We've been camping at a county park in Cave Creek. Cave Creek is a small residential community near the "big" modern cities of Scottsdale and Phoenix, but is on the opposite side of the world as far as "modern" goes. Founded in the 1870's, it was a gold mining town and a stopping place for the U.S. Calvary. While most of the original buildings are gone, the "downtown" area still looks like a western movie set, and has stores, eateries and other businesses with rustic decor and names to match.
Always on the alert for cute names for businesses, ranches and/or most anything else, we have put together a list of swell places to shop, eat and drink, for our interested readers:
For breakfast, lets head to Big Earl's Greasy Eats. Not quite that hungry? Cross the east boundary of Cave Creek to the town of Carefree, and have a light breakfast at the Big Buns Bakery. After breakfast, shop at the Town Dump, the local general merchandise store.
Now, how about a nice lunch and a chance to wet our whistle at the Buffalo Chip Saloon. That should leave enough time for an early afternoon tour through another general store, the Big Bronco Emporium, and still allow time for a dinner choice of fine eats at The Cracked Crab, The Satisfied Frog, The Horny Toad, or everybody's favorite, The Bad Donkey Cafe. We kinda covered the whole animal world there, didn't we?
In all fairness, we should reveal that the Bad Donkey is also in Carefree, a town which abuts Cave Creek and is seemingly dedicated to it's namesake. Street names there include Carefree Drive, Easy Street, Nonchalant Ave., Ho Road and Hum Road.
While we've sampled the wares at some of the above establishments, the list is too long for us to try them all in one visit. So, we'll be back again.
