Friday, January 4, 2008 (DAY 8) This was a designated shopping day, our having put it off too long already. We needed a longer sewer hose and wanted a solar battery charger for the chassis battery. Combined with needing groceries, we trudged off to Wal-Mart, Camping World, and McDonald’s. After lunch, Kay and I played shuffleboard with Vicky and Larry. Larry has been an excellent teacher, and I am really getting hooked on the game. However, we don’t have shuffleboard courts in Mountain Home! Kay has a great eye, and is learning to adjust the speed of the disc. She has the potential to be a very good player. We both were hungry for fried chicken, and there is a Church’s behind us, so we had a fried chicken dinner. We bypassed bingo, read instead (I have read 5 books already on this trip), and turned in for the evening about 10 PM.

Thursday, January 3, 2008 (DAY 7) Wednesday evening was cold by Rio Grande Valley standards, with lows down in the 30s. We slept great in the cold temperature, but turned the furnace on in the AM to warm things up a bit. Kay went shopping with Vicky and some other ladies at the park. It was a nice, quiet cool day. The park sponsored a country western Karoke and dance; we attended, but since I did not know the Two Step or the waltz, we didn’t dance. Also, most of the folks there knew to bring their own booze, we weren’t real drinkers, none of our new friends attended, and we sat at a table by ourselves; consequently, we didn’t feel too much a part of the evening.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008 (DAY 6) Another lazy day—no way. Today included line dancing lessons, followed by two-mile walk, then a concert by a bluegrass/folk group, the Long Ago Band. This group was funny, played a variety of instruments, and sang pretty good. They perform regularly at Mountain View, AR, and Branson, MO. Back to the line dancing lessons; I promised Kay when we decided to get married, that if she would learn to fly fish, I would learn to dance. She held up her end of the bargain, and it is time to hold up mine. I was the only male in a class of 25 or so women, most having line-danced before. I was also probably the youngest. Our instructor was 75ish, but good. We danced for an hour, and my feet only got tangled a couple hundred times. Many times I would be backward and everyone else forward, or on the wrong side, etc. Talk about a duck out of water. Next line dancing lesson is 2 weeks. Jerry and Doris took Kay to McAllen where she picked up a rental car from Alamo. She ended up with a Chevrolet HHR, which we had wanted to try anyway. We got a good rate of less than $500 for 4 weeks. A cold front came in the afternoon, dropping temperatures into the 50s.

Saturday, January 5, 2008 (DAY 9) We joined our new friends for breakfast in Weslaco; a good restaurant but nothing to write home about. Visiting with the Canadian folks, however, was a treat, as we continue to learn about Canada. It seems that most of the Canadians down here have houses in Canada, a cottage on a Canadian lake, an RV, and a place down here as well. After returning from breakfast, I washed Dunn Gone—a laborious process that took two hours—and she was dirty from the trip down through rain and road debris. Kay went shopping, and didn’t return home until 3:30 PM, a lengthy shopping trip for her. I exercised the generator, turning the air conditioner on for the day, and began working on this journal, considering I had not begun writing anything at all. After a late lunch, I dropped the 5 books by the library, and picked up 4 more. Kay returned from her shopping trip, we walked our one hour, Kay practiced a song for church, we played shuffleboard (and I got beat like a drum), and we settled in for the evening.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008 (DAY 5)  I slept to almost 9 AM. After waking, Dunn Gone got a good cleaning, as did our laundry. What a way to start the new year. Next, the peas were prepared by sautéing celery, onion, and bell pepper in bacon grease, and adding the cooked vegetables to the 5 cans of peas Kay bought yesterday. We joined Vicky and Larry, and their neighbor, Lynette, for lunch of ham, potatoes, candied carrots, black-eyed peas, creamed corn, and rolls. We returned home for laundry, and a quiet afternoon and evening, with me finishing the second book of the trip. Larry brought over the largest lemon either of us had ever seen. It was the size of a cantaloupe (see photo). Oh yeah, the Razorback football team got a good licking from the University of Missouri.

