First time heading south

Well this year we popped for a new 5th wheel and are determined to head south for the winter or at least a small portion of it. I have a doc appointment mid January so we have to be back by then.
I've been pouring over posts here and on other forums looking for good tidbits of information such as where to go and what to avoid. Lots of good stuff here. It can become overwhelming actually.
So far here is the plan, the wife and I and the two pups (Zac & Zoey) plan to point it south sometime mid October. We know we want to spend our first year in Arizona and are looking at Casa Grande and Yuma for destinations.
Since it is our first year we haven't made any reservations as of yet. Hopefully since we will be leaving early we should be OK. We just don't know where to make any yet.
We know as it gets later in the year like November and December it may be harder to find something but hopefully we will have found were we would like to be by then.
We will be calling places and asking a multitude of questions between now and then but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks