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Hope for the winter (South Texas hopes for return of snowbirds)
ASSOCIATED PRESS (Printed in Austin American Statesman) ^ | Friday, November 14, 2003 | By Lynn Brezosky

Posted on 11/14/2003 5:30:00 AM PST by Arrowhead1952

South Texas hopes economic upturn means return of snowbirds


By Lynn Brezosky

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Friday, November 14, 2003

HARLINGEN -- Dean and Diane Yahnke are among the first couples to stock their mobile home and dust off their golf clubs for the coming winter at Tropic Winds resort.

After two lackluster tourism years, the Rio Grande Valley is more than ready to accommodate the St. Cloud, Minn., pair.

At least 20,000 Midwesterners usually venture south to Texas for the winter, but sagging stock market returns and post-Sept. 11 fears kept many people at home over the past two years.

The decline meant $79 million less for the local economy, hurting such things as pancake houses, newspaper sales and church collection plates.

"A lot of senior citizens, they had to go back to work because the investment interest they were depending on wasn't there," said Diane Yahnke, 69. "You look around, you see seniors, 70 years old, doing checkouts."

Since 2001, there's been a 15 percent drop in winter visitors to the valley, said Vern Vincent, director of the University of Texas-Pan American Research Center, which released its Winter Texan study last month.

Among researchers' findings: Big-ticket expenses were way down. Real estate agents saw fewer inquiries into beach-side condominiums. Furniture stores sold fewer rattan sets. Deep sea fishing boats and tour buses to Mexico reported empty seats. Stores selling antiques or other high-end nonessentials suffered.

"There's been a drop on what gets bought at our stores," said Steve Hathcock, owner of South Padre Trading Co., which sells knickknacks gathered from the region. "Winter Texans traditionally are living on fixed incomes. . . . They're afraid their stocks and their pensions won't go as far."

Even the Luby's cafeteria chain, a low-priced favorite, noticed the difference.

Steve Eriksmoen, manager of a Harlingen Luby's, said trade was down 10 percent the winter after Sept. 11, 2001. He said it rebounded last year, but was still down about 4 percent. The typical winter resident is a retired Midwesterner with an annual income of $46,500 who spends $4,100 during a 3 1/2-month stay, the study showed. Over the past two winters, though, that spending was down to about $3,500, researchers found.

Belt tightening was the pattern nationwide, said Cathy Kefee of the Travel Industry Association of America.

"Nationally, leisure travel has been doing fairly well," she said. "The difference is that travelers are spending much less money. That's what's hurting the industry's bottom line."

The U.S. travel industry as a whole is looking toward 2004 as the start of the recovery, she said.

Vincent said many of the valley's more than 500 mobile home parks are reporting an increase in reservations.

"This year we'll at least hold our own," he said. "The only concern would be that we have another terrorism event."

More than 80 percent of people wintering in Texas live in mobile home parks such as Tropic Winds.

The park is one of the region's newest, stretching out over former farmland not far from Harlingen's Valley International Airport and within an hour of the beach at South Padre Island and the Mexican border.

In 2000, three-quarters of the park's 534 sites were full. In 2001 and 2002, it was half empty. The park slashed prices on mobile homes up to $10,000 this year, with residents buying the units for about $20,000 to $50,000, and renting the sites for a few hundred dollars a month or about $1,200 for a season.

"They say in Arizona you can buy places cheap, cheap, cheap," said Don Thompson, a retired farmer from Monticello, Ill., who is a neighbor of the Yahnkes. "Because of the Canadians, there's so many for sale."

Canadians, usually among the first to arrive, are staying north because of their weaker dollar, he said. The Yahnkes are also convinced warm winters make a difference.

"When people are still golfing in November into December, they're just not rolling down," Diane Yahnke said. "What they need up north is about six feet of snow. Then they'll be coming."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; US: Arizona; US: Illinois; US: Indiana; US: Iowa; US: Maine; US: Michigan; US: Minnesota; US: Montana; US: North Dakota; US: Ohio; US: Oklahoma; US: South Dakota; US: Texas; US: Wisconsin; US: Wyoming
KEYWORDS: business; snowbirds; southernus; traveltrailers
I know some of you Freepers may be "snowbirds" getting ready to head to Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, etc. I realize some people here don't like this annual migration, but not this Freeper. We enjoy having you here. You bring a boost to many businesses.

Last year, I had the pleasure to meet several "snobirds" at the golf course where I work as a marshal one - two weekends each month. The people were very considerate on the course, unlike some of the regulars.

1 posted on 11/14/2003 5:30:01 AM PST by Arrowhead1952
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To: Arrowhead1952
While they were still alive our elderly aunt and uncle from Kansas always came to Harlingen for the entire winter. They had a regular community there and they all knew each other. It was their second home.
2 posted on 11/14/2003 5:33:38 AM PST by buffyt (Howard Dean opens his mouth only to CHANGE FEET!)
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To: Arrowhead1952
When I was in grad school back in the 80's a prof hired me to do some interviews for one of his projects.

All the subjects were campers in South Mississippi, Alabama, and NW Florida, parks. It turned out that nearly all the campers were Canadian. These people were so friendly and nice (and conservative) that I am surpried where all the leftist come from in Canada today.

