Chandler AZ Driveway

Chandler, AZ

I was so excited to get to the Phoenix area but within a few days I could not wait to leave.

The problems started before we even got there. About a week before we were scheduled to arrive in Phoenix I was double checking the drive time and I realized the reservation was for a 55+ community. I book all of our campgrounds though the Thousand Trails system because that is where I have a membership but they did not have the 55+ flag on this park.

There are 21 Thousand Trails locations in AZ and 9 of them are within the Phoenix metro area. All 9 of those locations are 55+. Of the 21 parks in AZ, 19 are 55+. There was no where for us to stay in the Phoenix area while also staying within the Thousand Trails system. That meant we would have pay out of pocket for for the Phoenix trip and we were only a week away from arriving with no actual reservation. After checking other RV parks in the area, the vast majority of them were 55+. The ones that were not 55+ were pretty expensive, questionable quality, or far from the city. I was able to find someone renting out their driveway that had full hookups in the Chandler area. The house itself was also a rental, through Airbnb, with the driveway available for rent through Hipcamp. I knew it would be a tight squeeze since we have a big rig but it was either this driveway or stay about 45 min outside of town. And boy was it ever a tight squeeze.

Awhile back I had seen someone suggest taking a stick and marking it for how far your slides come out so when you are navigating tight quarters you know how much space you have. It really came in handy for getting us as close to the wall as possible in this spot.

The photos used in the rental listing seemed to be a few years old and did not match up with the current reality. The nice green tree that was advertised as providing shade was very, very dead. When we arrived the ‘back yard’ was full of furniture that I reorganized to make some more space. The downside to cleaning up the yard was that it revealed what the furniture barrier was likely concealing, a wheel barrow full of dog poop.

On top of barely having enough room to open the door and get down the stairs, the heat was brutal. Every day we were there, the temperature was over 100 and the majority of the days were over 110. I have been living in the 5th wheel full time for over a year now and have spent time in 100-105 degree weather but not over 110. It is a totally different ball game when you get over 110. The water was so warm that we did not need to use the water heater and it was next to impossible to walk Cazic because the ground was so hot.

The most frustrating part of the heat was that we were not able to use the fridge for the whole 3 weeks we were there and lost all the refrigerated food we arrived with. The cooling function that the majority of RV fridges use is not meant to function in temperatures above 100. When we had the RV Tech out for the roof I asked him to take a quick look at the fridge, he said it seems to be functioning fine but just can’t compete with the heat. The solution for people who frequent areas with temps over 100 is to replace the fridge with a residential fridge.

The freezer continued to function and we were able to keep some food there but when it came to refrigeration we had to get a little creative with our solutions. We have an outdoor mini-fridge that was still working so we were able to use that but for the most part we just used a cooler inside that we needed to add ice to every other day.

The weather was chaotic and there were multiple monsoons and haboobs that passed through while we were there. One of the storms even grounded flights for about an hour and took down trees in the area. The one benefit to the storms was the temperature dropped by almost 40 degrees. While that sounds great, keep in mind when it is 117 that is still a temperature of about 80 degrees.

Now that I have had a chance to vent some of my grievances about, I can get into the things I enjoyed. As always, it was great to be in a larger city. Everything you could have needed was within 10 minutes. We were coming off of two really remote locations so there were some things I was needing to do and stock up on.

Both Dan and I had previously lived in the Phoenix area (before knowing each other) and were looking forward to checking out some aspects of it again. I was able to eat two times at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant ever, Saigon Pho. I do not crave a lot of specific food but I have craved their egg rolls since I moved away from AZ over 10 years ago. They serve their egg rolls with mint leaves and lettuce. You wrap the mint and egg roll together in lettuce and it is an amazing combination. We also made a stop at Fibber Magees, Dan’s favorite pub from when he lived in AZ. It was a proper Irish pub and had some really great food.

We also finally made it to Dunkin territory and I was able to get my first Dunkin breakfast while on this big adventure. I have always preferred Dunkin over other chain coffee shops because they have a nice selection of bagels and good ice coffee.

Our favorite stop was at a store in Chandler called Terror Trader. They are a year round horror store and had a really cool selection of local horror vendors instead of big box store Halloween props and decorations. Normally you only have in person access to those types of vendors at an oddities expo or other themed event so it was really neat to see something like that in a more permanent setting. They also had some really awesome horror props that were on display including an entire Saw bathroom set.

Family Time

My brother and his family live in Gilbert so that was one of the main reasons I wanted to stop in the area. We met up with them for dinner at Saigon Pho one night and the other night we spent at their house for a cookout. I was really nice to spend some time with them.

