Back to The Valley

When we first went on the road 6 years ago, our intention was to find a place to retire to, away from the cold, snowy north. We thought maybe a year or 2 of traveling and our destination would become evident. Well, here we are, starting our 7th year as nomads and sometimes it seems we are no closer to where we want to be. To be sure, we still enjoy traveling and have no real plan to stop. However, pulling the 5th wheel gets a little tiring and it limits our flexibility to sight-see.

So we went back to the Rio Grande Valley (RGV), spending almost 6 months at La Feria RV Resort, with the thought of finding a park that we like and “settling in” as permanent residents. We had been to the RVG twice before and had a general idea of where we wanted to be. We visited dozens of parks, talked with lots of people and couldn’t really come to a decision on which one we liked. Not surprisingly, at every park we visited we talked with people who said their park was absolutely the best one in the valley and that we would love it there.

We came to the conclusion that the RGV was okay to visit but we really didn’t want to live there. We are now looking to Florida for next winter and we think we have a place picked out. Of course that could always change, but that’s the plan. More on that later.

While we were in La Feria there were several places we visited that we hadn’t seen before. The end of November we attended the opening of the Gelman Stained Glass Museum in San Juan, Texas. They have a collection of stained glass from private sources and also from churches. The exhibition is very impressive and beautiful.

In December we went to Harlingen, Texas, for the Iwo Jima Memorial and Museum at the Marine Military Academy. Everyone is familiar with the flag raising on Mt. Suribachi and it was very interesting to see the statue and tour the museum. The monument is located on the campus of the Marine Military Academy, a college prep military school.

UPDATE:

Our plan for the future is to find a place to settle into, probably sell the 5th wheel and truck, then move into a “park model” RV, then buy a small motorhome to travel north with in the summer. That’s the plan and we will probably do it since we are getting a little weary of pulling the 5th wheel around. As I write this we are waiting for approval in New Port Richey at a real nice senior community. We should hear soon and I will have more details.

Meanwhile, we are at the entrance to Cape Cod, Massachusetts for the summer at one of the nicest campgrounds anywhere, Maple Park in East Wareham. This a true campground, as distinguished from an RV park in that they have all sites in a wooded, rustic setting, and offer sites for tents, pop-up capers, travel trailers, 5th wheels and motorhomes. They have 600 sites and they stay almost 100% booked up. This area was on our bucket list for several reasons: we wanted to visit the northeast part of the country; the presidential libraries and museums for JFK and FDR are both less than 2 hours from us; we want to take in baseball games at Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, and the Mets stadium; historically there is Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower, and the Pilgrim story; Cape Cod itself and, of course, the fresh seafood. Hopefully I can post some pictures in the next post. I also have some thoughts of going back and adding pictures to the earlier posts, but more on that later.