Monday, December 31, 2007 (DAY 4) The last day of 2007, and another busy one to boot! It’s been quite a year, and except for getting older, I don’t regret seeing it go away. Today was our first 9 AM “Activity and Business” meeting at Pine to Palm Resort Park. (See paragraph which follows for our take on Pine to Palm Resort Park). After learning what was on tap for the next few days, we ventured into Mexico, visiting churches Vicky and Larry have significantly supported. Larry’s energy is boundless, and he gives tremendously to help the churches, and especially the children of Progresso, Mexico. The church preachers have done much with little, and continue to upgrade their facilities. For us it would be little, but for them it is a lot. Progresso arid, dusty, and heavily populated, the former two in stark contrast with the Rio Grande Valley in the USA just 6 miles away. We had lunch at a really nice restaurant, Arturo’s, and the food was delicious. We crossed back across the border, with only a 5 minute wait. Our next trip to Mexico will be on foot to buy vanilla, etc. to take home. Vickie invited us to lunch on New Year’s Day, and in keeping with our southern heritage and tradition, we offered to cook black-eyed peas; Kay asked to stop at a grocery store to purchase dried peas for our own recipe. She found that they do not exist in the Rio Grande Valley, though one can find dried pintos and black beans at all the stores. She settled for canned peas, and bought celery, pepper, onion, and bacon to entice the flavor. We were also invited out for New Year’s Eve dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, and joined our ready-made friends at 7:45 PM. After a one-hour wait, we were seated, ordered off the menu, and ate—an OK place, but nothing to write home about. Both Kay and I brought food home. We adjourned to a new friend’s place for more food, games, and ushering in the New Year. We played Apples to Apples, and really had a good time. 2008 arrived, almost by surprise, we celebrated for a few minutes, and retired for the evening.
ABOUT PINE TO PALM RESORT PARK Pine to Palm Resort Park is somewhat typical of the “parks” in the Rio Grande Valley, though somewhat different in that it is owned by snowbird resident shareholders via a company named Mantex Corporation, short for Manitoba and Texas, since a majority of the “residents” are from Canada. Also, the park has very few RVs, perhaps 15 among the 400+ dwellings. Most of the park consists of older mobile homes, older travel trailers, and older park models, the originals not much bigger than our motor home, and all of which have been converted into permanent residences. These dwellings form a menagerie of houses, and residents continuously work to enlarge and improve them. Most are built to the extremities of the lot; the lots belong to the corporation. Pine to Palm is a 55+ community, but the average age is well into the 70s. Kay and I may be the youngest couple here. Folks walk and ride bicycles, there is little driving inside the park, and almost all the residents know each other. Shuffleboard, or shuffling as it is called, is really big and the courts are constantly in use. There are no minorities living in the park. Most of the residents are from Manitoba, with a few from Ontario and Saskatchewan. US residents are from Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Arkansas, with a sprinkling from other states. All are friendly and speak to you as you walk or as they pass your residence. They are very active! Pine to Palm has several meeting rooms of various sizes, a commercial kitchen, swimming pool, hot tub, and library. The facilities are kept clean.

Sunday, December 30, 2007 (DAY 3) After a good night’s rest, we awoke and readied ourselves for church at 9:00 AM. Several couples from our church in Mountain Home began a church in the Pine to Palm Resort Park about 6 years ago. It is held in the meeting center, and has grown to about 200. We enjoyed the non-denominational service, which lasted for only an hour, followed by a fellowship period with coffee and donuts. Both the music and message were good. Jerry and Doris Hart, who live in Branson, MO, April through October, conducted the service; Doris is the younger sister of Carolyn King, and Jerry is her husband. Following the fellowship, we were invited out to eat with Vickie and Larry and their friends at Luby’s. Both Kay and I had a vegetable plate, and it was so good after all the sandwiches, etc. After lunch, we went to the flea market and fruit and vegetable market. The fruit is sweet and tasty. We bought a pineapple and oranges. We returned to Dunn Gone at Pine to Palm for what we thought was the end of the day, and rested and relaxed. We then found out about a Jam Session (see photo) at one of Vickie and Larry’s friends and neighbors, beginning at 6:30 PM, and took our lawn chairs to listen. After a few songs, Kay was summoned to the microphone, where she sang a beautiful song, blowing everyone away with her great singing voice. After a few more songs, Kay and I were both were summoned to the microphones to sing, except that I didn’t know any songs. After blundering through a few old southern gospel tunes, we returned to our seats to just listen. The “band” consisted of 3 keyboards, 2 accordions, 1 trombone, 1 trumpet, 1 saxophone, and 1 guitar, and the musicians were pretty good. After an hour and a half, we walked back to Dunn Gone, and went to bed early.

