We’re just connecting the dots
WINTER TEXAN Volume 10 • Issue 12 January 8, 2025
Your Connection to the Rio Grande Valley
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Can you hear the clock ticking? I sure do! Although many of you line up early, I certainly hope you’re not waiting in line for Winter Texan Expo 2025 quite yet. You have 13 more days to get ready for the McAllen Expo Tuesday and Wednesday, January 21 and 22, and the Brownsville Expo Thursday, January 23. You already know it’s a must-go event, but every year, we change things up a bit. We can’t wait for you to see everything for yourself. As I read Eryn’s cover story, I couldn’t help but think about how much technology has changed in recent years. Many of our Rio Grande Valley store owners now offer online shopping, we can communicate through texts and social media, and drones take pictures for us. What I love is that so many of you are up to speed with—and even ahead of— these trends. You amaze me. If you go to South Padre Island, make sure to post about spending a day in January on the beach so all of your friends up north will join you in the RGV next season—or even put down their snow shovels and get down here now. There is so much to love about the Valley, and it’s even better with all of you here to enjoy it with us!
Thank You
SEASON SPONSORS 2024-2025
Droning in the RGV by Eryn Reddell Wingert Photos courtesy of Chico Garvis
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hree times a week, the skies over Bentsen Grove Resort in Mission are taken over-somewhat--by drones. In 2015, Chico Garvis and two other men organized a drone enthusiast group. In its first year, they used small, inexpensive drones, but a Black Friday sale the following year really upped their droning game. The DJI Mini 3 drone went on sale at Walmart. “That caught our eyes, and we went over and did the Black Friday thing,” says Garvis. Coincidentally, Bentsen Grove has a building dubbed the Hanger. “It even has a propeller on top,” says Garvis. It’s home to loads of activities, such as table tennis, poker, stained glass, and woodburning. Two afternoons and one evening a week, it’s where drone operators from the Resort meet up, flying drones until the batteries run out.
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