Yeah you can have that MN weather. this year we got two dustings of snow, one measurable of about 6 inches, and the rest of the time it was quite mild. If I get a cold snap below freezing, it usually only lasts a week or two. That is rare. Not to say I have not had some brutal winters, with tons of snow... but those are not too often. I left the Mid West over 4 years ago and never questioned my decision. 20 years in the military, then the last 27 here in northern Virginia. Not complaining. My middle son bought himself a new Ram 3500 this past year, and wanted to go out and get a new plow setup. I talked him out of it, and boy is he happy he waited. I don't think anyone made any money the past 2 years. Here locally, the county hires independents to plow the country roads, so it is a good gig if you can get it, but the wear and tear on the vehicles isn't worth it to me.

 

That Minnesota weather helps to keep out the rif raf!!!! My brother sent me a text last winter and said it was like -45 not including wind chill. I told him that helps keep out Southerners and other invasive species!!!!

 

yeah well Dee, I was born in Wisconsin in a town named Viroqua, grew up in Northern Illinois too, so I know all about cold weather. And I am NOT a southerner. I am a card carrying Yankee. the reason I live in Virginia is purely due to my employment and the piles of green stuff they pay in the area. Not my choice, but until I can figure out how to make this kind of $ working from home, I guess I'll just have to tough it out. Of course having 70 degree days in the middle of winter when my friends in MN are having those cold temps is a plus in my book. Also, I had open heart surgery 5 years ago, and frankly I can't take the cold anymore. There is no getting used to it again. I have friends in Tower that had snow a couple weeks ago. No thank you. I was in Wisconsin a couple weeks ago for a funeral. Great weather. Got up to 65... yeah. No thanks. I left 85 degree weather. I still own property up there too. But the cold keeps me from building.

 

Having grown up in Ohio, the cold and snow isn't anything new to me. Since moving to Texas over 30 years ago, I like seeing the snow. On the news.

 

I spent 3 years in San Antonio, and I have property in Bastrop. However I can't remember ever leaving anything there to get me to go back. Great BBQ, hate the law dogs though. And of course the HEAT

 

My mileage today was the same frontward and backward, 73137. Yes, that's all on a 2001 truck that I got in 2000. I drove 10 blocks at the most today and 2 miles yesterday. That's typical for me.

 

You wouldn't like all the long highways in Texas. I drove 100 miles a day for 23 years to our shop. Put 252,000 miles on a Dodge Dakota and 265,000 miles on my 2000 Chevy when I retired. 6 and half years later have only put on a little over 10,000 more miles on it. Still a lot of miles on two vehicles and one old body..

 

One guy I used to work with drove from his home in Mio, MI to Grand Blanc, MI to work and back every day. Depending on where in Mio he lived, or if he lived outside of town like I think he did, it was over 130 miles each way. I don't even like having to drive there and back on a weekend. He spent at least 4 hours on the road every day. We always had to work a minimum of 8 hours a day and they could make us work 9 hours. Even when he didn't volunteer for more overtime over half of the day was gone from when he left home until he got back. Plus he left early because you never know what traffic will be like and there's construction all year except winter. I only had to drive 20 minutes so even when I was working I had less than a normal amount of miles.

 

I don't put a lot of miles on my truck. I have about an 8 mile round trip drive to work and back. I also have owned both a car and truck for a long time too. So if I'm taking a long trip, I just drive the car(currently a Honda Civic) that gets great gas mileage(around 40 mpg). I did recently downsize to a 2004 Chevy Colorado ext cab Z71. I get almost 20 mpg even towing a small trailer, I would guess at least 22-23 mpg not towing anything.

 

My truck gets driven every couple of weeks to the dump and back. My car? Well that gets 100 miles a day rountrip commute to Washington DC . I just took the truck on a 3000 mile trip, got 21 MPG. Great trip. Caused it to turn over 68,000. Not bad for an 06 Cummins Ram