Rio Grande Valley

We spent a week in Donna, Texas at Victoria Palms RV Resort, arriving last Friday, March 22^nd. Julie’s sister Cindy and her brother-in-law Terry are retiring so we stopped by to celebrate with them.

That Friday, the Canadian residents (Winter Texans) of the park hosted a “Taillight” Party to signal the end of the winter season and their departure headed back north. There were grilled burgers and live music by Leslie in the parking lot across the street from our campsite.

Last Saturday, the Victoria Palms staff hosted a surprise retirement party for Terry as he retires in two weeks as the RV resort manager.

On Tuesday Julie, Cindy, Don, Claudia, and I drove to South Padre Island to hear Leslie play again at Daddy’s Seafood Market and Cajun Kitchen. There was a good turnout for Leslie’s show but I joked that it was like “spring break” for seniors, myself included.

One of my old co-workers Wayne and his wife Shelley who are also full-time RVers and staying nearby joined us. We last saw Wayne and Shelley in Las Vegas a couple of years ago before they started full-time RVing. It was fun to catch up with them and they too are loving the full-time RVing lifestyle.

Wednesday we went to Nuevo Progreso, Mexico for the day. We park on the U.S. side and walk across the Rio Grande River bridge. I went to the dentist for a cleaning, then met everyone for lunch at our favorite place, Arturo’s Restaurant. Afterwards we all went across the street to the spa for $11 manicures and $12 pedicures. Later we stop at a gift shop to pick up a few items before we head back. 

On Thursday morning we had our motorhome washed and waxed. Julie, Cindy and Claudia decorated their golf cart for the parade that afternoon.

We left Victoria Palms RV Resort yesterday morning and drove to Castroville, Texas for a four-night stay to visit Julie’s mom in nearby San Antonio.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

On the Road to Texas

We left Labelle, Florida a week ago, on Tuesday March 12^th. We headed up to Lazydays RV Resort in Seffner for a 3-night stay and to visit Julie’s Aunt Jo and to visit my sister Cathy.


We started having serious electrical problems with our motorhome the night before we left LaBelle. We smelled what we thought was an electrical wiring burning smell but couldn’t find where it was coming from. The morning we left we noticed that we were getting 120-volts on one leg, but only 7-volts on the other leg of our 50-amp shore power connection. We thought it was a problem with the RV park electrical.


When we got to Seffner on Tuesday and plugged in, we had the same only 7-volts on one leg symptom. When we ran our generator, the AC power was okay. We contacted a mobile RV repair service and the technician stopped by late-Tuesday afternoon. The problem was that our Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) had gone out. He ordered a replacement ATS on Wednesday and had planned to replace our faulty one on Thursday. Meantime, we had to run our generator for electrical power, except for “quiet hours” in the park (10PM to 7AM).

On Wednesday we stopped by Aunt Jo’s house in Safety Harbor for a visit and took her out to lunch. She turns 92 this month and it’s always interesting to visit with her.

That evening we met my sister Cathy at the Columbia Restaurant in the historic Ybor City area of Tampa. Established in 1905, it’s one of our all-time favorite restaurants. We especially like the 1905 salad and sparkling white wine sangria. Both are handmade at your table. Any of the numerous entrees are also very good. We enjoyed catching up with Cathy. 

We waited all-day Thursday at the RV park for the service technician because he thought the part would be delivered mid-day and he’d have time to do the repairs. However, he called late that day and told us he got the part okay but couldn’t come until Friday morning…the day we were leaving for Tallahassee.  


The technician finally came on Friday around 8AM with the part. Four hours and $800 later, we were good to go.


On Saturday we drove from Tallahassee to Pensacola where we stayed at the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angel Recreation Area for two nights. It was our first time there and it turned out to be a really nice Family Campground with a great view of Perdido Bay on the Florida-Alabama border.

We met Holly and Jackie, their husbands, and children for dinner on Sunday afternoon in Pensacola Beach at Flounder’s Chowder House. Julie used to babysit Holly and Jackie back in 1987-88, when they were 5 and 7, when we were stationed in Woodbridge, England. We saw them in the early-90s in Germany but hadn’t seen them since, over 25 years ago. It was fun to catch up with them and to meet their families.

We drove to Biloxi, Mississippi yesterday for a two-night stay. Last night we enjoyed dinner with our friends Paul and Darlene at a nearby Cajun seafood restaurant. The seafood was okay, but the service was just plain awful.

We leave Biloxi tomorrow morning and head to Beaumont, Texas for an overnight stay, on our way to south Texas and the Rio Grande Valley.


Steve & Julie Cornelius

Festivals, Family and Friends in LaBelle

We have been really busy the past three weeks in and around LaBelle, Florida. My sister Marcia and brother-in-law joined us for the annual Swamp Cabbage Festival in LaBelle. We watched the nearly two-hour long parade on Saturday, Feb 23^rd. There were several bands, many swamp vehicles, and floats too. Our RV park had its first-ever float in the parade and they won a trophy.

My cousin Sue and her husband Scott came up from Bonita Springs in their motorhome for a visit. We enjoyed dinner at Mike & Marcia’s place that Monday night, followed by Bingo at the clubhouse. It was their lucky night as both Sue and Scott won Bingo games. I fixed waffles and sausage on Tuesday morning for everyone before Sue and Scott drove home.

On Wednesday our friends Rick and Diana flew in from Colorado Springs to enjoy some Florida sunshine and warm weather. On Thursday we went to Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grill near Fort Myer’s Beach for lunch.

After lunch we toured the Edison & Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were good friends and both had winter homes right next to each other. It was our first time to see the estates and museums and we all thoroughly the visit.

On the way back, we stopped at The Boat House with Rick and Diana. Mike and Marcia met us there for dinner. 

On Saturday we went to River Bend Motorcoach Resort for their annual RV show with Marcia, as Mike went charter fishing for grouper. He caught the biggest one that day at around 25-pounds.

I went back to River Bend on Sunday to go with Mike to their annual Car Show. We enjoyed the $8 breakfast where volunteers served over 500 people that morning. The car show had 153 cars on display. Our friends Paul and Mary Ann won a trophy with their black hot rod shown in the photo below.     

Later that afternoon we hosted a “Steve-o-Rita” get together at 4PM for our friends here at Oak Grove RV Resort. It was fun seeing and visiting with everybody before these "snow birds" migrate back north.  

Last Tuesday we went with Mike and Marcia to Plant City, Florida for their annual Florida Strawberry Festival. Julie’s strawberry Napoleon and my strawberry shortcake were very good.    

Julie and I got tickets last December to go see the band Blues Traveler who were playing at House of Blues Orlando at Disney Springs. See Blues Traveler in concert has been on Julie’s bucket list for a while. Our friends Mike and Carol drove up from Tampa and joined us for dinner and the concert. It was really fun spending the evening with them. 

We leave LaBelle tomorrow and head north, on our way to Texas.

Steve & Julie Cornelius