a woman’s prerogative

As a member of the softer gender, I feel it’s my right to change my mind…..you know, a woman’s prerogative so to speak. And believe me when I say I have perfected the act of last-minute changes lately.

I’m normally a very decisive person who’s organized and enjoys planning. However, after six months of living in the RV full-time I’ve learned the meaning of “RV time”…… Mañana!

Our reservation at the RV Park in Texas was scheduled to begin on January 5th and our paid stay at the RV Resort in Phoenix ended December 31st. That gave us 5 days to travel 1,200 miles…..eezee peezee. Last year had us doing 1,200 mile drives in one very long day. Yep, as we were preparing for a full-time life in the RV, we found ourselves making trips either from Pueblo West, Colorado to Chicago or Pueblo West to Phoenix. We would make these drives in one very long day. Exhausting!

It’s not our plan to travel that way ever again – I hope. Now a days we enjoy meandering. I love that sense of freedom to come and go at our leisure or on a whim.

As the end of December rolled around, I must have changed my mind half a dozen times as to when we were leaving Phoenix and where we would stop along the way. Al would offer his input, but deferred to me for the final decision. He’s pretty easy going as long as I don’t put us on a precarious route. Christmas Eve I finally came up with a definitive plan; a plan that would end up changing several times.

woman's proragtive — A last minute decision to stop in Tucson.

Plan A – Day one; travel from Phoenix, Arizona to Deming, New Mexico with a stop for lunch in Tucson with Dave, a campground host we met at Ridgway State Park last summer. The distance between Phoenix and Deming is around 330 miles and about a 5 hour drive. Hmm, we weren’t sure we wanted to push quite that hard so when the email came in from Brenda, we were onto plan B. Brenda and I knew each other only here in the blogosphere. Via blog posts and a couple of emails, we realized our paths were bound to cross.

Plan B – a two-hour drive from Phoenix to Tucson would be perfect. We called and made a reservation at Desert Trails RV Park in Tucson, Arizona. It turned out not only were Brenda and Hector staying there but so was Dave….perfect.

The drive from Phoenix to Tucson went smoothly. We set up camp then had a nice lunch and visit with Dave. We know we’ll be seeing him again this summer in Colorado.

After working off some of those lunch calories by taking a stroll on one of the many hiking trails behind the RV Park, we headed over to Brenda and Hector’s RV for happy hour and dinner. Dinner was delicious but not wanting to be out done, the four of us retreated to our RV for homemade pies and brownies – yes, all made by moi in my little ~~easy bake~~ RV oven.

Brenda and Hector had just traveled from the very direction we were going and they were heading in our former location. The travel tales and swapping of notes continued well past our normal bedtime. A few of their New Mexico stops piqued my interest even more than already piqued….which eventually lead to a change in our overnight site.

Even with some lost sleep, Al and I were anxious to hit the road the next morning. The plan was a three-hour drive to Deming. We thought about overnighting for free at the rest area just west of Deming which we have done in the past, but it was too early in the day for that. We were reminded of a SKP Park (Escapees RV Club) that we wanted to check out so that was our destination. About thirty minutes before arriving in Deming, I changed my mind yet again. I had a third idea……

It was early, the sun was shining, Al and I were feeling great….I’m in the mood for a little excursion and Al was in agreement. When we arrived in the town of Deming, I had Al point the rig in a northerly direction. This new destination would add about an hour to our travels; a half hour in each direction, but boy was it worth it. That is if you like rocks.

Meet City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico. This was a fun little place to spend the night, and Al and I did not mind going out of our way to explore this unique state park.