Back in the early 2000s, Elizabeth Funke and her husband decided they’d like to try something a little different when it came to a winter getaway.

“We tried a few places and one day we drove through a park in Mercedes, TX.” said Elizabeth. “We were driving slowly around and people waved to us. We stopped to get a brochure and the people that had waved to us came up to us before we could even get in the building. They were welcoming us to park and wanted to know when we planned on coming to stay.”