Sunday, January 13, 2013

Harlingen, Texas (Winter 2012-2013)

We are often asked "Where do you spend your winters?" One of the absolute perks about this lifestyle is the ability to take your home where the weather suits your clothes (to quote Harry Nilsson), so as much as we love being Up North in the summer, come wintertime, we definitely start heading Down South. So far, we haven't settled on one location that we return to each year. We've been to Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas for one reason or another over the 6 winters (counting this one) that we've been traveling full time. This winter we returned to the Rio Grande Valley, or as the locals call it The Valley, or The RGV, in deep Southern Texas.
 
We spent about six weeks in the RGV our first winter on the road in the town of Mission ( Mission, Texas ). This time we are about 40 miles further east, in a town called Harlingen, which sits right on the Gulf of Mexico. Initially this sounded great to me! I was thinking "oh wonderful, tropical climate, warm days, nice sea breeze, and easy living!" But in reality there are a lot of hot and humid days (or freezing cold), and many days with high winds, as opposed to gentle breezes. So much for the fantasy…

But we are also here to be with some of our RV friends, to play lots of golf, and renew old friendships, and this is a definite positive. I also decided that if the world gives you lots of wind, then a pinwheel garden is an absolute must!