I liked McAllen very much. It's not a huge city but felt comparable to Lansing, my home town, which is a little over 100,000 people. It had a airport, so that was convenient for visits. The terrain and vegetation were alien - cypress trees dripping Spanish moss in some places, cacti in others. At Christmas, it was pleasantly warm. (My Thanksgiving visit, it was uncomfortably hot.)
My parents spent the winters with other snowbirds, mostly their own age, in a retirement park there. The cats, experience travelers, had their own tethers so they could lie on the patio and watch people walk by, or even get up and visit passersby at their whim.
My mother and I visited a small Mexican town (Hidalgo) right across the Rio Grande. It was fun - very touristy - with lots of shops selling boots, whips, blankets, hats, and jewelry. My mother did use the trips to visit the pharmacia to stock up on meds she and my stepfather used. They were very cheap, and some things requiring a prescription in the US are sold over the counter in Mexico. I don't recall that she actually smuggled them back, but I don't recall a border agent asking us either. They really only wanted to know we were citizens. Probably unfair, but since I am blue-eyed and was blondish before I went grey, I had no problem getting back in, even before I presented my Michigan driver's license.
Another trip we took was to Brownsville, on the Gulf coast, where we spent a wonderful afternoon at the Brownsville Zoo. As I have said before, I will go to a zoo anywhere, anytime. I love animals and most zoos these days try to make a reasonable accomodation to their needs in terms of space and terrain. Sometimes I regret that they have to live in captivity but I also covet zookeeper's ability to put their hands on big cats and get to know them. I want that job.
Once my parents passed away, I had no more personal reason to go to Texas and haven't been back since. It's a nice enough place, but I don't miss it either.
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