Today is a slow Sunday. It's actually been a slow, uninteresting week in Rice Lake, WI. The tornado threats have passed. The temperature has been in the low 80s all week. Everybody in my circle is coasting through the days so that we can return to our homes back in Texas and Mexico. On weekends, some of us will travel to the "big cities" for some entertainment. These are generally the Twin Cities in Minnesota, Eau Claire, here in Wisconsin, or maybe somewhere farther. There isn't very much to do.
There is a big cultural difference between here and back home. It's usually a pain to travel from the North side of McAllen to the South side with all the traffic involved. In Wisconsin, we are forced to travel many miles to find things that we can easily get in the RGV. Migrants and locals think nothing about traveling 15 miles to visit Wal-Mart or to go out to eat.
I was telling a local co-worker that it seemed (past tense) that the RGV was the middle of nowhere. Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley, I guess I still have that mental schema of the past. Isn't this the reason why our middle class will go to San Antonio or Austin for the weekend?
In any case, I'm happy to report that I actually miss home and all the great things there. One example is Barnes and Noble. My wife, kids, and I are the nerdy sort; we love going to the bookstore to shop and have a coffee. We can't do that here without going to the big cities. For a pretty good restaurant, we only have Applebee's to choose up here. Back home there is greater variety of places to go and things to do. So, the good news is that the RGV has grown under our noses. It is not the uncultured backwater that I hear critics call it. The Magic Valley is an outright metropilitan area. I can't wait to once again enjoy what the RGV has to offer.
There is a big cultural difference between here and back home. It's usually a pain to travel from the North side of McAllen to the South side with all the traffic involved. In Wisconsin, we are forced to travel many miles to find things that we can easily get in the RGV. Migrants and locals think nothing about traveling 15 miles to visit Wal-Mart or to go out to eat.
I was telling a local co-worker that it seemed (past tense) that the RGV was the middle of nowhere. Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley, I guess I still have that mental schema of the past. Isn't this the reason why our middle class will go to San Antonio or Austin for the weekend?
In any case, I'm happy to report that I actually miss home and all the great things there. One example is Barnes and Noble. My wife, kids, and I are the nerdy sort; we love going to the bookstore to shop and have a coffee. We can't do that here without going to the big cities. For a pretty good restaurant, we only have Applebee's to choose up here. Back home there is greater variety of places to go and things to do. So, the good news is that the RGV has grown under our noses. It is not the uncultured backwater that I hear critics call it. The Magic Valley is an outright metropilitan area. I can't wait to once again enjoy what the RGV has to offer.
Comments
I can relate to some of what you are going through. My husband and I moved to the RGV from CT just over 10 years ago. While he was going to school here he spent 3 summers with our son up in CT living with family and working a retail job that here would have paid $4 something an hour but up there paid $8-$10 an hour. The funny thing is that due to the cost of living we couldn't have afforded to live there as a family which is why we ended up here.
I've been in the valley for just over 10 years now. It wasn't until the last two that I began to not only appreciate the culture in the valley but have also come to enjoy the variety now offered due to the growth the valley has experienced.
I've added your blog to my blogroll.