A Whole New Chapter in Audrey's Great RV Adventure

[audreyh1]

"No motorbikes, motorcycles, motor scooters, “go-carts” or other similar vehicles shall be permitted to be operated within the subdivision if, in the sole judgment of the Board of the Association such operation, by reason of noise or fumes emitted, or by reason of manner of use, shall constitute a nuisance."

The above quote from the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions is the sort of thing that make me leery of private communities.

The concept for the community and all of the positive aspects mentioned are very attractive. I think its beautiful. Congratulations. When can I visit?

Sounds good to me! I would love not to have those things driving around my street. Yes, the covenents are very strict. But that frankly appeals to us as this is a "close living" community. It's designed to have a certain look and landscaping and ambiance and that's one reason we like it so much.

I understand why folks should be leery of private communities. I guess the trick is to find the one that already matches your lifestyle.

Audrey

 

[Bestwifeever]

Audrey, your posts are always a pleasure to read--and you sound so happy in this thread!

Congrats on finding a homebase that sounds like something you would have invented for yourself, it's so perfect for your lifestyle.

 

[cantlogin]

Audrey:

I would spring for the extra $$ and put a drain pit in the garage, so you can work on the RV without having it towed..........

I think it is the perfect "home away from home"..............

That probably violates the covenants.

 

[DangerMouse]

Wow, congrats on finding something that fits our lifestyle perfectly.

 

[audreyh1]

RIch, I second Audry's recommendation. This is a beautiful RV park which sits just outside Bentsen State Park.

Audrey, the one thing that the surrounding communities did not seem to have was great restaurants. Or did I just not find them?

Maybe I should shut up now and let REWahoo talk about the chiggers, snakes, and fire ants and all the reasons to stay away from Texas.

Rich - if you do come here, I recommend November through March. November is great for butterflies. February and March best for birdwatching. It gets pretty crowded with "Winter Texans" in Jan and Feb, but by March some RV spots start opening up.

We're also not far (90 miles?) from South Padre Island which is really nice in April - right after the spring breakers are all gone although "holy week" gets pretty crowded with Mexican Nationals (tourists). We spent the first 2.5 weeks of April last year camped at a county park with it's own beach access and across from the convention center which has a lot of great wildlife viewing. It was fantastic - the weather was great, the bird watching incredible, and awesome seafood restaurants on the island.

There are chiggers by the boatload here! Summer can be brutal (and usually is). So, there are downsides. And lots of javelinas in Bentsen State Park, so we a little careful not to get too close. If you have never seen a sleepy javelina yawn at you because you woke them up on your early morning walk - well, it's quite a sight!

Audrey, the one thing that the surrounding communities did not seem to have was great restaurants. Or did I just not find them?

Restaurants? Yes, they are quite limited in the area and it was one of our beefs a couple of years ago. This seems to be slowly improving. We were thrilled to see a P.F. Changs open in McAllen along with several other upscale chain restaurants. But that has to be the busiest P.F. Changs in the country! It's packed most of the time and mostly hispanics (including Mexican Nationals) eating there. There is a little neighborhood restaurant "Tio Chuy's" which is decent simple, good mexican fare and run by the most charming Latina I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. We are regulars. I expect to be cooking a lot while here, which is fine with me!

The Mexican restaurants in San Antonio, Austin and Houston are way better than the Mexican restaurants here - at least to my personal taste. Kind of a weird quirk, but there you go.

Audrey

 

[REWahoo]

And lots of javelinas in Bentsen State Park, so we a little careful not to get too close. If you have never seen a sleepy javelina yawn at you because you woke them up on your early morning walk - well, it's quite a sight!

You know I can't stay quiet on this subject.

A few years back three javelina attacked my lab in our "back yard". She had a dozen deep slash wounds in her flanks, courtesy of their razor-sharp tusks. I had to take her to the vet to get her stitched up and she was a miserable pooch for several days.

When she finally healed up well enough to venture off the deck, she returned shortly with a javelina jawbone in her mouth. I had taken several shots at them the night she was attacked but didn't realize I'd actually hit one.