I did not take a lot of photos because I sometimes get caught up in the moment and forget I am meant to be documenting everything but I did remember to pull out my camera shortly after Dave fired up the grill. I missed the moment where Dave, Drake, and Dan were all standing in front of the Traeger grill trying to figure out why there was so much more smoke than normal but I did capture the aftermath. There were multiple moments I laughed so hard I cried, or maybe it was all the smoke. It was a night to remember for sure.

Roof Maintenance

Now that we were in the Phoenix area, I was ready to get the roof work tackled. I had a general idea of what would need to be done but ultimately we would not know for sure until we could see the extent of the damage under the roof.

There were a lot of reputable RV techs in the area and I found one I was comfortable with. Initially they just came out to take a look and give an estimate. They said they were going to pull back the roof membrane but in order to do that would need remove the front AC, antenna, bathroom skylight, and bathroom fan vent. From there they would pull up the damaged sheet of plywood and replace it entirely to ensure it still provided the needed structural support. After that they would glue the roof back down and replace everything they previously removed.

Thankfully there were no unexpected surprises and it went as smoothly as it could have for how large of a project it was. It took two guys an entire day to do the work and they did it in 110 degree heat, they were amazing and I would use them again if ever in the Phoenix area.

I was able to get a few photos as they worked throughout the day. On the left you can see what it looked like once the roof membrane was pulled back and the damaged plywood had been removed. On the right is the section of wood that was damaged and finally what it looked like once it was all put back together.

Crochet

I technically started this little scene in Idyllwild, where it was starting to feel like fall, but I finished it in Chandler. I made this with the crochet thread so it is fairly small scale but I was really happy with how it came out. It’s a toad making a magic potion with a little helper rat. I think this is my favorite thing I have made so far. It was a lot of fun assembling all the finished pieces and seeing it come together as a completed scene.

Overall Rating ⭐⭐

Stay Duration: 3 weeks – August 16, 2025 – September 6, 2025

Weather: Sunny and oppressively hot – Temperature Range: 77 – 119 – Average Temp: 107

Site (Driveway in this case) ⭐⭐
- Full Hookup, 50 amp, Back-in.
- I feel like I may be being generous with the two stars for this one but at least it was a good location and full hook ups. That being said, I do not think this space should be listed as available for 5th wheels with slides on both sides. It’s too narrow. Just because it can fit, doesn’t mean it should.
- The tree that was advertised to provide shade was dead and we had to trim it to be able to back in far enough to fit. There was a lot of furniture piled up in what should have been our back yard area making it unusable. The cherry on top was the wheelbarrow of poop in the back corner from when I assume they clean up the backyard of the airbnb.
- There was a gate at the base of the driveway to close in the RV, which was nice for privacy. Unfortunately it had broken so there was no where for it to lock into place. This was fine most of the time but when it got windy or stormed the gate slapped between the truck and the 5th wheel. Luckily there was no damage and once we realized what was happening we would open it before the storms rolled through.
Campground (general area/house) ⭐
- After booking this space you receive an essay explaining the house is an Airbnb and to park on your side of the driveway. It goes on to state that we should respect each others spaces, not to bother or interacting with the people renting the house. I guess the Airbnb guest did not get the same essay because when we got there, they were parked in the RV spot. We called the owner to check and see if they could ask them to move the car but he did not answer (he promptly got back to me 2 weeks later). Eventually we knocked on the door and asked if they could move their car, thankfully they were there and did so without issue.
- Backing in was a really tight squeeze and leveling was problematic. It was also 110 while we were trying to set up and we had just driven 7 hours. Having to do things like ask someone to move their car, prune a tree, and back into a spot perfectly was frustrating.
- It was at least a nice neighborhood and good location.
Other People/Pets ⭐
- Negative stars for this one. The dogs in the house next to us barked all day. I am not talking about a few times throughout the day I am talking from the moment they woke up at 6:30am until they went to bed around 9pm. I do not understand how they were out in the heat all day every day.
Internet Connection ⭐⭐⭐
- We did use the T-Mobile internet but had issues where it would connect to towers with slow speeds. Satellite would have been fine, not a lot of trees around.
Vibes ⭐
- I was so ready to leave this space the moment we got there. I was frustrated with the guy who rented out the space because his response time was horrible and there was a lot that was not as advertised. The space was small and the neighbors dogs were driving me insane.

Scrapbook Pages

Next Stop

Cottonwood, AZ