Rio Grande Valley makes Nick's Top 10 list.

I read Nick Russell's Blog every morning at 4:30am. Nick is the well known Editor of the Gypsy Journal RV'ers newspaper. Nick has also published many books on RVing and traveling and before he and Terry began full-timing, he was a Newspaper Journalist, Reporter and Editor. We have attended many of the annual and semi-annual rallies that they put on each year and have become quite good friends with them. I love to read his work. Yesterday his Blog was titled "TEN LEAST FAVORITE PLACES". That caught my eye very quickly. Nick travels a lot of places and studies them all closely and reports on them all. It was interesting to see the first one he mentioned:
(quote)
While this list reflects just our impression, and we know RVers that love some of the same places we dislike, here are our Top (or actually Bottom) Ten, in no particular order.


1. The Rio Grande Valley in Texas – Most RVers just refer to it as “The Valley,” a stretch of land that begins down in southwest Texas at Brownsville, and stretches north past Mission. This is a popular snowbird roost, where you can find RV parks in every price range, and with every kind (or lack of) amenity. A lot of people love it, but to us it was just crowded, lacking in scenic beauty, and unappealing in every way. What grass there is was full of thorns that stab your feet, and the general RVer population is so old that people joke that “every time you hear an ambulance siren, another RV site just became available.” (unquote)

Read Nick's entire Blog here:  Nick's Blog

Most of you know that The Valley is not my favorite place either. Why people flock there the way they do baffles me...maybe they just don't travel much and haven't seen many other places. It's sure not a place where I would want to stay very long. It works out fine for us and I enjoy it for a couple months, but to plan on staying there much longer, winter after winter, is out of the picture.

Now our RV Park, thats a different story. It's wonderful, and the population in it is not OLD'er...'cept for me that is! I am no doubt the "OLDEST" one there and shucks, when we hear the ambulance siren, it's because some young lady fell off the ladder and broke her leg....:-).  (Hugs to ya girl!)

If we could, we would hook on to RETAMA VILLAGE and bring it with us everywhere we go. I love it. I'm not the least bit sorry we have a nice place there and will continue to enjoy it for a couple months every winter for several years. The question I have is...why have an RV with "WHEELS" if you're gonna stay in one spot all the time? Especially the first 10 years. But I guess it's like my dear "patient" Ms Pat says "it's each to their own". That says it all !

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch, we continue with our great rides out into the Desert. Thursday we asked our neighbors and long time friends Paul and Nancy Wilson to take us on a Super Ride!! Paul and Nancy have been 4-wheeling this entire area for many, many years and they really know all the trails extremely well. David and Norma Turner, Paul and Nancy's kids, who are our neighbors also, joined us for the ride, along with Larry and Geri Gustafson.  That made a total of 8. Paul was the leader and he took us on a beautiful ride up into the foothills of the mountains, in and around many of the small and large mine's, where several folks have "staked" a claim and continue to search for GOLD. With the price of gold nowadays, mining for it has really increased in popularity. As you can see from the picture above at one of our stops, it is a breathtaking place. We traveled a distance of nearly 30 miles all total. It was a gorgeous day, perfect weather and temps. Everyone really had a SUPER time.   Thanks Paul!!  You led us on another spectacular ride.

Last Wednesday we again spent the entire day in Phoenix with medical checkups and talking to Drs. Now next Thursday we have to do the same thing with another set of Drs. You know, they will keep checking until they find something they can treat you for......sure as shootin'.  I told Ms Pat, I'm about done with it. My attention span is very short and I'm about to say to heck with it.  Let nature take its course. We'll never get outta this world alive anyhow.  I don't know a soul that has here-to-fore....Do You?

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!

Travel safe and ENJOY!!!

Mike

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