I would swear that dog had a smile on her face...

 

[W2R]

You know I can't stay quiet on this subject.

A few years back three javelina attacked my lab in our "back yard". She had a dozen deep slash wounds in her flanks, courtesy of their razor-sharp tusks. I had to take her to the vet to get her stitched up and she was a miserable pooch for several days.

When she finally healed up well enough to venture off the deck, she returned shortly with a javelina jawbone in her mouth. I had taken several shots at them the night she was attacked but didn't realize I'd actually hit one.

I would swear that dog had a smile on her face...

Revenge is SWEET!!!

 

[FinanceDude]

Audrey, your posts are always a pleasure to read--and you sound so happy in this thread!

Congrats on finding a homebase that sounds like something you would have invented for yourself, it's so perfect for your lifestyle.

Looked them up....look like good eatin'.........looks like bacon to me......

 

[audreyh1]

Audrey, your posts are always a pleasure to read--and you sound so happy in this thread!

Congrats on finding a homebase that sounds like something you would have invented for yourself, it's so perfect for your lifestyle.

Thanks!

Well I guess we are pretty happy! We just "discovered" this option for us a couple of weeks ago, and really studied it and made sure it made as much sense as it seemed to from the initial impressions. Pretty fast decision making, but it's one of those things:

You'll know it when you see it!

We met a few other owners today. Every single one of them was a fulltimer prior to buying their home. Hmmmm - maybe there is a pattern here, or it's some kind of wierd RV fulltimer trapping force field.

Audrey

 

[Gone4Good]

Hmmmm - maybe there is a pattern here, or it's some kind of wierd RV fulltimer trapping force field.

Audrey

Could be. I haven't even set out yet and I'm intrigued. It looks like a great set up. Congrats.

 

[W2R]

Audrey, congratulations! You sound so happy and it is contagious. I hope that your new home base is everything that you imagine, and more. It looks really nice.

 

[REWahoo]

There are many things to admire about this arrangement. In addition to having guest quarters parked in your carport, you also have a spare refrigerator and microwave. This really comes in handy for us over the holidays. Two (2) turkeys are thawing in our motor home fridge at this very moment.

(For clarification, we don't have the neat set-up Audrey is building, but we do keep the RV parked at the house.)

 

[audreyh1]

Could be. I haven't even set out yet and I'm intrigued. It looks like a great set up. Congrats.

Yep - but of course it's a lot more expensive than full-timing when you are maintaining a home as well as using an RV extensively. Quite a few expenses double when you are on the road since you are still paying for base utilities and maintenance even though you aren't present at the house.

Audrey

 

[RunningBum]

One of the coolest things about this transition is that to "move in" to our new house all we have to do is back the RV into the covered parking area and hook it up! We're living there! Then we can take our sweet time getting stuff for inside the house.

Audrey

That looks really great for you! Is there any chance you can do it so you have a front and back to the covered parking, so that you can just pull through? It would take either a corner lot or an alley.

I guess you probably have enough experience backing up your RV so it isn't a big deal to you.

 

[audreyh1]

That looks really great for you! Is there any chance you can do it so you have a front and back to the covered parking, so that you can just pull through? It would take either a corner lot or an alley.

I guess you probably have enough experience backing up your RV so it isn't a big deal to you.

Back-in only! You need the back anyway because it's a major storage unit and the house is quite small. None of the lots have a street front and back, so no pull-throughs in the neighborhood.

Now, a general question - is a pull-through really so desirable? I have no trouble backing in, have done it 100s of times. All I need is my trusty backing guider (DH) behind the coach, and I can back in anywhere. The key to backing is having a trusty and observant partner as a guide. I do observe that not all big rig drivers have such a qualified co-pilot.

To me the worst part of backing into a site is having to disconnect the toad if we are continuing on in our RV the next day. So if we are "en route" to a far destination and thus driving every day, I seek out pull-throughs, otherwise back-ins are just as fine.

Audrey

 

[hankster]

This thread makes me think about an idea I've considered for an RVers home base after retirement. It's sort of a "poor man's" version of the RV/Casita combo. I envision a large steel building, like a 40 x 60, with a high bay door for the RV on one side. The other side would be finished off with a small apartment-sized living quarters. The RV would serve as guest quarters.

