This weekend gifted us with the biggest snowfall of the year, and now that the snowplows have tried to rearrange it our road looks like a huge meringue. The temperature isn’t any too friendly either, but so far Earl and I are toasty in our heavy sweaters, rag socks, and afghans. After all, we only have to make it to Wednesday.
That’s when we leave for our winter break aboard a cruise ship that will take us through the Panama Canal. I checked the weather in Panama City, Panama – one of our stops on this ten-day escape from Michigan’s winter – and this afternoon it was 91 degrees. That’s about 75 degrees warmer than it is here.
It’s an annual ritual with us to go somewhere warm for a week every January. At first, we tried road trips, heading south to such places as the Carolinas, Hilton Head, and Raleigh-Durham. But snowstorms followed us on two of those trips; and when our friends in Raleigh-Durham facetiously accused us of bringing the bad weather along, we knew we hadn’t ventured far enough.
How far is far enough? Somewhere near the equator works fairly well.
Using this criterion, there is no place in North America that qualifies. However, the equator passes smack dab through the South American countries of Columbia, Equador, and Brazil. But those places are problematic for other reasons, such as political stability, language barriers, and drug traffic.
So Earl and I compromise on the Caribbean. We’ve visited many of the islands there as well as Costa Rica and, this year, Panama. I think we’ll be safe from snowstorms there. Assuming I’m right, we’ll leave our heavy coats, gloves, boots, scarves, and hats in the car at the airport when we fly out. We’ll be the funny looking people running into the terminal in our summer best.
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