theboondork's RV blog

I can see the future

3/24/2019

Last night's boondocking sunset

A solution to my problem of where to go from here fell into my lap last night with hardly any effort on my part.

Looking through some wildflower reports for Arizona on the Internet I found that Picacho Peak State Park, near the tiny town of Picacho Arizona, has a great wildflower bloom going on which is just what I'm looking for, and Picacho Peak State Park is East of me and that's the general direction in which I was planning on eventually heading.

I went to the park website and found two days, Wednesday and Thursday of this week, when they had a pull-through site available. They had several back in sites available but my experiences with the park has taught me that a lot of their back in sites are kind of small for a 30 foot trailer and since I have troubles backing into 40 acres a pull-through site is very much appreciated.

I know I rant at every opportunity about how making reservations for places to stay takes your freedom, tears it into little bitty pieces, sets them on fire, and stomps the ashes into the ground, so it would be safe to say that I don't take making reservations lightly. But I do understand that there are times and places where making reservations are prudent, and I believe that right now is the time, and this is the place.

I've never made a reservation at Picacho Peak State Park before even though I've been there many times and I've never been turned away. But with the wildflower situation being what it is, and all the Escapees leaving Tucson this weekend I felt that it was wise to trade some freedom for that warm fuzzy feeling of knowing for sure I have a place to stay.

I actually tried to get reservations for three days but they didn't have three days available, I figured 3 days would give me more time to scout the area and see what kind of boondocking was available if I wanted to stay longer.

theboondork

Desert tree sunset

Desert wildflowers

6 Comments

Ted link

3/25/2019 11:43:31 am

I see reservations as just another tool which can be very useful at times. I'm no purist—being inflexible about such things is silly, I think.

My last reservations were along my route from southern New Mexico to Reno, Nevada. On a 4th of July weekend almost two years ago. I was pressed for time and didn't want to chance being without a restful overnight spot and I was too unfamilar with the route to know of reliable (on a holiday) boondock opportunities. It worked out quite well.

Tom

3/25/2019 01:17:08 pm

The term you used of "purist" fits perfectly and I will use it myself in the future. I in no way consider myself a purest in anything, I think the closest I come would be my belief in enjoying my life

I was reading a blog a long time ago from some folks that were traveling in a class B, had been doing so for several years, and were bragging that they had never spent a night in an RV Park. I remember thinking to myself, why would anyone want to limit the experience of living life with a self-made rule as onerous is that.

To me the freedom of living the full-time RV lifestyle is the ability to live without self-made rules. There are plenty of rules made by other people that we all have to abide by, why in the world would we want to place more rules on ourselves, especially ones that limit our own freedom to come and go as we please, after all coming and going is why we have wheels on our homes.

I placed a two-week stay rule on myself just for this winter, and even though I've only broken the rule once I have still found it somewhat confining even though I knew I could break it anytime I wanted. It wasn't that leaving every two weeks was a problem, it was having a rule, any rule, that bothered me.

As you know I have a reservation for Picacho Peak State Park starting Wednesday night and already I'm having to look at maps to check on times and distances to make sure I get there later than 12 o'clock and about 2 o'clock so I will fit in with their checkout and check-in times. Normally schedules aren't a part of my life so when I get one it's a shock to my system.

I would not consider myself free if I HAD to be someplace on the third, another place on the eighth and someplace else on the 19th. I know most RVers live that way and I'm the weird one, but the freedom to come and go as I please is very important to me.

You said something that reminded me about why I enjoy my boondocking lifestyle so much, and that was "a restful overnight spot". I apparently am blessed with the ability to get a good nights sleep anywhere I am. It doesn't matter if I'm in a National Forest, an RV Park, or a Walmart parking lot, I still sleep like a baby.

If I had to travel during a holiday I too would consider reservations but fortunately as yet I've never been put in that position, and my method of getting someplace before the holiday and staying hunkered down until it's all over has worked well for me so far.

Always great to hear from you Ted.

Tom

Linda Sand

3/25/2019 02:47:13 pm

Are you going to climb the peak?

3/25/2019 03:09:10 pm

Probably not. I know there's a path or two that goes up to the top but in all the times I've been there I've never had the urge to climb it. And I'm only going to be there for two nights, I've got a lot of things I want to do and it's been so hot the last couple of weeks that the snakes are out.

I know to some folks that might sound like I'm wimping out, but it's not because I'm afraid to climb it, it's because I'm too lazy to climb it.

Tom

3/26/2019 01:01:57 pm

Yup. I preferred sitting back with a drink watching other people climb it. Why would I want to put on gloves to protect my hand while pulling myself up a cable? Who thinks that's fun?

3/26/2019 01:29:25 pm

I like to think that as I got older I got smarter, so I quickly got over looking at a mountain as a challenge a long time ago. Now I will go up a mountain, a small mountain, with no steep drop-offs, on a really nice day, if I feel good, if there's a reason to go up there such as taking a picture, looking for a vein of gold, or stalking an Elk, but I won't go up there just to say that I did. I'll go up for a reason, but like you said there needs to be some fun involved.

Tom

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

I can see the future

Leave a Reply.

Archives

CONTACT THEBOONDORK