Gold Canyon and Surprise, Surprise, Surprise.....

Our goal was to leave Moabi Regional Park early on Thursday and head to Gold Canyon.  Located on Highway 60, about 35 miles east from downtown Phoenix, AZ, we arrived at Canyon Vista Resort by 3:30 pm.

Loading up early last Thursday morning.

Well aware that our drive would take about 5 1/2 hours, we were up and readying to leave Moabi early.  An RVer from Spokane, Washington came by to offer up a couple of doughnuts for our road trip.  How nice is that?  Friendly folks.  

Although only at Pirate's Cove for three nights, we did enjoy ourselves; especially meeting those RVers nearby to us and taking advantage of the Colorado River and the areas around.

We had a couple of route options but our choice to get to Phoenix was to take I-40 to Kingman and then south on highway 93 through Wikieup and Wickenburg.

Click on the links below for more information on those two Arizona places.

 Wikieup, Arizona - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  

Wickenburg, Arizona - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beautiful countryside

We took a lunch break, at a rest stop, only minutes south from Wickenburg before continuing our journey on Highway 60 to Sun City, Glendale, Phoenix, Mesa and into Gold Canyon.

Home of the forthcoming Super Bowl, this stadium in Glendale, AZ will be rocking.

We are fans of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team - last year's Super Bowl Champions.....and we hope they will garner a repeat in this stadium this year.

A large metropolis, traffic was surprisingly fluid when we rolled through the numerous cities.

The traffic did get substantially busier once we merged on to I-10 heading east to Highway 60, in the greater Phoenix area. Twelve lanes of traffic meant keeping our RV in the middle to merge left or right, depending on the signs that guide.....and Martha the GPS lady's relentless voice of guidance!

We have been through this area numerous times now and we have the major routes well memorized.  The freeway system is so good, it makes navigating a breeze. 

Downtown Phoenix - photo taken from I-10

I knew that we would have to keep an eye to merging left to join Highway 60.  I-10 continues south to Tucson.  Highway 60 would lead us to Gold Canyon.

Once on highway 60, the wonderful Superstition Mountain showed all of its glory.  Gold Canyon sits at the southern foot of this awesome mountain. 

Approaching Gold Canyon, Highway 60 narrows to four lanes (two eastbound and two westbound).

Canyon Vista Resort, our choice for the next two weeks, is the very first RV park when arriving in Gold Canyon. It offers long back in sites that work well for our 5th wheel and swivel wheel.  

After arriving and being greeted by the nice fella at the security gate,  we rolled into the 'short stay' RV area and, even before backing in to our site, Rod and Sylvia - long time RV and blogging friends Six Saturdays and a Sunday | Work's over, now it's time to play! were our official first greeters.  Out for a walk, and in our area to see if we had arrived, they saw us go through security and walked over to offer their BIG HELLOS.  How nice was that?  Well......very nice indeed!  Thanks you two.
 

RVers themselves, Rod And Sylvia know the RV set up routine and let us be to square up, back in, level, unhook.....and get all the other tasks accomplished.  We mentioned coming by their RV site later on.

While working to complete our set up, a boisterous voice was heard welcoming us back to Canyon Vista.  Well, well, well, well!  If it wasn't Dave from LeMars, Iowa.  We met him, his wife Lavonne, along with Fritz and Bonnie (Iowa farmers), a few years back in this very park.  And we developed an instant friendship.  Not only that, their Alberta friends, who farm close to where Jeanette's folks had their farm, also became friends.  We had such a fun time with these folks.

We did not get to see them last winter but to see Dave and Lavonne, only a few spaces over from us, was a real treat.  We even got to chat with Fritz by telephone.  He and Bonnie have not left Iowa yet but they are sure working to head south soon.  We will get to see them - either here in Gold Canyon or possibly in Yuma, AZ.  Dave and Fritz are avid motorcyclists (and RVers) too.  Talk about excitement. Randy and Alice, the Albertan's, are expected to arrive here too.

Jeanette and I had earlier reserved our site here at Canyon Vista but once set up, we hustled off for the resort office to officially sign in.  The office had closed for the day.

