Settling in at the Rio Grande Valley

After a fast trip across Texas, we are nestled into our site at Bentsen Grove Resort in Mission, Texas.  Denisa loves that line of orange trees underneath the sign as we drove in.

 
As we went into the office to do paperwork, we were greeted by the advice to hurry on to the resort cafe for lunch before it closed.  We ordered a single meat hamburger, and the guy at the grill recognized us from last year.  He turned our regular into a double burger as a welcome back gift.  Welcome to the friendly folks at Bentsen Grove!

We did something we haven't done since we started living in our motor home full-time--we paid in advance for a month at an RV Park.  We stayed here last year and liked it, and know we will like it again.  But the real reason we came here again is that Denisa's Mother stays here too, so we get to see her every day this month.  She had a tasty home-cooked meal ready for us that first evening we arrived.  Mark has been helping her with honey-do projects like hanging Christmas lights and fixing her I-Pad.  We think she likes to see her daughter Denisa, but we know she really likes to see her son-in-law.

We spent the first couple days getting the motor home settled and cleaned after being in storage.  The slush from the icy roads covered the outside of the motor home and the car.  We had so much road grime that we couldn't even see out of the back-up cameras.  This is the dirtiest the motor home has been since we started traveling.

The inside also needed cleaning and organizing since it stood empty for almost two months.  Mark spent his first day cleaning while Denisa got right into the swing of activities at the park.  On her first full day she went to exercise class, sang at church choir practice, played pickle ball, bought lots of fresh fruit and vegetables at the produce truck, found an empty piano to play at the annex, and went for a swim at the pool.  She got lots of use out of the resort amenities on her first day.

We are also eating lots of free citrus from the trees around us.  We're in the same site as last year, with a grapefruit tree right behind us.  You could literally sit on that dirty back bumper and pick fruit.  We have been picking one fresh from the tree each morning for breakfast.

On the driver's side of the motor home we have our own personal orange juice tree.  We're here almost two months earlier than last year, so some of the citrus is still green.  We have found that even though they look green, they are still orange and nice inside.

 We also have free grazing rights on Denisa's Mother's tangerine, grapefruit, and navel orange trees.  It's a sweet and juicy thing settling into life in the Rio Grande Valley!