DONNA, Texas — Tucked alongside the Rio Grande Valley's dusty freeway is the Victoria Palms Resort RV Park, an oasis from the nation's economic downturn. It's packed with retirees from the Midwest and Canada.

At Victoria Palms, retirees can lounge by the pool and listen to a 77-year-old DJ's collection of Bobby Vinton and Fats Domino, cruise palm-lined streets on bicycles, take dance lessons or perfect crafts in one of the many workshops. And like many of the Valley's more than 500 “Winter Texan” parks, it's 100 percent full.

Personnel at the parks worried the summer's high gas prices and the fall's plunging economy would make for a bad year. Instead, they find themselves turning people away.