Pleasant Acres RV Park, Kansas City Rd. & Busn. 83, LaFeria, Texas

Welcome to Pleasant Acres RV Park in Deep South Texas.  We are located in what we refer to as the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  Our park is about 30 miles northwest of the "Tip of Texas" which is Brownsville across the Rio Grande River from Matamoros, Mexico.  For those of you who don't know, the Rio Grande River is the dividing line between the State of Texas and Mexico.  The weather is normally spring, summer, and fall down here.  Normal temperatures January through about March is in 60s and 70s, April to June is about 70s to 80s, June to September is usually 80s to upper 90s, then we start "cooling down" by October into the 60s and 70s.  November and December are usually in 60s.  This area has suffered freezes throughout history, but those are rare.  We actually had an inch and half of snow on Christmas morning in 2004.  There used to be hundreds of grapefruit and orange orchards here in the Valley, but due to the freezes the Valley has suffered in the last 25-30 years resulting in massive losses of fruit trees, there aren't as many orchards as there was several years ago.  The Valley was known for their vast truck farms, but, also due to the freezes, the truck farms aren't as plentiful as several years ago.  The remaining orchards supply delicious grapefruit and oranges of various kinds.  Most people prefer the Rio Red grapefruit and the Mars oranges, but the other varieties are delicious and succulent also.  The farmers still grow onions, green and red cabbage, kale, cilantro, peppers, okra, cucumbers, cantalope, watermelon, etc.  There are very few peach, apple, plum, apricot trees down here.  The native flowers and trees are of the spiny (thorny) type.  Most of the native plants are beautiful in bloom, but usually quite vicious if you try to pick blooms.  The Yucca plants bloom in Feb/March and they have a gorgeous white cluster of blooms in the top of the plants.  The flat cacti are usually in bloom in the fall and are various colors of blooms.  Some of the natives here in the Valley use the bulbs of the flat cacti for making jellies and juices.  The thick flat leaves are used in foods after they are scraped to remove the thistles, then sliced in strips, chopped in pieces and added to eggs, ground beef, salads, etc.  Not much taste to them, but they are quite healthy.  The Valley has been growing immensely in the last 10-15 years.  The most profitable part of the Valley are the migration of the "Winter Texans" in the fall and the return of the migrant workers in the winter.  Some have estimated there are approximately a half million retirees who spend their winters here in Deep South Texas instead of their northern states.  There are thousands of Canadians who either fly or drive down to the Valley also for the winter months.  Some begin to arrive in September and stay until mid-April - others come in October, November, December.  There is quite an influx of "Winter Texans" who come around the first of each year and stay 3-4 months before returning to their home states.  Several business people have tried to estimate the number of RV Parks from Brownsville to Mission and points on to the NW, but it would be impossible to make that determination as there are RV parks thoughout the countryside, in each town, and between each town.  There are huge parks with spaces renting $1000+ down to small parks (such as Pleasant Acres RV Park) with spaces renting between $165-$200 month.  Some parks have pools, golf courses, hiking & biking trails, huge clubhouses with bingo parlors, pool tables, shuffleboard courts, jam halls, etc while others (such as Pleasant Acres RV Park) only have a clubhouse and no other amenities.  Another of the big drawing cards for the Rio Grande Valley is the huge birding notoriety.  There are numerous birding and wildlife sanctuaries here in the Valley.  The birding festival brings in millions of dollars each year as people from all over the world come to the Valley to see rare & unusual birds.  The greenjays and green parrots are some of the unusual birds we have down here.  Hummingbirds are normally here year around, but the rare ones usually stop off here for a few days before heading on down deep into Mexico for the winter.  If a rare bird is spotted somewhere in the Valley, the news is in the papers and on TV for several days.  "Birders" are around somewhere all winter long.  We also have South Padre Island just north of Brownsville which is quite the hangout for hundreds of the Spring Breakers each year from last of February to last of March.  The Spring Breakers usually cause many, many law enforcement officers to be on duty several hours a day...................... Sam & I have been to So. Padre during Springbreak and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.  A lot of the young people remind us of us when we were their ages.  (A lot of people down here forget how they acted when they were young)  The main farm crops are sugarcane, cotton, corn, milo, some soybeans, and hay.  Most of the farms down here are huge (isn't everything in Texas????).  The sizes of the farms extend across the border into Mexico - Mexico is just as up to date as the US farmers.  Harlingen, which is 7 miles to the east of LaFeria, has a large airport,  Brownsville has a smaller airport, but just as convenient and McAllen, which is about 30 miles to the NW of LaFeria, also has a large airport.  Also, for those of you who don't know, the original mold for the Iwo Jima Memorial is standing at the old Harlingen Air Force Base near the Harlingen airport.  The gentleman who molded the Memorial was from WesLaco which is about 10 miles west of LaFeria.  Harlingen had a large AFB during WWll and up into later years.  The AFB is now the home of one of the bigger universities in the Valley as well as the Marine Military Academy and the Iwo Jima Memorial Marine Museum.   The Rio Grande Valley is located about 2 hours south of Corpus Christi on US Hwy 77 (yes, the same Hwy 77 up through the midwestern states) or 4 hours south of San Antonio on US 37 & US 77.  There is really no way to accurately describe this area - there are so many facets making up the Valley.  All of us would like to invite you to come down to our area sometime and spend a week or two.  Don't expect to come down on a weekend - you don't go much of anywhere in Texas in a weekend...................... From Dallas, Texas our Valley is about an 8-9 hour drive.  The best way to come visit is to fly down - we have 3 really nice airports within driving distance of LaFeria.  Come visit with us sometime

