Rio Grande Valley; Winter Texans

After a great, but long year of travels, we have arrived at our winter destination in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of Texas. The RGV is in the very southernmost tip of Texas. Our resort is actually only five miles from the Mexican border! And it is a beautiful RV resort with tons of activities. We are officially Winter Texans now! More on that later…

Travel Day

The travel day was only 176 easy files from the Pioneer RV Resort near Port Aransas, Texas. Our drive started in a northwest direction through Corpus, then over to US-77 and a straight shot down to Harlingen Texas. The border and immigration people had routine roadblocks set up, but only for the northbound lanes. It seems there is no issue with illegals heading south! At Harlingen, we took I-2/US-83 west a few miles to the heart of the RGV.

Llano Grande RV Resort and Country Club

Our RV resort, the Llano Grande RV Resort (LINK), in Mercedes Texas, has been here for maybe 30 years, although the North section where we are location is just a few years old. I have heard that there are a hundred RV parks in the RGV as it is an extremely popular area for retired folks to spend the winter months.

Our resort is one of the nicer ones down here. Pat did a great job in selecting it. It is pronounced “Yano Grande” with the double L pronounced as a Y and the E as an A. It’s obvious, right? You will certainly never become bored at this place! We are here from Dec 15th through March 31st. Three plus months to stay in one place without hitching up!

Here is a partial list of activities:

Here are some of the amenities:

• Gated community with 24-hour gate hosts
• Spacious RV sites, all with concrete pads and 30/50 amp service
• Mobile homes, cottages and park models
• Fully furnished apartments
• Championship, 6700 yard 18-hole golf course
• 3 heated swimming pools; 2 with hot tubs
• 4 lighted tennis courts
• 4 lighted pickleball courts
• 18 shuffleboard courts
• Cable TV/Internet – over 100 TV channels and secure internet using cable wireless modems
• Large clubhouse and several activities buildings
• Library
• Art studio
• Rock shop
• Woodshop featuring modern commercial equipment, finishing room and storage lockers
• 3 gazebos for neighborhood gatherings

I absolutely love it at this park and have plugged into many of the activities including art lessons, pickleball lessons, shuffleboard, ping pong, swimming, pool hall, concerts and other too numerous to list! It will be hard to leave the end of March.

The park also has a huge new Event Center with a bar and restaurant where they hold twice weekly happy hours with music, a weekly karaoke, and concerts from big name acts from Nashville, Branson, and other places.

Our plan was to go back to wintering (is that a word?) in Florida next year, but this place is certainly competing with those plans. Or maybe the year after next.

Rio Grande Valley

The Rio Grande Valley is an area located in the southernmost tip of South Texas. It lies along the northern bank of the Rio Grande, which separates Mexico from the United States. It is the area from Brownsville to Mission Texas.

A very agricultural area requiring irrigation and there are many citrus orchards. The demographics are 92% hispanic and the language is 80% spanish and 20% english. Anywhere we are out and about, spanish is spoken almost entirely, although the retail and restaurant workers will also speak english for us Winter Texans.

There are 1.3 million people in the entire valley and that number has grown over the last few years due to the warm and fair climate. Only a small stretch of Florida is more southern geographically.

Winter Texans

Florida has its snowbirds and Texas has Winter Texans, although there seems to be a big difference. They are both people from Up North who migrate south during the winter months. And they do kind of look similar.

The differences are that the Winter Texans here in the RGV are very welcomed by locals. At stores, restaurants, services, you name it, they are all very friendly and welcoming. I guess that we are a huge part of their economy.

In Florida, the snowbirds are kind of looked at like more of a nuisance due to the congested roadways in the winter, and long lines elsewhere. Perhaps it may be due to most of the Florida snowbirds come from the US Northeast. Just saying…

The Winter Texans all come from Up North too, but since this is so far west, very few from the US Northeast come out here. Most are from central US and Canada. A very friendly bunch of folks.

And yes, Up North has become a proper noun down here.

Living at a 55 and over place, I had always pictured a life of bingo games, wearing lime green pants and white shoes, clipping coupons, and driving with the turn signal on. While some of that may be true, I have found it to be very active and fun lifestyle.

Other Notes

• The weather here has been very mild.  When we arrived on December 15th, the next 10 days had temps right at 80 degrees and sunny every day.  Then it cooled off a bit with highs in the low 70’s.  Only had rain a couple of times. See climate data below.
• We have not been across the border as yet, but will try it soon. I hear the drug cartel keeps it safe for tourists. Hmmm.
• We have had many activities that I will update in another blog soon.

We have now been here for over a month and enjoying being a Winter Texan. I just need to buy the Texan hat and some boots to make it official, but no lime green pants!

Take care and God Bless.