Where there is love... there is life: Road Trip to Arizona

Last weekend my parents picked us up on their way down from Oregon for a quick road trip to Arizona.

Quick for us. They are still there... us young people had to go back to work.

*Disclaimer: this story is told from the point of view of a UNmechanically inclined girl*

It was quite a trip down there, what was suppose to be a 10 hour drive turned into about 22 hours.

We left Friday after work and drove as far as we could, we found a rest area at 1 AM outside Riverside, CA. After a few short hours of sleep we got back on the road. Ten minutes later, around 7 AM we were on the side of the road. The back axle on the trailer decided to come off. We tried calling a couple tow trucks but nobody wants to come haul a 40 foot fifth-wheel trailer on a Sunday morning. That's where my genius Macgyver husband comes into to play.

The only thing that stopped the axle from falling completely off was a set of stairs. All my dad had for tools was a hammer and a chainsaw wrench. They jacked the trailer up, used wood blocks to get the weight off the axles and then pushed the axle back into place.

As you can see from the photo below, the bolt broke. They used a bunch of nails to replace the bolt, then duct taped and roped it all together. That got us down the freeway to a napa, where hubby proceeded to buy the tools my dad didn't bring and the bolt to correctly fix the axle.

A few hours later, we arrived at our destination... Quartzsite, Arizona.

Not a whole lot there during March.... I was told that this place was filled with thousands of retired people in their motor homes and the mecca for swap meets. In March, there are just a few stray retired people left. We still had lots of fun though.

After setting up camp, my dad, hubby, and I decided to go on a quick trip through the desert exploring on the new UTV.

The odometer on said zero when we left camp, three miles later we had to pull the fire extinguisher out. The winch was not installed properly which led to a electrical fire. We were stranded out in the middle of the desert, with about 30 minutes until dark... I started running through the desert back towards the main road. It was about a 10 or 15 minute hike back to the gravel road. Did I mention I was wearing TOMS with holes in the toes? Not great hiking shoes. Once I made it to the main road panting because I am horribly out of shape, hubby called and said he got it working again. So I ran for nothing....

While waiting for the boys to come pick me up I took a few selfies and admired the beautiful sunset.