Day 3-7: Mesa, AZ


First off, I’d like to apologize to everyone for the lack of content appearing on the blog. Given the amount of time I spend on the road and then time I spend actually doing things once I get to my destinations, it’s been a bit difficult to find time to sit down and write. I’ll do my best to keep this updated a bit more but so you don’t miss out on anything, here is the basic order of all of my media updates from most frequent to least:
  1. Instagram (@suboptimalrouting)
  2. YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChMG_9zUKXvopXRAJt6cELQ)
  3. Blog

Ok, so with that out of the way, let’s get back to the trip.

Big Bend National Park to Mesa, AZ: 756 Miles

So the next morning after camping in Big Bend I packed up the car and hit the road for Arizona. I had an 11.5-hour trip ahead of me so I wanted to get an early start. Now let me tell you, this particular journey was pretty rough. I didn’t get a ton of sleep the night before because it turns out that the city-boy that I am can’t really handle the sounds of wildlife at night. You give me four lanes of a busy boulevard with traffic noise and bar music blasting right outside my window and I can pass out like a baby no problem. But you put me in the wilderness with two birds chirping their chirpy beaks off to the moonlight and I’m going to be wide-eyed like some sort of crack addict going through withdrawal. Needless to say, by about 6 AM I figured it was about time to cut my losses and get going.

Also, honestly, I was kind of hung over. I made friends with a couple guys in the campsites next to me that night and we spent the evening sampling each other’s collections of whiskey and beer. I regret nothing.

So…yeah…sleep deprived and hungover I started driving through the desert. The worst part about driving through far-west Texas is that the roads are boring as all hell. They are flat and straight and basically surrounded by nothing. The good news is the speed limit is effectively infinity so you can just gun it the entire way through (fuel efficient too, I totally averaged over 40 mpg for that entire leg, Fiesta FTW!). 11.5 hours, 1 large Red Bull, and 2 border patrol checkpoints later I made it to my girlfriend’s house in Mesa.

Sedona

The main reason I went through Mesa was to attend my girlfriend’s white coat ceremony for Physician Assistant School. My parents came down to help celebrate too and the day after the ceremony we took a day trip up to Sedona. Much like Big Bend, this place was gorgeous:


While we were there we ended up taking a Jeep tour on the Broken Arrow trail. The trail’s name comes from the movie Broken Arrow. I came to find out, much to my dismay, that the movie in question IS NOT the 1996 CLASSIC crime thriller Broken Arrow starring Christian Slater and John Travolta but, in fact, the 1950 western of the same name starring James Stewart. Apparently this one was actually filmed there. And was nominated for an Academy Award. Fine.

A post shared by Brian Roberts (@suboptimalrouting) on

Anyways, off-road tours are super fun, you should definitely go on one.

Unforeseen Circumstances

The next Monday morning, I was packed up and ready to go and head up to the Grand Canyon. I had a reservation at a campsite and ambitious hiking plans for the day. Unfortunately, not more than 2 miles in this next leg, disaster struck. A transmission error light came my dashboard and it gave me a very blunt message: TRANSMISSION MALFUNCTION SERVICE NOW. As I went to pull off the highway, it felt like someone had taken my automatic transmission and replaced it with a teenager learning to drive a manual. The situation was… dare I say… suboptimal.
After taking my car to the nearest mechanic and then to the dealership, it turned out that my car’s Transmission Control Module needed to be replaced. The good news: The repairs were entirely covered under warranty. The bad news: it was going to take 2-3 days to get fixed. Suboptimal indeed.
 
Obviously, I had no option but to leave my car to get fixed and plead with the service center to expedite the process as much as possible. I called my girlfriend to come pick me up and I prepared for an extended stay in Mesa. I spent the rest of that day and most of the next getting some work done so at least was a bit productive. I also started looking at alternative routings now that my schedule was being thrown off. Miraculously though, I got a call later that day saying my car would be ready in a few hours and I would be good to go. This was great news because it meant I wouldn’t have to readjust my route, all I’d do was skip my intended stop at the Grand Canyon and I’d be right on schedule. With that fortuitous update I was able to repack my things, pick up my car, give my girlfriend a big kiss goodbye, and head back on the road!

Next Stop: Las Vegas