Despite the lure of the Tempe Block Party and the Fiesta Bowl festivities, we pack it up and head out of Phoenix. The “higher elevations” in Arizona are expecting somewhere between 2 inches and 24 feet of snow, so we opt to return by way of the southern route. Thank God for Yahoo! maps and weather.com…and a little common sense.

This decision also grants the wishes of the kids who have been requesting to return to White Sands for sledding…of course, we play off our destination change as “wish granted” rather than “Holy crap! We can’t drive through the mountains in 10 feet of snow in an RV!” Some may call that shielding or spoiling the kids…we call it parental karma.

And, since no good deed goes unpunished, we collectively spend no less than 3 hours routing, rerouting, remapping and re-researching RV parks on our changed destination as well as trying to find a Wal-Mart that sells plastic saucers (hoping to avoid the gift shop surtax at the Visitor’s Center). Did I mention thanking Al Gore for inventing the Internet in general?

Jen