Saguaro National Park - Arizona

As I was cruising through the mountains and passing Saguaro on the side of the highway, I started to notice at my stops that the tread on The Tank was looking pretty whack (wayyy more worn on the inside of the tire). After checking the weight at a weigh station to confirm I was good on all of my axels, I realized I was dealing with the wonderful lesson of a bent trailer axel. By the time I was pulling into Tuscon it was dark and I needed somewhere to park. I found a Home Depot parking lot without any “no parking” signs, and it was right next to a Costco making gas in the morning easy. I spent the night looking for local RV repair places to have my rig looked at and hopefully fixed quickly. I arrived in Tuscon on March 31st and needed to be in Phoenix to pick up my girlfriend Maya from the airport by April 9th. I figured it wouldn’t be that difficult, but oh did I speak too soon. 

I spent the following day at a local park’s parking lot on the phone and visiting various trailer and RV repair shops to get this axel replaced. After I finally was in person with someone who could look at it and offered to do the work in 24 hours, we went back to look up the part and came to find that it is a rare sized axel. No one in the state of Arizona had the axel I needed. After fighting the anxiety going through my head, I realized I would be staying put in Tucson for the next week waiting for the part to be delivered from Texas. Ideally I was told it would be five days, which I was disappointed about but it did mean it would get fixed before Maya joined me for the Grand Canyon. It in fact was not five days… I called the shop to ask for an update on when the part would be arriving where I was then informed, “well the part needs to be made, so I doubt it’s even been shipped yet”. Rage, welcome back. After using coping skills, some “good”, some “bad”, it was time to pivot. I asked for the part to be shipped to Utah, which was my next destination, because get me out of Tuscon NOW. 

Throughout this stressful week, I did attempt to do little tasks which I had been putting off previously around The Tank. I was able to work on resealing the roof, tighten some loose screws around cabinets, mount my cell booster higher, etc. I spent one day hiking during this time, which looking back is slightly disappointing. I hiked to Wasson Peak using the Sendero Esperanza Trail, which took me through some huge Saguaro and other desert vegetation. This trail was not dog-friendly, so Dobby stayed home this afternoon to stand guard. 

After spending a week and a half in Tuscon, it’s time to take Tommy and The Tank slowly up to Phoenix to pick up Maya! 

Here is where you can check out some of the pictures I took in the park! : DropBox Saguaro 🔥