[B_and_D]

Gosh, sounds like it's been sort of a stressful trip so far. Sorry to hear about your blowout, when we had ours we were at a real tilt too and that made it even more difficult. We had heat instead of pouring rain, though. That just sounds awful!

Hopefully the rest of your trip will be better with less rain and no more tire/vehicle problems.

With AZ as a home base, you should try to come to CA and see some of the sights around here. Winter camping isn't bad here as long as you do it in between the winter rains and stay out of the snow!

Take care -

D