3 posted on 11/14/2003 5:37:14 AM PST by yarddog
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To: Arrowhead1952; buffyt; AntiJen
Is there still an AF base there?
We have been invited to meet a Kansas (liberal) cousin this winter in either San Antonio or San Padre.
I have been planning a coastal drive south some winter but not to stay anywhere very long. I do prefer the ocean(which I hear now).
Suggestions?
4 posted on 11/14/2003 6:03:25 AM PST by larryjohnson (USAF(Ret))
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To: larryjohnson
Is there still an AF base there? We have been invited to meet a Kansas (liberal) cousin this winter in either San Antonio or San Padre.

There is still an AF base in San Antonio. The one in Austin is now ABIA (Austin Bergstrom International [really means inconvenient] Airport.

Did you mean South Padre? I haven't been down there this year, other than the Corpus Christi area. The Naval Air Station is still open. They were remodeling the Breezeway Inn (housing) last year July.

5 posted on 11/14/2003 6:16:03 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter are living proof that not all blondes are dumb.)
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To: Arrowhead1952
The Snow-Diggers are simply an inevitability down here...You can't live with'em and you can't kill'em...:-)

The article does have one glaring error in it. It is not "20,000" that show up each year, it's more than 200,000. The population of many of the smaller towns literally doubles when they are here.

-Toonces
6 posted on 11/14/2003 6:28:08 AM PST by Toonces T. Cat (The Token Republican in Deep South Texas...)
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To: Arrowhead1952
Interesting idea. I can pack my business in my computer and kick back on some warm Texas dirt for a couple of months. But I wouldn't be packing golf clubs. I'd load up my fishing pole. How's the fishing possibilities in Texas winter? What does a 5 acre piece of land go for near a small rural town?
7 posted on 11/14/2003 6:37:30 AM PST by sergeantdave (You will be judged by 12 people who were too stupid to get out of jury duty)
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To: larryjohnson
There used to be a military base there but now the Marine Military Academy occupies the site. That's in Harlingen... near the tip of Texas. Corpus Christi is farther north and San Antonio is a lot farther north.

that old base in Harlingen Texas that is now the Academy has the original "cast" of the Iwo Jima Memorial which was donated to the school by the sculptor and Harlan Block's remains were transfered to the school by permission of the family who felt the school and memorial would be a fitting place to honor him. Any Freepers that are in the South Texas Area should visit Harlingen, Texas and the memorial site. It's very impressive to see that not all the young men in this country opt for an easy road. The small museum has interesting relics from Marine Corp history.

I'm very proud of the school.......... as any alumni would be of his alma mater. ;-)

8 posted on 11/14/2003 6:55:44 AM PST by Dick Vomer (liberals suck....but it depends on what your definition of the word "suck" is .)
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To: sergeantdave
I'd load up my fishing pole. How's the fishing possibilities in Texas winter? What does a 5 acre piece of land go for near a small rural town?

Fishing is getting good now. There is a property owners association's marina on Lake Travis I like to go fishing at. Monday before last, I caught over 75 crappie. Ten or so were keepers, but just pulling out one after the next was fun. Had my hook straightened twice. May have been a striped bass or big catfish.

The flounder should be great now. Haven't talked to any of my salt water fishing buds, but someone said they caught quite a few on shrimp. Normally, we gig flounder, but he said they were hitting live shrimp.

I don't know about the land prices, but there are quite a few small tracts of land for sale just outside the Austin area. I see for sale signs at various older farms that are being sold in small 5 - 10 acre tracts.

9 posted on 11/14/2003 7:01:43 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter are living proof that not all blondes are dumb.)
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To: larryjohnson
Yes, GA has AFBs. Moody AFB, Robins AFB and Dobbins AFRB. Are you coming this far South? I don't live on the coast, but it's not too far. You should spend some time in Savannah.
10 posted on 11/14/2003 9:40:18 AM PST by Jen (Support our troops! Share the news of our military's successes that the liberal media won't report.)
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To: Arrowhead1952
Thanks
11 posted on 11/14/2003 11:37:08 AM PST by larryjohnson (USAF(Ret))
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To: Dick Vomer
Thanks
12 posted on 11/14/2003 11:39:40 AM PST by larryjohnson (USAF(Ret))
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To: Arrowhead1952
The snowbirds have been coming to the Rio Grande Valley for a long time. While I lived in Texas many of my mother's relatives and friends from the upper Midwest made the trek to Texas every winter. Our house was a stopover, free night's board and lodging for many escaping the cold and snow.

These were good, hardworking folks who, when the crops were in or the cattle sold, headed for warmer climes.

We were often amused by their lack of knowledge of Texas. They figured when they crossed the Texas border that they were almost there. After the first trip they realized it was a longer drive from the Red River to the Rio Grande than it was from South Dakota to the Red River.
13 posted on 11/14/2003 11:49:42 AM PST by DeFault User
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To: DeFault User
After the first trip they realized it was a longer drive from the Red River to the Rio Grande than it was from South Dakota to the Red River.

That is a fact many people don't understand. Texas is not a state you can drive across in one day. Living in the Austin area, it takes several hours in any direction to get to any border.

14 posted on 11/14/2003 12:17:16 PM PST by Arrowhead1952 (Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter are living proof that not all blondes are dumb.)
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