A Frigid French Broad

When we talked about the possibility of spending the winter in Asheville (in our camper) we assumed that the weather would be a little milder down here than a typical winter in Ohio. Of course we didn't realize that we had picked a somewhat non-typical winter when the jet stream, global warming, El Nina, George Bush, or some combination of the above has caused '08/'09 to be a doggone cold winter all over!

I'm assuming again (even though it gets usually me into trouble) that the winter we've been having is unusual for this area. Yesterday I went into town to work on some pottery and when I got to the bottom of the mountain and onto the road, there were about half a dozen cars "parked" at various angles in the ditch for about half a mile until I got to a state route. It looked like the drivers had gotten fed up with the slick roads, pulled off to the side and apparently taken off on foot for their various destinations! I even saw an abandoned bicycle!! Crazy hippies ride 'em all over the place down here, no matter what the weather is like, but it finally must have gotten too cold for at least one of 'em. Maybe his dreadlocks had become caked with ice and snow!!

Asheville is definitely not equipped for this weather because they never spread salt on any of the side roads, let alone plow! Luckily my Ohio upbringing (and my subaru) have equipped me for navigation in such a climate!!

I certainly am not complaining about what we're experiencing down here when I hear about what's been going on up north in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana! And I guess they've got it good compared to Chicago and Minnesota!

This morning, our co-worker Matt, asked me to take a picture of the French Broad river because he could see that a section of it was frozen. He seemed to think that was a rather unusual phenomenon for this area. So, I took a couple pictures and will post them here. I remember the Miami River freezing over a couple winters up in Ohio. It was always impressive when it thawed and hundreds of huge chunks of ice would get jammed up along the bridges.

So without further adieu, here's a picture of a very frigid French Broad.........................

(if you click on the photo, you'll see a larger image)

- posted by Loretta