Mission, RGV Rank High in National Survey
by Ric Cavazos
Dawn Mundt is new to Mission and the Rio Grande Valley, and first impressions are of a place that will keep her in South Texas.
“You feel like you belong here,” Mundt said as she prepared to play at a musical jam session at Chimney Park RV Resort in Mission. “We’ve felt like we’re home already.”
Mundt and her husband are Nebraskans and have traveled widely in the United States. Arizona is where they mostly recently resided during the winter months. In Mission, they found what other destinations lack.
“It’s the people,” she said. “You look for community and here, when you walk around the park, you hear, ‘Come on over and have a drink with us or stay for dinner.’ It’s really hard to leave a place like this one.”
A recent national survey conducted by StorageCafe shows Mission ranks as the top city in Texas for winter tourists and sixth overall in the United States. McAllen ranks 17th in the same survey. and Weslaco comes in at 22nd, with College Station and Galveston also coming in the top 25 nationally.
In Mission, StorageCafe lauds the community’s affordable cost of living, abundance of RV parks, and mild winter temperatures and calls the city “a paradise for nature lovers,” with nearby attractions like the National Butterfly Center and the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park.
There’s another great quality Mundt alluded to that was reinforced by Cathy Sutton, the regional district manager for the company that owns Chimney Park and the nearby Seven Oaks Resort. Sutton knows firsthand of the differences between how winter visitors are seen in the Valley and how they are viewed in her native state of Florida.
“I was shocked when I came here and saw how they’re welcomed in the Valley with festivals and discounts at restaurants,” Sutton said. “In Florida, the winter tourists are regarded as pests who clog up the roads and restaurants. The communities here are far friendlier, and you mix that in with the price and proximity to Mexico for medical services, and you have a great place for them to come.”
Finding A Home
Sutton first came to Mission in 2019 when her company acquired Seven Oaks on south Inspiration Road.
She figured it would be a short stay to help get things organized and set up after the acquisition. In 2022, when her company purchased Chimney Park, Sutton was still in Mission, having found a new home.
“I came here for a few months but liked it so much that I’m still here four years later,” she said.
Sutton is busy overseeing improvements being made at the picturesque Chimney Park, which sits alongside the Rio Grande on south Conway Avenue in Mission. A bird and butterfly garden and a pool pavilion have already been built at Chimney Park, and improvements to the fishing dock are in the planning stages.
“We came in with a different mindset,” Sutton said. “We came up with ideas on what could set our parks apart in addition to our unique location right on the river.”
It’s a beautiful setting and it’s in Mission–one of the nation’s top-10 destinations for winter visitors!
