From 2002 thru 2005, Fabgrandpa and I were managers of an RV resort in south Texas. This resort had 1188 spaces for RV’s, a ballroom, a dining room, a 9 hole golf course, a 10 room activities building, and a wood working shop for guests to use. The resort was located in Pharr, Texas, just eight miles from the Mexican border. Pharr is a four hour drive from Austin, which would make it a great place to go for a weekend trip. There is plenty to do in the area, or you can just relax.
There was always something to do at the resort. you could take lessons for round dancing, square dancing, painting, wood working, and more. There were bingo games twice a week, dances every Saturday night, dinners, lunches, etc. The activity calendar included shuffleboard, tennis, bicycling, golf, swimming, water volleyball, baseball, and more. If you couldn’t find something you liked to do, you weren’t looking very hard.
Outside of the resort, there were many restaurants, from pizza joints, all the chain restaurants, and several very good local Mexican restaurants. We had our favorites, and went out to eat several times a week. Las Margaritas was our most favorite place. They had the best soups I have ever eaten. The Tlalpeno Soup is mad with chicken, rice, squash, carrots, potatoes, onion and celery. It is served with some queso in the bottom of the bowl, an adobo pepper, and some sliced avocado on top. The other soup I liked was their seafood soup. It had a tomato base, and was made with shrimp and white fish.
While we lived and worked in south Texas, we went on several trips. We went home to Georgia twice for a week each time. We headed west once all the way to San Diego, California for a week. A weekend trip to Austin to go to a concert was a lot of fun. We went to San Antonio for a few days once as well. I took a trip to Reno, Nevada with some of the guests at the resort. It was fun to play the slots and just hand out with the girls while I was away.
Since the resort was only eight miles from Mexico, we went over the border as often as possible. I had a lot of dental work done in Progresso. Once you crossed the bridge over the Rio Grande, there were many shops that catered to Americans. You could buy prescription medications at a fraction of the cost of what they cost here. Liquor was a bargain that many of the Winter Texans took advantage of on their trips to Mexico. The streets were crowded with vendors selling Mexican wares such as tiles, mirrors, tinware, leather good, souvenirs, glassware, and more.
If you want to take a great day trip from Austin, it would be well worth the drive to go down to the border. There is lots to do on either side, and good food everywhere.
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