♪ It's a new day ♪
♪ It's a new life ♪
♪ Feel the wind change ♪
♪ Feel the sunlight ♪
♪ And tomorrow is brighter than it's ever been before ♪
♪ Winter came and now it's gone away ♪
♪ It's a new day ♪
- Yeah. (Stacy laughs)
We get asked all the time,
"Where is that place you're staying at?"
- So we thought today we would give you the grand tour,
show you what's around here and show you why
we tend to come back to this place over and over.
- [Phil] Well, first you can see this is,
I mean, absolutely beautiful,
- [Stacy] Woohoo.
- [Phil] To come hang out at this site.
- This place does really spoil me,
but honestly it is the perfect place for us
to come when Phil's had his surgery.
So, he just finished, for those of you don't know,
he just had a third surgery since we've been on the road,
and that is the biggest one,
and it's a total knee replacement.
- Yeah, so we've been sitting here for about,
well, it'll be three months.
- By the time we leave.
- By the time we leave. Sitting.
- And we are itching to get moving.
- [Phil] Yeah, it's killing me.
I'm here so that we can do PT,
which is three minutes down the road.
- [Stacy] Yep.
- [Phil] We have a full shower, which we'll show you later.
That is great when you're hobbling around on one good wheel.
Other than that, I mean, this place is just quiet,
very well taken care of, the landscaping, the management.
- [Stacy] Yup.
- [Phil] I mean just, you cannot beat this resort.
- [Stacy] What you couldn't see
from our casita is this excellent view.
- [Phil] Yeah, we're sitting on the 14th hole
here at the Alsatian Golf Course.
Let me tell you, some of these players
have us in stitches during the day.
- There's nothing better than sitting at the table,
watching the golfers come up, and the next thing you know,
you hear some four letter words,
and the club goes flying across the course.
- (Phil laughing) Yeah.
- [Stacy] It has happened a lot.
- Yeah, we've seen a ton of clubs go flying,
and actually where we are in relation to the 14th hole,
we're directly behind it, we've had quite a few close calls
with golf balls almost ending up on our patio.
There are some guys out here that probably
shouldn't be golfing, like me,
because you never know where the ball's gonna end up.
- The great thing about this campground is you
don't have to have a casita to have a great site.
- [Phil] The sites in here are spacious,
they're long, they're concrete, they're flat.
You can't beat this setup out here.
- [Stacy] Everybody has a nice little area of grass,
and there's big sections of grass behind some of the rigs.
So, if you have kids that wanna play,
kick a ball, there's a lot of space for that.
- Yeah, and every space comes with a table and two chairs.
So you don't even have to break out your own chairs
to sit out and enjoy the peace and quiet out here.
- [Stacy] Now, for those of you with the big RVs,
don't you worry, this place is big rig friendly.
There is ton of room for your RVs, your tow vehicles,
your buddy's car sometimes will even fit
in your site as well.
- Yeah, and if you have too many vehicles
at your site already,
they do have a overflow parking lot
right next to the clubhouse and the pool.
All of the outside rows at the perimeter of the park
are back in, and there's two rows in the center
for pull-throughs.
- Yeah, and of course the back ins are a little bit cheaper
than the pull throughs, but let me tell you,
it's mighty convenient to have all that space
when you're chilling here.
If you have friends that don't have an RV
and they wanna hang out with you, there are two cabins
on the property, just waiting for your friends.
All right, I know what you're thinking.
"That place is so empty.
Why is it so empty if it's so great?"
Well, let me tell you, in the wintertime,
this place is packed.
Right now, it's July in Texas. So,
- Yeah, 108.
- People are not banging on the door
to come and sit when it's this hot.
Want to have cocktails with a few friends?
The patio is the perfect place to do it.
It's got comfortable furniture
and plenty of space to hang out.
- [Woman] Hello, good morning.
- [Stacy] Good morning, how are you?
- [Woman] Good.
- This captured probably our second visit here to Alsatian,
and this here you can look at it and tell it was pre-solar,
so it's been a minute, but we're here and here,
so we've made the cut.
One other feature I forgot about the Alsatian RV Resort
is they've got a nice little fitness room here,
and I'm going to come back here and try to test out my knee.
I totally forgot that they had an elliptical in here,
and it looks like be able to get a full body workout.
(gentle music)
(gentle music continues)
- Castroville is a sleepy little town.
There's not a ton to do here,
but you can get out and explore
like this church here that was actually built in 1868.
