We're at Albertson Gardens RV Park in Pharr, Texas

Winter Texans come from Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and Michigan to live at Albertson’s Garden RV Park. Most arrive in November and stay until March when the last snowflake melts in their home state. Some have been coming to Albertson’s in Pharr, Texas for as many as eight years. Even thought they like it here, they still own homes up north. They are not full time RVers like Ed and I.

Monday nights, a group goes to Ticos Restaurant for 99-cent margaritas. Tuesday nights, everyone fills the clubhouse for a 5:30PM social and a 6 PM potluck meal. Wednesdays, musicians and singers jam in the clubhouse. And, that’s about it for group activities.

This park is appropriately named “garden”. There are many brightly colored flowering bushes and aloe plants two feet high. I’m told the land had historically been a citrus grove. The evidence is clear. The branches of the remaining grapefruit and orange trees hang heavy with fruits. A few mango trees skirt the property. There is also a tree here native to Guatemala. The trunk is spiked with growths that look like mini-rhinoceros horns. Delicate white flowers bloom on the branches of this tree. The blossoms are too high up to pick and protected by the spikes below. I am told that in Guatemala, ranchers plant these trees close together as a natural fence for animals.

Not trees, but a regular wire and wooden fence to the rear of the park serves as a pen for goats. Some residents debate the claim and say they’re a special kind of sheep. Regardless of whether they’re goats or sheep, every one of them likes a handout of grass or leaves from the nearby orange trees. The male, distinguished by his curling horns, butts the females out of his way to take a nibble. He butts the fence too if he thinks you’re being stingy with the handout.

We are in the only Prevost here. There is one other bus conversion, but I’ve never seen anyone go in to out. It could be abandoned and may have been a church mission bus, but it adds to the eclectic charm of the place.

If you’ve never heard of Pharr, Texas, I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s just a small town in the Rio Grande Valley some nine miles from the Mexican border. McAllen, Texas is the well-known city nearby. We expect to be here into the month of February enjoying the warm weather, slipping into Mexico from time to time, and working to polish our company Private Motor Coach, Inc. now that I am onboard.