Turning Desert Wildflower Ennui to Advantage

For many people in many places, Spring means rain and flowers. But in the American Southwest a wet winter -- normally the secondary rainy season -- produces wildflowers only at the lower altitudes, that is, the desert floor. Really great shows don't occur every year. Fortunately there was enough rain this winter to produce a good show. 

If you are seeing the wildflower display for the first time, you have no choice but to be wowed. I agree with all the ecstatic praise about spring wildflowers in the desert. But please remember that this blog targets experienced travelers, a group that the tourism industry (and virtually all RV blogs) could not care less about.

It is natural for the magic to wear off once you've seen a couple good springs. Then what? Do you resign yourself to a lukewarm experience? Some people would prefer to deny that this happens, offer you a pep talk full of half-truths, and then attribute their attitude to "positive thinking." But it is more challenging and thought-provoking to face up to the truth and then think of a way around it.

A full time RVer must have the guts to stare into the abyss, sometimes.

Thus I found myself a few years ago, looking forward to the best show in years, but fearful that the magic had worn off. And I didn't have the foggiest idea of what to do about it. The local tourist rag in Deming NM was rhapsodizing about the show in the nearby -- and aptly named -- Florida mountains. (That's flor-EEE-duh.) The stereotypical tourist prose made me sick: you know, 'a dense carpet of...', 'profuse display of...', 'breathtakingly beautiful...', and the rest. Groan!

After all, when a fellow retires early and becomes a full time RVer, he gives up a lot. He has a lower "standard of living" to look forward to, at least if he measures it in the usual way. There will be less financial security, too. What does he get in return? A lot, potentially. But I wasn't living up to that potential by looking at the spring wildflower season like some common tourist. What a failure!

It might seem foolish to some people, who don't take early retirement seriously, to get worked up about this. But so I did, for three days. My goodness, did I ever get frustrated trying to come up with a good idea for experiencing that year's colors in a way that was more significant than the tourist's. But it was all for naught.

Then one day I looked out the RV's window and saw her rig pull into camp...

On a windy day in New Mexico, a yucca flower falls off and is impaled by the yucca stalk.