It’s April Fool’s Day 2024, eight months till we end our current jobs.  Or as I like to say 7 more months since I never count the month I am in and the month I am leaving.  It’s a head game for me and makes Sam laugh every time I say it.  Really it is 11 months till we hit the road (10).  I get a little panicky when I think of less than a year.  Maybe this time I will say 11 months not 10!  

Plan in pencil…  

Recently I met a gentleman Paul, Retired Air Force, at a board meeting where I was giving a presentation on education tax rates for one of the school districts that I manage the finances for.  Paul, (I didn’t get his last name) came to the meeting with a truck camper on board.  We started talking about camping and going on the road.  He purchased his truck camper in 2019 and when Covid hit in 2020 decided to explore Vermont’s beauty.  Since that time he has made his way down to a naval campground in Key West.  I told him our plans “a golden gap year” and he loved the idea!  He looked me straight in the eye, reminding me of my retired navy  father, and said “make your plans in pencil”. As I walked out of the school with him I assured him there were a few things I wanted in pen, but that I would strive to be flexible.  I realized how much I enjoyed hearing some of his adventures and that I was going to have adventures to share with others.  

While I am working hard at planning in pencil, as I told Paul there are a few things I want in pen!

 The Pen

Recently we were on our traditional vacation to Orlando Florida to use our time share.  It’s a way to get out of the cold for a week and be recharged to face the rest of winter in Vermont. We decided to explore where we might stay when we were in Orlando next year.  The plan is to meet Olivia, our 10 year old granddaughter, and hopefully her parents at Disney for a week.  It’s a way that we can have fun with her and not miss seeing each other.  We want to stay at Fort Wilderness but the price seemed very high at over $200 per night.  So we were to split it up between there and a KOA nearby.  Sam and I scouted out the KOA and it was very nice at a little over $125 per night but on a busy highway and I had booked 4 nights when it opened up 2025 the first week in January.  Believe it or not the sound of the highway was not bad at all.  We could make it work.  We then made our way over to Fort Wilderness and of course could only see it from the outside.  It was in a lush forest of trees and in Disney fashion they made it very appealing to the senses.  Still to make this year work we were going to split our time.  

Feb 27, 2024 Blue Springs State Park Manatees

Fast forward to me laying in bed because I hurt my knee during our morning walk at the resort, yes you read that right, WALKING. I was icing my knee and was scouring the web when I thought I would just check in on  Fort Wilderness.  I had monitored last year when they opened up 2024 for reservations, it was Memorial Day weekend 2023.  I had a calendar invite to look at the same weekend this year  to book 2025.  True to my obsessive nature I went on from time to time after January 1st, “just to see” if they did anything different.

  NAILED IT!  Sitting in bed with my knee above my heart,  I logged on and Disney had released 2025 in February 2024. Honestly, I think it was released just that morning.  Sam was either at the pharmacy getting me Aleve or at the pool in the sun but when he came back I told him with all the excitement a lame woman could muster, “just booked Disney’s Fort Wilderness for 2025, oh and for the whole week!”  I was able to get one of the cheaper sites that I wasn’t seeing (because they were all gone before) for $163 a night.  For the difference it would not be worth breaking down and moving to the KOA and you know, for the grandchild and all!  Thankfully he was happy I did it, he didn’t love the traffic getting in and out of the KOA, but he said, “I would have managed it”.  I was a little ticked off at Disney for changing the rules on me with their early release of 2025 and I am not quite sure how you find out when they will be releasing but it all worked out either by sheer luck or what we rather call it, “devine intervention”.  

Of course you know that the Disney conquest only fuels my obsessiveness with checking websites and trying to get the best sites.  My next conquest has been the Arizona state park system.  While the northeast is bitter, snowy and muddy, there are 4 state parks that we want to stay in 2025.  Arizona state parks open their reservations 365 days in advance on a rolling basis.  The problem with this is people can book from their arrival date into the future 14 days.  There is a certain state park and a certain site I wanted for my birthday.  I can’t tell you specifically for safety purposes you will have to wait till next year to see where we ended up for my birthday!  Anyways the certain site was gone when I went onto reserve, no way to get it because whomever decided to ruin my birthday and booked it out well into  the future.  I booked my second choice of sites.  LET IT BE KNOWN, LAURIE DOESN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT EXACTLY WHAT SHE WANTS! I know, I know, what you’re thinking,  however in my defense I spend a lot of time and work hard for my “spoiledness” !

We recently saw a video on another AZ state park that intrigued us, Catalina SP.  Miles and miles of bike trails and hiking. “ It is very hard to get into, ” says the commentator on the video. 

 ProTip from the video the south and east sites have beautiful views of the Catalina mountains.  This to me sounded like a challenge. I would be perfectly happy with whatever site we got, ok maybe not perfectly, but  I was able to get a site for the time frame we wanted and I bet I will be able to see the mountains even if I have to walk a little!  To give you an idea of how these campgrounds fill up when I booked there were 12 sites left out of 150 in loop A the smaller loop and not many more in loop B the bigger loop.  

Two campgrounds booked two to go in AZ.  In the meantime I called Xterra Reservation system to actually talk to someone about Fishing Bridge campground in Yellowstone.  If you go on the website it says that reservations open up 13 months in advance.  Boy am I glad I called.  It is on a specific day of the month that the reservations open up for the next year.  The agent I spoke with was so knowledgeable and friendly.  When I asked about how busy was time frame we want to be in Yellowstone, she replied, “you’ll want to be online to reserve at 12:01 am, oh and that is mountain time”.  WHAT! 2:00 am eastern time.  Want to guess if I will set an alarm or wing it?  

Leave a comment if you like to plan or wing it.

Till next time!