Slowly melting at Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park was no disappointment!  It is amazing to see these giant saguaro cacti in person. Some reaching over 40 ft tall and well over 100 years old.  

This Park is located in the Sonoran Desert which has the most biodiversity out of all of America’s deserts. You can tell that while you are here. For being in the desert there is a lot of vegetation and surprising amount of greenery. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to find shade while on hikes. Not a lot of shade but shade non the less.

Speaking of hikes, while hiking a short 1-mile hike called the Freeman Homestead Trail. We were able to see hundreds of Giant Saguaro Cactus. Barrel cactus. Pincushion cactus, and Prickly pear cactus.  Various desert trees and plants scattered the scenery as well.

Even though we are in the middle of the desert we still were able to see some wildlife. A great horned owl, roadrunner, collard lizards, greater short horned lizard, and even rabbits. There is literally life around every corner and in every inch of shade. All you need to do is open your eyes and take a look.  

We opted to only do this hike while we were visiting. The temp was 107 degrees outside! The Ranger warned us to stick to 1-mile trails or less because of the excessive heat warning. Even though we could not do a lot of hikes there is a beautiful scenic drive throughout the park. Allowing you to see all the cactus and landscape you desire.

Tucson/Lazy Days KOA Resort

What a unique KOA to stay at. Originally, we had reserved a spot that has its own personal playground for the kids. A few days ago, we were looking at the weather and decided that maybe going with the covered parking was for the best. We called up Tucson/lazy Days KOA Resort and they changed us to a solar covered spot. 

This spot is completely covered with solar panels but does let enough ambient light through to support your own fruit tree at every spot. I have to say after weeks of no shade it is so nice to have a fully shaded spot. Especially in the desert! Our spot had a lime tree, but we also was able to collect some lemons and grapefruit from neighboring trees!

If you are more of a sun person, they offer many different spot types including dog kennel, playground, southwest style outdoor fire area, grass, and Skydeck. As for me, I will stay in the shade! 

The pool at this KOA is super nice. Biggest thing for me is…. the shade. They have a huge cover that shades about half the pool allowing you to enjoy the pool without the burn. They also have a nice uncovered hot tub and covered seating.

There is a BBQ restaurant located on site. I was not really planning on eating there but the day we had a appointment for a mobile RV tech to come to the camper I was hungry. The camper AC was busted so I really did not want to cook. Looking at the clock we only had 30 minutes until the tech was on site. So we decided to go and try some BBQ brisket nachos. They were just ok. When you consider this is food that is delivered to your site that helps them to rank a lot higher. Also they have beer on tap from the local brewery’s. Allowing you to try a taste of Tucson, without having to leave your resort!

Tucson Mobile RV Service

So if you have been following us on our summer of sunscreen vacation in July of 2024. You may remember that while in Galveston Texas our rear AC unit failed. The blower motor locked up and we had to have a service tech come out to fix us.

Well here we are in Tucson and wouldn’t luck have it, the front AC has failed. It is the same exact failure, the blower motor locked up. Filling the entire camper with a burning smell at about 2 AM. Luckily my wife was up using the restroom. She was able to get the AC shut down before we had a fire.

So as soon as the sun came up, I got on the phone and started calling around to mobile RV techs. Praying to get this worked out. After all it is 107 outside! We are getting ready to head to Desert Hot Springs where the temps are around 120.

I could not get anybody to answer! The few I got to answer told us they are booked 3 weeks out. That is not going to work for us! Thankfully we got a call bake from Shawn at Tucson Mobile RV Service. He was able to get out to us within 24 hours. They had to special order the part but they were able to find it and get it delivered by the next morning. He was at our spot right at our appointment time. Wasting no time getting up on the roof and getting the motor swapped. He found one of our soft start capacitors failed as well. He was able to get that taken care of to get us back on the road.

A huge THANK YOU to the mobile techs

The price was more than the repair guys in Galveston. That is to be expected as we are in a different area. I can tell you that at the time of this writing it has been about 3 days after the repair. We are currently in 117-degree weather. BOTH AC units as of this moment are working their ass off and blowing cold air for us. I am so thankful for these mobile techs. They saved our vacation multiple times and I cannot thank them enough.