HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!
We all have our fantasies. Don’t worry, I won’t share most and zero depravity. What I am getting at is that I’m sure some readers will think I am “living the dream”, whereas I am dreaming within the dream. The dream is traveling, of course, and specifically blowing in the wind. But as much as I daydreamed about this road trip before it started, I now find myself daydreaming of experiencing the adventures in a different way. Grass is always greener?
I just was forced to cancel my reservation at the high elevation Rose Canyon Campground in the Coronado National Forest where I am to meet Brent and his students on Monday. I was to arrive there on Sunday and I made the reservation some time ago. What I just discovered is that the maximum RV length is 22’, which is almost ten feet shorter than my rig. Now I have cancelled and must address a Plan B. The funny thing is that instead of coveting the larger and fancier RVs I see at every stop, I envy those with smaller rigs. I have been shocked with the paltry fuel economy I get towing my Wheelhouse. I keep thinking about how I had originally wanted something smaller. I keep thinking how things might be different if I didn’t have a parrot with me. She’s small, but her mess takes up a lot of space. At my last stop in Alpine a guy pulled in with an R-Pod, which is a compact RV I really like. I talked to him about it and looked at them again online that night. I found the same thing that I did during my pre-purchase research. That is, much smaller RVs are too close in price to bigger nicer ones like mine. The price scale doesn’t seem relative. I also see plenty of teardrop mini camper trailers that are basically tent-size and saw a few really nice modern pop-up tent style campers in Big Bend. My fuel bill would be so much less and I could go anywhere. But then, there’s the bird that I need space for and, in hotter areas, need good air conditioning for. She’s obviously going to outlive me so I am stuck.
I try not to fantasize about life without my precious old bird. To be honest, if I didn’t have her perhaps I’d be looking at something even smaller. My other road fantasy is being on a nice touring motorcycle and just camping in a one-man tent. My whole plan was for a simpler life and I seem to have made even that less simple and more convoluted than it might be.
Fantasy is probably a bad word as it suggests something that exists outside of reality. My realities are that I am limited to where I can go with this 32’ travel trailer. It’s no behemoth. I can just look outside at this RV Park now and see those with gargantuan homes on wheels. But those travelers look for RV parks and need 50-amp hookups, satellite TV and constant air con … My intention from the start was to boondock and shunpike and live off the grid. I confess I am tempted to re-evaluate and consider trading my Wheelhouse in on something smaller. Jesse is the limiting factor though, and as I already stated, these little 18’ R-Pods would perhaps be ideal for my lifestyle, but it would be tough to downsize to something that isn’t significantly less expensive and would give me a return of a nice chunk of money. I was shocked when I was shopping for a rig how close the price was between a little teardrop and my 30-foot-plus travel trailer. Food for thought…
Anyway, I am in Deming in a park that is little more than a big gravel parking lot with full hookups and limited shade. It’s cheap though and having cable allowed me to watch playoff hockey last night. Two games are on tonight! But I now have to spend the morning looking for other campsites near the Santa Catalina Mountains where we will be scorpion hunting. I had no place booked for Saturday night anyway, so I best get to looking.
&emdash; All the best, M
We all have our fantasies. Don’t worry, I won’t share most and zero depravity. What I am getting at is that I’m sure some readers will think I am “living the dream”, whereas I am dreaming within the dream. The dream is traveling, of course, and specifically blowing in the wind. But as much as I daydreamed about this road trip before it started, I now find myself daydreaming of experiencing the adventures in a different way. Grass is always greener?
I just was forced to cancel my reservation at the high elevation Rose Canyon Campground in the Coronado National Forest where I am to meet Brent and his students on Monday. I was to arrive there on Sunday and I made the reservation some time ago. What I just discovered is that the maximum RV length is 22’, which is almost ten feet shorter than my rig. Now I have cancelled and must address a Plan B. The funny thing is that instead of coveting the larger and fancier RVs I see at every stop, I envy those with smaller rigs. I have been shocked with the paltry fuel economy I get towing my Wheelhouse. I keep thinking about how I had originally wanted something smaller. I keep thinking how things might be different if I didn’t have a parrot with me. She’s small, but her mess takes up a lot of space. At my last stop in Alpine a guy pulled in with an R-Pod, which is a compact RV I really like. I talked to him about it and looked at them again online that night. I found the same thing that I did during my pre-purchase research. That is, much smaller RVs are too close in price to bigger nicer ones like mine. The price scale doesn’t seem relative. I also see plenty of teardrop mini camper trailers that are basically tent-size and saw a few really nice modern pop-up tent style campers in Big Bend. My fuel bill would be so much less and I could go anywhere. But then, there’s the bird that I need space for and, in hotter areas, need good air conditioning for. She’s obviously going to outlive me so I am stuck.
I try not to fantasize about life without my precious old bird. To be honest, if I didn’t have her perhaps I’d be looking at something even smaller. My other road fantasy is being on a nice touring motorcycle and just camping in a one-man tent. My whole plan was for a simpler life and I seem to have made even that less simple and more convoluted than it might be.
Fantasy is probably a bad word as it suggests something that exists outside of reality. My realities are that I am limited to where I can go with this 32’ travel trailer. It’s no behemoth. I can just look outside at this RV Park now and see those with gargantuan homes on wheels. But those travelers look for RV parks and need 50-amp hookups, satellite TV and constant air con … My intention from the start was to boondock and shunpike and live off the grid. I confess I am tempted to re-evaluate and consider trading my Wheelhouse in on something smaller. Jesse is the limiting factor though, and as I already stated, these little 18’ R-Pods would perhaps be ideal for my lifestyle, but it would be tough to downsize to something that isn’t significantly less expensive and would give me a return of a nice chunk of money. I was shocked when I was shopping for a rig how close the price was between a little teardrop and my 30-foot-plus travel trailer. Food for thought…
Anyway, I am in Deming in a park that is little more than a big gravel parking lot with full hookups and limited shade. It’s cheap though and having cable allowed me to watch playoff hockey last night. Two games are on tonight! But I now have to spend the morning looking for other campsites near the Santa Catalina Mountains where we will be scorpion hunting. I had no place booked for Saturday night anyway, so I best get to looking.
&emdash; All the best, M
