Hummingbird Cove RV Park for the Holidays and Beyond

December 1, 2016 - January 31, 2017
Hummingbird Cove RV Park
Rio Hondo TX

After our short stay in New Braunfels TX, we headed down to the Rio Grande Valley for the next couple months.  It was a time to relax and have some down time before we head out in the spring.

In the evenings, there was always a game at the clubhouse (usually cards) and they had loads of activities almost every day.  Field trips and speakers are on the agenda and potlucks were a way to meet other residents.  Once in a while there was a fish fry when there was enough fish in the freezer.  Everyone brings a dish to share and it's well attended!  

During the Christmas holidays, they sponsored a parade of golf carts. Anyone who had a cart was welcomed to participate and many folks did!

My brother flew in from Florida and spent Christmas with us.  We went on the nature tour at Laguna Altascosa and had a delicious potluck holiday dinner at the clubhouse.

These are some of the gifts I received from my daughters.

Peggy, Patricia and their husbands came down for a few days.  We went to Hugh Ramsey Nature Park in Harlingen and saw a couple Javelina from our blind! 

And we visited the county park nearby, Adolf Thomae Park. There are fishing piers as well as camping and a boat launch along the Arroyo Colorado River.  

Burning a field of sugar cane.  

It takes over a year for sugar cane to mature in the fields.  When they are ready, they post warnings to people who are hiding in the sugar cane fields.  When the wind is right, they burn the fields before harvesting. The fire burns off the leaves leaving just the stalk, reducing the amount of manual labor.

Harlingen has excellent medical facilities.  I got my new C-PAP which I had gone without for months,  Shelly had eye surgery to remove a cataract and also saw an oncologist.  There are hospitals, clinics and Dr. offices everywhere. We go to a family clinic in Rio Hondo for checkups and prescriptions.  Just so you know.  

You have to eat at Chili Willies before you leave!  A nice homey place to relax and eat to your heart's content. 

See you soon in Rockport TX!

Harlingen TX Onions

Onion Fields, Harlingen TX

We stayed 6 weeks until mid-April 2016 at the Encore Tropic Winds RV Resort 

in Harlingen TX. 

 We were surrounded by onion fields and were able to take advantage of the harvest.  Our neighbors asked if we got our onions so one day we went out and gleaned the fields and filled our bags.  There were so many onions left on the ground and everyone in the park got their share of onions after the harvest.  A few days later the onions were plowed under, ready for the next crop.

  

Onions ready to be picked up by trucks to be repackaged and sold to local stores.

Not yet harvested but they are huge! (We stole one.)

These are some of the onions we gleaned.

 

This field was harvested at the back of the park but we were prohibited from gleaning. They blocked off the road and once they picked up the bags of onion the fields were plowed.

Lost opportunity.

We hope to return to the area next year. 
We love the park, the people, the location.
  

We left Harlingen on April 17, 2016 and 
arrived in Rockport the same day.  

Til next year!

Harlingen TX

Harlingen TX, Tropic Winds RV Resort.  March 4 - April 17, 2016.

We were thrilled to pull out of Port Mansfield and head toward Harlingen TX.  We picked Tropic Winds RV Resort (Encore) for our next stop. It was the nicest and friendliest of all the Encore resorts.

LazyDays gave us 2 free camping weeks at any Encore park.  We then discovered that Encore was also running a special so we ended up staying for 6 weeks for $199/month with full hook-ups, cable, WiFi, the works!  A great deal that we took advantage of since we probably won't see anything like it again.   

The dog park was a hit and the Beagles made lots of friends!

Our spot on Sunshine St.  We were at the very end across from the dog park and bird sanctuary.  They had a rule not to put out bird or hummingbird feeders.  

Out and about, we kept passing a train with turbine propellers.  

  

So we stopped to take some pictures.  The propellers were loaded from the train cars onto trucks to be taken to their destination.  There were other components but the propellers were the most impressive. Certainly it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience because a week later they were gone.

Most of the Winter Texans were pulling out in March and April, so by the time we left, there were lots of empty spaces.  Activities stop the end of March as do the first-responders. There are a few folks who stay year-round, mostly in the Park models.  

The same holds true of the other parks we stayed in around the Rio Grande Valley.

  

Stay tuned for Part II at Tropic Winds for more of our adventures!