Rio RV Park
Brownsville Texas

• Lee Zieger - Owner/Manager
• Jennie Galvan - Office and Activities Supervisor
• David Goff - Grounds and Maintenance Supervisor

Lee Zieger has experience as owner and manager of Rio RV Park since October 1979. The park's growth is from 78 lots in 1979 between recreational vehicle and mobile home lots to 170 today. The park moved from a two star to a five star facility. Rio RV Park in 1979 had six lots filled in October and did not come close to filling up that winter. Now the park has around 100 units each October and has filled consistently for the past 20 years. While improving and building the park the owner did community service in improving the RV industry. Lee was in the leadership being a board member to an officer of associations from local, to state, and to national recreational vehicle professional organizations. He participated in events like the US President’s Travel and Tourism Summit.

Lee Zieger picked up nature, birding, and butterfly viewing and photography in the late 1990s. This led Lee to leadership and founding of the Brownsville International Birding Festival and Rio Grande Delta Audubon. Nature, birding, butterflying, and photography guided trips in Texas and Mexico began. His most notable guest was President and Mrs. Carter. He has some images in national magazines with photos of nature and people.

Lee may be the only park owner/operator to have grown up in the Rio Grande Valley. San Benito was home during school. The Air Force located him in Spain for three years where he acquired a minor in Spanish at the University of Maryland extension. Leaving an Oil company in 1979 for the RV park business was a major redirection of careers. The Spanish learned in Spain, local school, and university has helped in his travels to Mexico and ability to relate to Mexico travelers passing through.

You now see an rv park owner with pride in his park and industry expressed in leadership at the city, state, and national levels. His enthusiasm and leadership are a plus for the most, while it has also made him a target. Also, Lee's wanting the maximum for the customers has Rio RV Park with many amenities found only in large parks with much bigger budgets. Please read on and see what you think!

She grew up in the farmland of Iowa, to the orange groves of Florida, to the peaceful backwoods of Oklahoma, and finally to Deep South Texas. She dealt with people directly in all her positions giving her experience with a variety of people and organizations with cultural diversity good for RV park leadership.

Jennie picked up activities and leadership in the love of her life, History and Archeology here in Brownsville, Texas. In just one year, she became the South Texas Archeology’s regional director. Her enthusiasm attending archeology events around Texas has gained her experience and respect at all levels. She is doing the first Archeology Fair and has all the local museums, battle fields, and experts from near by South Texas and Mexico. The Texas Archeology Society board has enough confidence in her to accept Jennie’s invitation to bring their 2010 state annual meeting to Brownsville.

You can see her experiences have developed the skills to organize a kitchen and meal to satisfy your palate, healthy meals, direct you to interesting sites, and make your stay here enjoyable and comfortable.

Dave has worked off and on for about 20 years on grounds and building maintenance. He participated in many of the improvements at Rio RV Park. He can move from mowing, to pool care, to buildings, to the water systems, and plants with a good deal of back ground experience. Developing priorities on what gets done first and last with Lee is a challenge. His job is touchy as he works to keep the park costs low thus rent, reasonable while doing most of the maintenance in house.

These associations had meetings all over Texas and the United States. Dealing with situations of all sorts throughout the USA and even included Canada and Mexico. The RV Associations with Destination, Overnight, and mixed parks from all over the United States gave Lee Zieger a viewpoint few have seen in the RV park industry. Being a part of leadership in associations with hotel, motels, convention centers, and attractions gave Lee an insight of much more of the travel and tourism industry that most RV park owners don’t have. Your travel experience will be enhanced by information from Lee Zieger.

Lee picked up nature, birding, butterfly, and photography in the late 1990s getting ready for retirement and as a diversion from park duties. This led into his being one of three organizing the Rio Grande Delta Audubon Chapter and being their first President. He took trips in Deep South Texas, Mexico, Arizona, and Canada for pleasure plus birding and butter-flying identification and photography. This led into his creating the Brownsville International Birding Festival he organized and led for four years in conjunction with the BCVB and Rio Grande Delta Audubon. Organizing the festival with education seminars, speakers, and field trips in Texas and Mexico gave Lee a crash course into nature, birds, and butterflies. One thing leads to another with a phone call to take President Carter and Mrs. Carter on a birding trip around the Rio Grande Valley. The five day four nights birding experience was a success.