Saturday, December 29, 2007 (DAY 2) “Camping” in Texas last night allowed us to fill in another state on our RVing map. The tight quarters, without slides extended, and the knee brace, and the lack of my CPAP machine kept me from sleeping soundly. Apparently, receptacles aren’t wired into the inverter. We’ll have to work on this before our next long trip. Kay seemed to sleep OK except for my tossing and turning. I arose about 5:00 AM and turned on the heater—again, another opportunity to try the house batteries and inverter; all worked great. Next, we each hit the Wal-Mart for some pastry and a rest stop. We departed Palestine at 6:30 AM, traveling south on US Hwy 59. We both are really enjoying “Dunn Gone” and she drives really well. One thing we noticed about Texas highways was the wide shoulders, and slow drivers pulling onto the shoulders to allow faster vehicles to pass. The right knee really bothered me, even with the brace. Taking 3 Tylenol at a time as I did yesterday did not seem to lessen the pain. Finally, after grimacing most of the morning, we stopped at a nice picnic area on the right side of the highway. This picnic area was surrounded by live oaks and was very nice (see photo). I pulled the blasted knee brace off and discovered it had left two large sores where it rubbed the skin off. We traveled further south, and the pain dissipated. We stopped at Victoria, TX, for refueling for both us and Dunn Gone (9.4 MPG). We picked our stop based on seeing a Whataburger, both of us remembering the great one near Arkansas Tech in Russellville. These are not the same, but the ones in Texas still have nice hamburgers. We continued on south, and it seemed like the closer we got, the faster I drove, keeping the cruise control set at 65 MPG; Texas highways are really nice. Garmini said we would arrive about 3:10 PM, so Kay called Larry and Vicky Wortham, our friends from church who snowbird in Weslaco, to let them know. Sure enough, we pulled into Weslaco at 3:10 PM. We entered a Valero gasoline station to fill-up before parking Dunn Gone—tight quarters for Dunn Gone as it was crowded with a number of Mexicans who appeared to have crossed the border, exchanging stuff among 3 or 4 cars. After a lengthy wait, we maneuvered ourselves near a pump, and tried the credit card—it did not work; next, tried the debit card—it did not work; finally, Kay went in and they said, “Yeah, that pump is not working with cards today.” I kept my cool, we filled-up (9.1 MPG), and headed to Pine to Palm Resort Park. Vicky and Larry were waiting for us, and escorted us to our sight among permanent park model trailers (more about that later). We leveled, hooked up electricity and water, extended the slides, and turned the air conditions on! It was warm in south Texas! Larry gave us a quick tour of Pine to Palm Resort Park, pointing out all the key facilities. After settling in, Vicky and Larry treated us to a Tex-Mex dinner in town, with wonderful food, including fresh salsa. We returned to Pine to Palm, relaxed a bit, and went to bed.

Friday, December 28, 2007  Sleep did not come easily last night as the excitement for our first trip to south Texas as snowbirds was upon us. Awakening at 5:00 AM, the finishing steps readying “Dunn Gone” for the trip were completed, as was last minute packing, or rather throwing things in that we thought might be needed. The chassis battery had run down because of the GPS and other toys had been plugged in for several days. It gave us an opportunity to try the house batteries to start the engine, and it started without a hitch. It was cold, hovering near 32 degrees, as we departed about 7:30 AM. The first hour was uneventful, but then we saw a rather large amount of snow on the side of the road south of Mountain View, and noted the temperature was occasionally below freezing; no ice on the road though, thankfully, though we took it slow and easy (see photo). We traveled AR Hwy 5 south to Cabot, then US Hwy 67/167 to North Little Rock, where we stopped at Sam’s Club at 10:30 AM to return a Christmas gift. While Kay was in the store, I filled up with gas, and noted we averaged slightly over 9.0 MPG, even though Dunn Gone had been started several times and the 4000W generator exercised a few times as well. After filling the tank, I met Kay in Sam’s Club where we shared a hot dog and soda. We departed at 11:00 AM taking US Hwy 67/167 to I-30, traveling south to Texarkana. We had intended to spend the night in Texarkana, but it was only 2:30 PM so we headed on down the road, taking US 59 south. By the way, the GPS—Garmini as Kay calls her—is great, and has kept us on the straight and narrow. Kay reprogrammed Garmini to reflect our changed stops. We are learning to write down addresses of our stops for programming purposes. Our next stop was at Palestine, TX, at Wal-Mart where we refueled (9.6 MPG), bought a knee brace, and spent the night dry-camping. It was our first time to dry-camp in a parking lot. I had read on RV.net that it was not polite to extend the slides so needless to say, we were a little cramped in our bed.

We’re from the beautiful Twin Lakes area in northern Arkansas–and are exploring the Lower Rio Grande Valley for the first time. Because we had heard so much about wintering in Texas, we thought we’d give it a try. Besides, fly fishing at home is not too good this time of year. Please join us as we explore the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and the unique sub-culture of resort park living.