Pleasant Acres RV Park is located on the east edge of LaFeria at Kansas City Road and Business 83 Hwy.  If you come to the Valley on US 77, exit off 77 on Express 83 (to McAllen) heading west on the "up & over" exchange.  (The Expressway 83 has been completed from Brownsville to Mission and beyond.)  Exit the Expressway on Kansas City (you will see the LaFeria Watertower), drive under the overpass, turn right around to stop sign which is at Kansas City Road.  Another right, over the Expressway, and on south to the stop light at Busn. 83.  Look to your right again, and you will see Pleasant Acres RV Park.  We have 2 drives, you can come in either one.  Our office is on the curve at the back of the park. Our park has 9 rental units at this time.  Most of the rental units are rented on full-time basis. At times, one of these rental units will be vacant & we will rent to visitors from the North.  Check with us on availability.  The remaining spaces are RVers who stay from 4 to 6 months with us before they head back North.  We have RVers from Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebr, So. Dak., Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Washington.  We had one couple from Nova Scotia who has been coming to the Valley for 25 years but last year was their final year with us.  We have 5th wheels, travel trailers, motor homes.  Some RVers leave their rigs here year around & just drive back & forth each year.  At the present time, we have 2 "used-to-be Winter Texans" who are with us fulltime now.  We have a clubhouse in the park which is used regularly.  A lot of cardgames, jams, dinners, bingo, dances, etc, go on in that little clubhouse.  Sam built a smoker a few years ago and we use that for cookouts, wiener roasts, etc.  We have Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner and dance, New Year's dance & New Year's Day dinner, Valentine's Dance, fish frys, Mexican dinners, birthday parties, potlucks.  We don't offer a lot of amenities - just a lot of friendship.  We have a small laundromat in the clubhouse and even clotheslines for thoee who like the smell of fresh clothes, a pavillion, shop for the guys to pursue their hobbies.  We're about 2 blks from downtown LaFeria where you can find doctors, dentists, cafes (by the way we now have a "Chapita" type sit-down restaurant), flower shops, convenience stores, bars, grocery store, auto parts stores, churches, library, fast food restaurants, donut shops, barber & beauty shops, banks, about 10 other RV parks, schools, attorneys, car washes, gas stations, tortillo shops, pawn shops, motels, RV dealers, bus stops, an outlet mall just 3 miles west, etc.  The biggest attractions probably now are the HUGE Assembly Hall of Jehovah Witness just south of LaFeria on Parker Road and the new school about half mile east of Ks. City Rd.  The Assembly Hall brings from 1,000-3,000 to LaFeria every week or two and the businesses love it. 

Pleasant Acres Park is 7 miles west of Harlingen and about halfway between Brownsville & McAllen which are towns of 100,000-200,000.  LaFeria is located about 15 miles from the Mexican border and the small Mexican tourist town of Nuevo Progresso (or Los Flores as Mexicans call it).  (And, no, there has been no sign of any "violence" in Nuevo Progresso.) 

We rent spaces by the night, week, month.  We only "reserve spaces" on a 4-month minimum basis.  We rent on first come, first serve otherwise.  Call for availability on RV spaces.  Our large spaces include the water, sewer and trash with the rent - you pay your own electric.  We have free wifi in the clubhouse and mailboxes in front of park. 

Please feel free to contact us either by email, fax, phone.  We hope you will enjoy our homepage and visit us often on the web and in person.  Please do not hesitate to call to see if we have any empty spaces or mobiles for anytime of the year.  We are open 7 days a week, 12 months a year.  Hope to hear from you soon.