Back at our site, we had a quick dinner before walking down to Sylvia and Rod's RV.  We enjoyed their hospitality before calling it a night. Rod and Sylvia had an early Friday morning wake up call to join their friendly regular hikers club.

This morning (Friday) we walked over to the office and locked in our two week stay. Rod had mentioned a motorcycle club ride that was happening Friday morning and when walking back to our site, over 20 motorcyclists were lining up.  We had the organizer's name but when we caught sight of Dave and Lavonne, who had earlier come to our site to see if we were up to a motorcycle ride, we did not hesitate to join them. Riding as a foursome had greater appeal than with the larger motorcycle group.  So...by 10:45 am, we were off on a fantastic ride in mountainous countryside.

Meeting up at Dave and Lavonne's RV to ride out of the park

Leaving Canyon Vista Resort

Dave took the lead and we headed east on Highway 60 toward Superior and Globe.  In Superior we topped up our fuel before headed east on a secondary highway 177 to check out a humongous open pit copper mine.  Talk about huge!  What a site to see. 

Photo taken at the lookout over the open pit copper mine east of Superior, AZ.       L-R Jeanette, Dave and Lavonne

The mountain roads are perfect for motorcycling.  With twists, turns, up hills and down, one could not ask for a better route for our first ride in this area, this year.

Stunning roads leading to stunning mountain vistas.

Leaving the mine site, we headed west on Highway 177, back to Highway 60 before heading north to our lunch spot in Globe.  We rode up to an elevation of 4,500 feet and we sure felt the drop in temperature.  Thankfully, my electronic heated grips and heated vest took the bite off the cold temperatures. 

Returning to the lower elevations after lunch, the temperature returned to the low 70's.  Nice! By late afternoon, we were rolling back in to our Canyon Vista Resort site.  What a great ride.

Changed out of our riding clothes, Jeanette and I called our long time friends (and former CBC-TV colleague), Gerry and Pauline, who winter in this resort.   Experienced former RVers, once they found Canyon Vista Resort, here in Gold Canyon, they purchased a lovely park model.  This has been, and continues to be, their home away from their Montreal, Quebec home during the winter months.

We made plans to get together with them tomorrow (Saturday). We do look forward to that......and quite likely to a golf game or two in the days ahead.

We also hope to plan a rendez-vous with Alberta friends who hang out at their Maricopa countryside ranch; better known as Dog Pound South.  Their Alberta ranch is known as Dog Pound North. Brenda and JB are RVers who travel with their horses.  They spend a good bit of their winter months horsing around on the numerous trails they blog about.  Now, Brenda is on the injured list (as are two of their three horses) and that should mean they are hanging around their ranch and that they could be open to a wee visit from us. John & Brenda's Incredible Journey We'll contact them to see if we can lure them out to lunch somewhere in the Maricopa Metropolis.

A blogging couple we have met, and who call the Phoenix area home, have been in touch with a view to meet up.  Kevin and Tracey write the following blog;  Adventures of a 50 year old!  We look forward to getting together with them.  We last met up at the lovely Lake Pleasant RV resort just north and east from the Phoenix metropolitan area, just over one year ago.  

One of two beautiful spa areas this resort offers. 

We chose to take a long walk to build up an appetite, before dinner.  That took us to other areas in this resort. We were not surprised to find the newer spa area clear of any users.  Being dinner time was likely the primary reason no one was enjoying the pool or hot tub.  We do plan to spend some time in this pool area in the days ahead.

Jeanette with Trena and Lucky - Photo taken last late November, 2014 in Desert Hot Springs.

And the last surprise of surprises that tops off the reconnect with RVers and friends here, Lucky and Trena (RV and motorcycle friends we associate with and often write about) called us today and the plans are now set for their arrival here mid-next week.  They plan to motorcycle out from Palm Springs. We plan to attend the Barrett-Jackson Auction, in Scottsdale, next Thursday and lead them on a good motorcycle ride, the next day, through some of this gorgeous Arizona countryside.    Home - Barrett-Jackson Auction Company - World's Greatest Collector Car Auctions

So talk about being busy and looking forward to so many get togethers with our friends.  What's not to like about that?  And that is what is so wonderfully appealing when one participates in this RVing lifestyle.

Thanks for dropping in.