This type of set up would have to be in a more rural area without zoning restrictions. It seems like an idea that could work out well for us as we plan to snowbird in the winters. These buildings are very low maintenance and could be ideal for folks who want to take off for months at a time.

 

[cantlogin]

This thread makes me think about an idea I've considered for an RVers home base after retirement. It's sort of a "poor man's" version of the RV/Casita combo. I envision a large steel building, like a 40 x 60, with a high bay door for the RV on one side. The other side would be finished off with a small apartment-sized living quarters. The RV would serve as guest quarters.

This type of set up would have to be in a more rural area without zoning restrictions. It seems like an idea that could work out well for us as we plan to snowbird in the winters. These buildings are very low maintenance and could be ideal for folks who want to take off for months at a time.

Sort of like this?

 

[brewer12345]

Backing is a lot less of a big deal than people think. We back the trailer into some tight spots and the combo of van and trailer is 35 feet long. As Audrey said, you just need a good spotter.

 

[Dawg52]

Very nice concept. If I were into RV traveling, that would be a good way to go. A buddy of mine is selling his house to do the same thing. Only he is going to do the Mississippi version, buy a modular home as his primary residence. Which is probably OK if your not going to be there long.

 

[audreyh1]

Backing is a lot less of a big deal than people think. We back the trailer into some tight spots and the combo of van and trailer is 35 feet long. As Audrey said, you just need a good spotter.

Backing a trailer is waaaaay harder than backing a large motorhome!

Audrey

 

[audreyh1]

Very nice concept. If I were into RV traveling, that would be a good way to go. A buddy of mine is selling his house to do the same thing. Only he is going to do the Mississippi version, buy a modular home as his primary residence. Which is probably OK if your not going to be there long.

A lot of folks down here (deep south TX) have mobile homes - single or double-wide. Some of the most upscale mobile home neighborhoods I've ever seen are in the area. But these don't usually accommodate RVs other than perhaps strictly in the driveway - more likely to be stored off site.

And then there are the RV parks: RV pad sites with various "park model" type mobile homes, or RV pad sites with small storage units or small building with some living space. These make very inexpensive winter homes for snowbirds - it's an incredibly economical way to go and wildly popular. In most of the areas these sites are packed pretty close together!!!! Some of the parks look pretty wild with a mish-mash of small buildings and RVs, outbuildings and mobile homes/park models scattered haphazardly throughout the park.

But none of the above really appealed to us since we don't have another house as our primary residence. Plus, quite frankly, so many of these places are a cramped eyesore and I just couldn't stand it!

So it wasn't until we saw a more permanent structure with adequate storage and living space, that integrated a large class A motorhome and had plenty of private space between neighbors, that we got even remotely interested.

Audrey

 

[REWahoo]

And then there are the RV parks: RV pad sites with various "park model" type mobile homes, or RV pad sites with small storage units or small building with some living space. These make very inexpensive winter homes for snowbirds - it's an incredibly economical way to go and wildly popular.

To get an appreciation for exactly how "wildly popular" RV parks are in the RGV, click on this map. It is one of the heaviest concentrations of RV parks in the US.

MapMuse - Locate the closest RV Parks and RV Campgrounds

There are 152 parks on this map (zoom in for more detail) and the listing is not all inclusive.

 

[Martha]

Wow Wahoo, I didn't know about MapMuse. Handy!

 

[CuppaJoe]

Wow Wahoo, I didn't know about MapMuse. Handy!

Yeah, I didn't know what to tell a houseguest who was looking to tent camp in the city after three months in the back country. Interesting, the nearest RV site has shuttles to downtown, that might solve the parking problem.

 

[audreyh1]

The thing is most of these parks are long-term monthly rentals with people staying several months a year and returning each year. So for short-term RVers the options are more limited. For tent campers - there is almost nothing. Bentsen State Park still allows primitive tent camping but you can't drive to your campsite - you have to take the park shuttle or walk.

Audrey