17 WINTER TEXAN TIMES www.wintertexantimes.com MARCH 12, 2025 3907 N. Taylor Road Mission, TX 78573 (956) 682-7495 j5rvparktexas.com Close to: • Golfing • Shopping • Nature Parks • One hour from South Padre Island • Theaters, Entertainment, & More Resort Facilities: • Free WiFi • Shuffleboard Courts • On-Site Managers • Air-Conditioned Clubhouse • Fully Equipped Kitchen • Community Functions • Billiards • Library and Game Rooms • Woodcarving Area • On-Site Laundry Facilities RV Site Amenities: • Large ‘Big Rig’ Sites • Full Hook-ups • 30/50-amp Electric Service • Cable TV Hook-ups Available • Shaded & Open Sites • Plenty of Room for Slide-Outs • Clean, Level Sites Enjoy a Warm Rio Grande Valley RVing Winter Among Friends Enjoy a warm, wonderful South Texas winter at J-Five RV Park in Mission, TX. You’ll feel right at home. Come meet your new friends at our welcoming park. There’s a great sense of community here, with many of our residents returning each winter year after year. Located in the beautiful Rio Grande Valley, we enjoy the fantastic weather that draws Winter Texans to RV parks in the Valley from all over. Enjoy the simple pleasures of a quiet country setting amid nearby citrus groves and rodeo horses next door. We’re conveniently close to restaurants, shopping and great area attractions. If you’re looking for that special, quiet little corner of paradise to spend a warm winter, look no further than J-Five RV Park. Contact us today to learn more and to reserve your site! WELCOME From pg. 11 WEATHER From pg. 11 stay, and share word of how much they enjoy their new – or returning – winter home. Larry Boggs, a Winter Texan who hails from Branson, MO said, “They welcome you with open arms from the moment you get here. We have made so many friends here. We have more friends here than we do back home.” “We’ve been to Florida,” said Darlene Neel, of Tinley Park, IL, as she and her husband spent a winter at Chimney Park in Mission. When they were looking for a place to move, they checked out both Florida and Arizona – and the decision to come to South Texas was an easy one. “It’s not anywhere near as friendly [as Texas].” Johnston said the friendliness isn’t limited to the folks in the parks, but it is just a part of the local culture in the community as well. He said it feels very much like that Midwestern hospitality that he’s used to. “We love it because it’s not a (typical) tourist area; it’s a place that we feel very comfortable, and people have the Midwest values. God bless the Valley! We just love it here!” There are “Welcome Home” fiestas as winter guests begin to arrive in the Fall. Most RGV communities host “Winter Texan Appreciation” events at the end of the winter season as well. Business owners and government officials will talk about relationships that were built, commonly calling the winter visitors more than just part-time visitors. “We’ve built relationships with so many of them,” said Jennifer Hart, co-owner with her husband of the popular Riverside Club along the Rio Grande in Mission. “A lot of them have truly become like family to us.” Texas even coined the endearing name “Winter Texan” for those adopted Texans from up north. shoveling snow and feeding the horses. Instead, he was outdoors watching his Winter Texan friends playing softball. “The weather here is perfect – you can do a lot in this weather,” he said. “But when you feed the horses you gotta go back out and clean what they ate.” Virgil Kappes said he heard a person could add 10 years to his or her life by wintering in the Valley, away from the miserable cold weather. Not only is there joy in leaving the frozen tundras, but there are also health benefits. Jim McDermid of MN said he has heart and vascular disease and in the Valley the weather is good enough that he can walk almost every day and the land is flat enough that he does not have to climb while he walks. Ed Martens, who used to run the Senior Texan Softball League and its all-star games every March, said (in 2019) he has benefited from his years of living in the Valley, even though he may not be playing softball anymore. “It keeps me active,” he said. “There’s no way I want to live where it’s snowing and frozen. I love that we can play softball pretty much all year.” The nation’s warmest “Polar Bear Dip” also takes place on South Padre Island every January 1. Hundreds of Winter Texans join locals sprinting into the Gulf for a quick plunge. The event is highly popular in areas where the courageous jump into 35-degree water. That’s something that South Texas “dippers” don’t have to worry about. The weather is also perfect for golf during the Winter Texan months. Several parks have groups that schedule scrambles on a weekly basis to play on one of more than 20 different courses spread throughout the Valley.
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