The 2006 Travels of Richard n Shirley

All the miles this week are hard on this old body. I'm tired and DW is too. Riding is also tiring. We got the suv on 9/17 and as of today its got 3660 miles on it. And we tow it behind the rv when we move. We do like the space it provides. Got a place to put the golf bags (2), brake and DW dish.

Let me add that the SeaWind RV Resort we are staying is pretty nice and its $250 a month which is much lower than the valley. After our two trips, this park could go for $350-$400 for the large parking space and the all around looks. Its got the perks your looking for too. The only reason we are moving is we have never been down here and we want to look around. We have already spent the difference in car gas and we aren't there yet.

DW is house cleaning getting ready for the move. I'll do my outside service on the rv and get it ready. And I'll do my inside dusting. More will be posted once we move and get settled monday. See ya then with the latest update.

Continuing our rv park search from tuesday, we left this morning about 9:15 am and got back at dusk which is 5:30 pm and about 326 more miles. This trip we went to US83 west to Mission. We stopped at those we researched on the web and on the list we had.

This is the SPI from our tuesday trip back across the causeway bridge to the mainland. All the pics we took are in our photo links.

On our way back we stopped at the Pleasant Valley Ranch in Mission, TX. Llano Grande Lake Park in Mercedes, TX and the Tip of Texas in


Pharr, TX. We did stop at some others but they
will remain without further mention. Most were just to run down.

The Pleasant Valley Ranch, 956-580-2940/800-257-4497, was nice. One of the residents was very friendly. There sights are wider than most others. There is asphalt drives with concrete patio and some with concrete parking. A few trees but no grass. And across the street from the golf course. The rate was $150 w/elec for a week and $275 to $325 for the monthly. Nice place and well kept.


The last park we stopped at on our way back up US281 was the Tip of Texas RV Resort, 956-787-9959, in Pharr, TX. Their rates were $175.21 weekly w/elec and $480.31 + elec and wifi was not free. This is a friendly park with asphalt drives and some grass. A nice, well kept park with larger than some spaces.

The place of our choice is the Llano Grande Lake Park, 800-656-2638, in Mercedes, TX. We liked this park the best of the ones we did see. The spaces were larger, with all gravel and concrete parking. Rodes are asphalt. The rates are $168 for backin, $174 for pull thru w/elec and $275-$400 for december + elec. They have five, 5, different areas to park and the rates are priced accordingly. The newest spaces are wider and the highest price. Wifi is included but not yet available at all spaces. There is grass, flowers, etc and all this was neatly maintained. There is a golf course across the fence from the park.

All the parks I have mentioned greeted us warmly and were very interested in "making the sale". Only one of the parks could have been more interested in us. All of the parks were well kept, had the perks (rec hall, pool, etc) and were friendly. Even the residents waved at us. There are more parks but time and location made it impossible to see them. As I stated earlier, we spent some 8 hours driving and looking.

We will take the monthly rate there and arrive 11/27 and probably leave 12/22. DW has a flight to DFW on 12/27 with a 1/4/07 return. We are thinking of this flight from Laredo vs McAllen. This puts the rv, and me and the cat, in the state park there with water and elec at $12 per day.
And there is a golf course and fishing there and no neighbors close enough to hear them breathing. Remember fishing is free at state parks.

We will move monday, 11/27 and make the drive down US281 to Mercedes to our next stop. Be advised of the road construction on US83 from US77 to McAllen. The state is putting in a new road bed with new access roads. Warning signs of narrow roads with concrete barriers on both sides. Lots of detours. That is why we will be going down US281 to miss nearly all of the road mess. Hope to see some of you in the park this december.

We went to the tip of Texas to see if we could find a place to move to. We drove to South Padre Is first to see the Destination RV Resort ant the county park, Isla Blanca Park, for a weeks stay. Both are very nice. The Destination rate for a week is what we would be looking for for a months stay. The county park rate was $144 for a week. Both are very, very nice. As we were to find out, they were the standard to judge the others by. This is the causeway to the island from the main land. I believe its called the Queen Isabella. The main spans fell when the bridge was struck by a barge.

Here is a close up of the bridge from along way off.

From SPI we went to Port Isabel to look at rv parks. Those we did see and we saw most of them were crowded, narrow, and in need of some major upkeep. So narrow that your awning would hit the rig next to you. So narrow that I would not want to try to put my 36 foot in a spot. In a couple of parks, they were literally on the end of the road and the area was to small to even put a condo so they called it an rv park.



