Strict schedule or flexible travel out west

Years ago the joke between my wife and I was that I wanted to point in a direction and drive wherever whims took us, she wanted to plan each stop and the route in between. We've both modified our desires a "little". We now generally know where we'll stay for the next few days when traveling and usually know if it will be a rambling route or point to point. We call ahead a week or so if we're concerned about availability but frankly have always found extra sites where we've been even though we were told we had reserved the "last site".

At the same time, we did make reservations for the Albuqueque balloon festival this fall...