Small Home – Big Yard

Hiking near Cave Creek

For two nights between Lake Pleasant and El Mirage, we’re parked in the driveway of good friends and former Coloradans now living in Cave Creek, AZ.  In the north eastern foothills, Cave Creek is nothing like it’s snooty, sprawling neighbor of Scottsdale to the south.  The streets of Cave Creek are filled with galleries, eateries and unique bars, many made to look like the old Western town that Cave Creek came from.  Settled in the 1800’s as a military installation, once gold was discovered the town continued to grow.  Today, with just over 5600 residents, Cave Creek is a unique residential community within the broader Phoenix metro area.

Our driveway “site” was perfect – the rate was right and the accompanying beautifully landscaped grounds, the pool and guest room was awesome!  Thanks Dana & Suz – we’d like to reserve for next year!

From Cave Creek we’ve made the relatively short trip to El Mirage in the far western Phoenix metro area.  El Mirage is sandwiched between Sun City, AZ to the east and Surprise, AZ to the west.  To the south is Luke Air Force base, one of the largest jet training bases in the world.  Unknown to us, Pueblo El Mirage RV Resort is exactly parallel to the Luke runways.  Overhead training started promptly at 7AM, and went on until nearly sunset.  Every 15 minutes or so the F-35 jets screamed overhead stopping conversations and even the spring baseball game at Surprise Stadium.

Speaking of spring baseball, the main reason we’ve left the east side where we’ve stayed on previous trips is to check out a few more stadiums/teams.  The nearest here is Surprise Stadium, home to the Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers.  And, just a bit further away is Camelback Ranch in Glendale, home of the Chicago White Sox and the LA Dodgers.  Saturday February 22^nd is the opening day to many teams around the Cactus League.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature must not be a baseball fan as a recording setting ½ inch of rain soaked playing fields all across the metro area.  Most games were cancelled, but stadiums were happy to exchange tickets for later in the week and we ended up seeing the two “home” teams matched up with KC taking the 5 to 4 win on Tuesday.

Surprise Stadium, Rangers & Royals

Back at Pueblo El Mirage RV Resort, a Roberts Resort, we’re parked in site #1170.  As is common, this is a transient site, generally designated for those staying less than 30 days.  This portion of the park has never been finished and they are just converting these very long pull-through sites into what will be come 2 rows of back-in sites.  On the map, this second line of unfinished sites is already shown as 1195-1227.  Also, the row of sites 1250-1282 is in development and appears to be designated for park models.

As with many of the large parks, facilities abound – pools, hot tubs, workout rooms, pickle ball courts, as well as numerous craft shops, woodworking, embroidery, ceramics, etc.  These amenities come at a price –  for weekly bookings the current rate is almost $65/day with all taxes and fees.  And, as is way too common in these large parks, the internet is basically non-existent.  On the first day of arrival, the WiFi extender will connect, but there’s no internet access available.  On subsequent days, the extender connects, and provides very fast connectivity – up until about noon when Internet access disappears.  We might decide to stay on the west side again next year, but it likely won’t be at Pueblo El Mirage.  From here, we’re headed to the far east side of the valley.  More from Gold Canyon…