Except for the one across the draw bridge, they were so unkeep that they classified as trailer salvage yard without the people being included.


We left there and headed back toward Harlingen on TX100. There were two nice parks on the way. One was an Encore park associated with 1000 trails. It was very nice. There November special was $99 for a week plus $3 per day. We missed that.The other, First Colony MH and RV Park, was across the street and fairly new, not many there. The current weekly is $140, w/elec, and $325, + elec, for the first month.
All this was on the tuesday trip, 346 miles down and back.

We took a day trip today. It was an ALL DAY trip. We must have drove 250 miles.

This is one of the many sights we saw but that is for a later post than today.







We did take a day trip tuesday around the area and this is from here in Rivera. Its the old bank that closed in the past.

Never know what you will see if you dont stop and smell the roses.




Yesterday afternoon while sitting in the rv, a couple of the local residents braved the cool wind to try their hand at kit flying.

There is a hubby and wife out there doing their thing.

We had a better normal wind and it waas a problem with these kits.

For more of the kit flying, see our photo link.

BURRRRRR! Woke up to a cold 40 this morning. It has been 39 and is suppose to get to 72 this afternoon. Its a nicer 54 in Port Isabel with a 74 forecast.

I notice that its 35 at home, Weatherford, and 41 at DFW. Thats colder and the high is to be 67 at home. Home is where we garaged the Cavalier till we get back. This gives DW a car to drive too.

This bird was behind us "fishing" along the edge of the lake. The lake is fresh water and home to some geese which are in another pic.

We will have turkey day at a church down the road. From what we are told, its a yearly affair. For the $6.00 per person, its a way for them to raise some cash for their coffiers at the same time feeding us poor lost soles that will not be fixing a turkey or chicken dinner. Works for them and works for us.

Don't have any plans for the day but lets see what the day brings. We my go to the RGV and sightsee after all. I better charge the AA for the camera.

The afternoon post update:

No, we didn't go there.

In the book of Texas historical signs, is a sign about the Indians that were here and their burial grounds. We went searching for that sign. The instructions said, "US77 Parkway" and "8.5 miles east". Just what is meant by "parkway" and where and on what 8.5 miles east. Dw drove from here to the US77 divided highway and headed south. After some discusion, we turned around and came back to Rivera Where upon I saw a sign saying "Historical Markers" and pointing east. We turned right and went about two blocks and pulled over and re-read the location.

Now, a parkway to me is the separation between the roadway of a divided highway. We turned back to the highway where we saw they signs and there they were. In a diamond shape piece of land under the palms but not between the roads, there were two markers. DW got out and went over, read them, came back and said "thats them". They are located at the intersection of CR771 and US77 at the turn. Real easy to miss. That was our day trip. Really took about an hour and it was lunch time. Back to the rv for lunch.

Tomorrow is the trip south. Will be all day so a post will be late afternoon. And I got the big kids playing with the kits today.

We have a paved spot with a side yard of gravel and a table. Our neighbor is 10 feet to the left and 15 feet to the right. We are 36 foot long and there is more than enough room for a 45 foot bus.

This pic is of the left side yard showing the neighbors spot. The tree is more to the east, Opps-make that west, so it isn't a problem when it is full grown.

The brown grass been killed with spray as it is creeping into the drive.



This pic is of our right side and our neighbor. We love the lake to our back.

There is good sea food at the Baffin Bay Cafe where we went for lunch. We eat out on moving day and we are stuffed. We had a fish fillet, butterfly large shrimp, oysters, french fries, onion rings, texas toast and a small bowl of red beans. Yummy. $9.95 each plus drink.

There is another place that serves family style and we will give it a try another day.

Mileage: 85 from the last campground.
Temp: 71 with a morning low of 46 and a forecast of 72, clear with a east wind of 10-15.
GPS: N27*18.993, W27* 40.960, DW 145, 54.2, -26.1 skew.

This is the closeup of the cow we saw at the King Ranch day trip the other day. I sure hope you have enjoyed our pics and adventures so far.

We will be moving tomorrow and going south to the Seawind RV Resort east of Rivera, TX off TX628. We went to the park on that day trip to find the park and see what it looked like for our next stay of a week.

This is a nice park and we will be doing day trips from there to the RGV to find our next stops for the next two weeks. More from there tomorrow.