- That's a long time ago, but there are a lot
of other historical sites throughout Castroville.
They even have a walking tour through the town
which we haven't done yet, but that's available.
- Now, as far as amenities here, there is a Walmart.
There's a drive through (laughs) margarita shack.
- Yeah. Yeah, there's a drive through,
you can go through and get just about any drink you want,
mixed, beer, sodas, you name it. It's kind of cool.
- I would wave off on the margarita though.
We did attempt one and it was awful.
So just, just get you a beer and a snack.
- Yeah. - Skip the margaritas.
- [Phil] Yeah.
- I think they had like a 12 year old making it,
he didn't know what he was doing.
- But I mean, it's pretty cool.
It's something you don't see all the time.
I mean, it's this little sleepy town is growing.
I mean, Walmart, they've got quite a few fast food joints.
They've got a meat market in town.
- [Stacy] The meat market is really good.
- Yeah, it's a nice little town to get away and just,
you know, it's not the hustle and bustle
of downtown San Antonio.
- But downtown is only 30 minutes away.
- [Phil] Right.
- So, if you're going to the River Walk or the Alamo,
30 miles, and if you wanna go to SeaWorld
that's around 30 miles in a different direction.
And Six Flags is about almost 40 miles.
So everything is still within reach,
and you get to be out here in the quiet of Castroville.
Need a quick pick me up?
Head down to the little mom and pop coffee shop.
It's actually an old filling station.
And they will give you a nice little latte,
or, I don't know, Phil what'd you get?
- A regular coffee with a splash of French vanilla.
- So, it's a cool little place to hang out.
There's only a couple of really good restaurants here
in Castroville and the Cafe is one of them.
The other good option for a restaurant
here in Castroville, is Luigi's.
It is a quiet little Italian place,
and it's pretty darn good.
They also will deliver out to the campground.
(gentle music)
(gentle music continues)
(water bubbling)
One of the things I really love about this park
is how well they take care of everything.
The laundry room is always spick and span,
the bathrooms are always really clean,
and we all know how bad some of these
RV park laundry rooms can be.
And what you're missing is the smell of bleach,
so, obviously they've been in here, probably today,
and did a good scrub down, 'cause I can,
it's just, (sniffs) it smells fresh and clean.
Need to walk Fido? Don't worry.
There's poo stations all over the park.
You ready to take 'em in for the best part of this place?
- Tada. No, it's the casita, really, it's the casita.
That's what you're here to see.
- Now we really like it, 'cause it,
I feel like we have double or even triple
the size of our RV with all this extra space.
So, here we go.
Lights.
- This is what we gain by having this casita.
We have all this indoor storage area,
it's air-conditioned, and we have a closet.
So we could, we have even more additional space.
- [Stacy] Which basically means
we tend to store a lot of junk while we're here,
and then have to get rid of it when it's time to go.
- Well, it's also a place where we can put things,
we don't have to worry about, locking individual bikes
and worry about stuff walking off.
We just put it in here, close the door,
and hope nobody messes with it.
Now we do have, this is actually a workstation.
So, if you really wanted to separate from the rig,
and get some peace and quiet and do some work,
you can do right here.
They do have WiFi in the park, but as you know,
we travel with our own, so that's what we use.
- Now, one bonus about this space out here
is this is a space we used when we painted the cabinets.
We brought all the drawers out here,
and we sanded and painted them in here,
so it would be A) air conditioned when we were here,
but B) we didn't have to worry about dust and all that stuff.
- Yeah, and, again, it's climate controlled,
but we're here in the, you know, the heat of the summer,
a hundred degree temps outside,
and it stays nice and cool in here.
- Yes, we know we did it wrong, but,
- [Phil] Yes, again.
- Hey, we had to do the knee when we did the knee.
Now, this really is the reason we chose the casita.
Tada!
- Boom, right here.
- [Stacy] This shower.
- Yeah, this here, fully, it's a full bathroom
with a walk-in shower and it's pretty,
- [Stacy] There's no tub, so it's considered three quarters.
- Well, yeah, but it, for me, a full bath is this.
- [Stacy] The shower, yeah.
- It's plenty big. It's got a rain shower head.
It's got the handheld shower head.
It is big and spacious.
- Now, the bonus is, yeah,
the bonus is when Phil had his surgeries,
not just the knee, but his surgery from before,
there was no way I could help him shower
in the tiny shower in the RV.
So, this allowed me to help him,
especially when he had no mobility
of his shoulder for, you know, previous surgery.
