worse and worse and worse...

Only 31 miles traveled today 

1,310 miles so far