Yuma, Arizona

We stayed in Yuma nine days, arriving on February 2nd. Yuma is located close to both the California and Mexico borders, only minutes from each one. The Colorado River runs along the California/Arizona border. We had heard that Yuma was another magnet for RV’ers who are looking for a warm climate to spend their winter months. That makes a lot of sense because the average high temperature in February is 75 degrees. Beyond that, and realizing that Yuma is part of the desert, we didn’t really know what to expect. What we found out is Yuma must be the RV magnet of the WORLD!! We have never seen so many RV’s in one city before!! There are literally thousands and thousands of RV’ers in the numerous RV parks all over this town. The estimated population for 2006 was 87,423, but more than 85,000 winter visitors make Yuma their winter residence, literally doubling the number of people. Agriculture is huge here. We were again very fortunate to have access to lots of fresh citrus and many other varieties of locally grown fruits and veggies.

While we were here, we visited the Yuma swap meet, which is like a huge garage sale; we drove 80 miles to Quartzite (another winter haven for RV’ers, and in January and February each year where 2,000 vendors of rocks, gems, minerals, fossils and everything else imaginable create one of the world's largest open air flea markets); we visited Mexico again (this time in Los Algodones, in Baja California); we toured the Yuma Territorial Prison (now a museum); and we ran in the cooler mornings along the irrigation canal behind our RV Park – miles of flat road, a runner’s delight!

Tomorrow we begin an easy three day journey to Sacramento where we will stay a couple of months to visit family, ski in the Tahoe basin, visit with friends.

Mission, Texas: First Two Weeks

We arrived in Mission, Texas on December 2nd. Neither one of us have been here before, but while we were in Livingston we learned from other folks that the Rio Grande Valley is a popular place for RVer’s to spend the winter, having a climate very similar to that of the Florida Keys. The Rio Grande Valley is an area located in the southernmost tip of Texas. It lies along the northern bank of the Rio Grande, which separates Mexico from the United States. Our RV Park is probably about three miles from the Mexican border, but there is no direct entry at that point. The border crossings are numerous in this area, however, and we did make one trip into Nuevo Progreso in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas a couple of days ago. If you’ve ever been to the border towns in Mexico, it is much like you would expect. Very much set up for tourist traffic, including many, many dentists, pharmacies, and plastic surgery clinics. I attached a couple of pictures from that visit, including one of Dan enjoying some shopping! The river shot is of the Rio Grande, the natural border along Texas and Mexico.


The Rio Grande Valley region is made up of four counties:
Starr County, Hidalgo County, Willacy County, and Cameron County with a total population of 1,139,581. The largest city is Brownsville (Cameron County), followed by McAllen (Hidalgo County). We are in Hidalgo County; Brownsville is about 60 miles east of Mission. McAllen is a fairly large city and where we conduct most of our business. The weather has been very warm since we arrived, mostly having high’s in the mid to high 80’s, and lows around 70. There have been a couple of “cold” snaps where the highs only got to 65 and the lows near 40. The average this time of year is about 75.

Our RV Park sits in the middle of a citrus grove. We have access to ruby red grapefruit, lemons, oranges, and tangerines. The grapefruit is the most abundant, and it is so sweet and delicious. Dan and I bought ourselves a juicer as an early Christmas present and have been regularly juicing the grapefruit. I have included a picture of a bowl of cut up grapefruit ready to be juiced. We have been buying 18 pound bags of juicing oranges at a nearby produce stand and making fresh orange juice as well.

We are situated about two miles from Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park which is considered the crown jewel of Rio Grande Valley parks. The Park is known as the headquarters of the World Birding Center. Birders across the nation know “Bentsen” as a treasure trove of “Valley specialties” – those birds found nowhere else in the United States but deepest South Texas – and “Mexican vagrants” – rare visitors from across the Rio Grande. Some of these birds make their way to our RV Park, and so far we have seen many red cardinals and one green jay. We plan to make a day visit to the actual park soon to see all the bird visitors.


Our original plans were to stay here through December, but we may end up staying a week or two into January – the citrus fruit, the sunshine, the birds, and the over all welcome to the “Winter Texans” in this area is very pleasant! We’ll see what January brings when the time comes!!