I know, he's falling apart.
- Yeah.
- I know, we're trying to fix him.
- We could have done it in the RV,
but we would've flooded the whole back end of the rig and,
- It'd been precarious.
- Water would been everywhere.
So this, I mean, you could see, it's pretty big.
- Yeah.
- So you can, we can come out here,
we can take leisure showers,
or I should say Hollywood showers.
- I can run that shower as long as I want.
I never run outta hot water. (laughs)
- Yeah, so this has been truly a blessing to have.
And then when the temps are pretty reasonable outside,
we love sitting outside
- [Stacy] Yeah.
- At the table in the shade and watching the golfers.
But we do still watch the golfers,
just from the comforts of the rig.
- The RV. Now I will sit outside.
Okay, we can actually quit talking in the bathroom.
I feel like I'm some young kid
getting ready to take a picture
or something in front of the toilet.
So we do, I mean I would sit out here
even in the 90s, but, you know,
these hundred and five degree temps for the last
almost 30 days, I just, they beat me down.
- Yeah, and in fact, look at this.
- Oh yep, my candles are dying.
- This is,
- They're dying.
- It's supposed to be straight up, but-
- Fully erect?
- Yeah, fully erect, and it's not.
So, the heat has melted 'em.
And, you know, probably from noon on,
this part of the casita is in the shade
as the sun goes over us.
- [Stacy] Yeah.
- And still, I mean, yesterday was 107, 108 degrees,
and it felt like 111 out, so, you just can't escape it.
Although, we have the, we've turned the fan on,
- [Stacy] Yeah.
- And we're in the shade,
it's just not really a good breeze.
- That being said, if you're here any months,
other than June, July, and August,
you're probably good to go.
I know you guys are all wondering, "okay, how much?"
- Yeah, anything that's got "resort" attached to it,
it's gotta be pricey, right?
- [Stacy] Well, we know not all campgrounds
(Phil laughs)
that are calling themselves resorts, are true resorts,
but this one is pretty darn nice.
- [Phil] It, yeah, it's very nice.
- So, the least expensive campsite are your entry point,
which are the back-ins are 45 bucks a night
or 570 for the month.
- [Phil] It's not bad.
- The casitas, of course, are gonna be your most expensive
because of all the space.
And they are 100 bucks per night or 1300 a month.
Now, of course the monthlys don't include electric.
- Yeah, and we're here, again,
during the heat of the summer.
So, our electric bill is a little bit higher
then we would like.
- [Stacy] Yeah.
- [Phil] That's because the AC is running
not only in the rig, but in the casita,
so we're paying for the casita power as well.
- [Stacy] And it's running nonstop.
- [Phil] Yeah.
- San Antonio is the sixth largest city in the US.
So, I'm sure at some point in time,
if you haven't been through here,
you're going to come through here.
So this is a great place to sit
while you're exploring San Antonio.
And, that being said,
if you would like to explore the best parts of San Antonio,
make sure you come back next week
because we're gonna show you where to go,
so you don't hit all those yucky tourist traps.
- [Phil] Yeah, everybody that comes to San Antonio is,
you know, they do the same things over and over.
We're gonna try to take you off the beaten path
and show you some things outside of the tourist trap.
- [Stacy] Yeah, take you where the locals go,
(Phil laughs)
take you to some of our favorite places.
- Yeah, are we locals, even though we come and go?
- Well, we did live here for almost 10 years,
- Yeah, that's true.
- So I would consider us a local.
- Okay.
- At least we know where some of the really good spots are,
whether we're considering ourselves locals or not.
- (laughs) That's right.
But you'll definitely wanna come back
and check that out because it's, you know,
something different to do then the familiar touristy,
- The two things everybody does,
- Yup.
- That one section of the River Walk and the Alamo.
And then after that, you know, you don't, I mean,
you might wanna go to SeaWorld and Six Flags
if you have young'uns on board, but most people,
that's not their number one thing to do here.
And it's definitely not the best things to do here.
- And for military, it is military city USA for a reason.
- Yeah.
- And when you come here and you get out in town
and experience that side of things, you'll understand why.
- [Stacy] If you call and book here,
let 'em know that we sent ya, and tell 'em we said "hi."
- [Phil] Yeah, and, we won't be here when you do.
- (laughs) Yeah, by the time you get this,
- Because-
- We won't be here.
- Because we'll-
- We better not be here, it's time to go.
- Yeah, we're hitting the road.
♪ The best is yet to come ♪