Welcome to the Rio Grande Valley!

After three long days of driving (by our normal standards) we were glad to start seeing signs of our arrival into the sub-tropical zone of the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). Denisa loves the game of looking for the first palm trees, which show up next to houses, and then in the median of the highway.

The game gets really fun as we drive further south and there are too many palms to count as they are everywhere!

We pulled into our destination at Bentsen Grove Resort in Mission, Texas, in the afternoon. As we climbed out of the motor home, we already were greeted by friends we met in previous years that were welcoming us back for another month. Denisa's Mother has wintered here for more than 30 years, and she met us when we arrived. It felt good to return.

It was truly a warm welcome as we were glad to soak in temperatures in the 70s with sunny skies. 70 degrees certainly sounds much better than the -7 degrees we had on New Year's in Oklahoma!

Many of the winter residents here told us about the cool November and December in the RGV, with too much rain and too little sunshine. So they are hoping that 2018 is starting a new resolution with these sun-shiny days. We thought it was funny to see this very chilly temperature reading along the expressway, especially since we were wearing shorts at the time.

Mark backed the motor home into the same site we camped in last year. We pick our site based on the number of fruit trees around it, and this one has several good trees.

We have learned from experience that not all oranges that look good will actually taste good. This beautiful tree on our passenger side looks delicious, but we have found that it tastes more like battery acid than orange juice.

Besides six fruit trees, we have one other tree at our camping site--a very tall palm. Not much shade from this guy, but we know that Denisa likes her palm trees!

While the diesel engine was still running and before we had the jacks down, Denisa was already out of the motor home and picking her first orange of the season. We have a collection of fresh-picked oranges, grape fruit and tangerines in our kitchen. That big bowl should stay full for the next month while we enjoy our time here at Bentsen Grove Resort.

After our cold December, we're certainly enjoying the sunshine here. Welcome to the Rio Grand Valley!