Rest Areas Safe?

We stay in them often .. no problems

RE-TE wrote:
Thank you all for your contribution. I carry a shotgun and its is loaded. I was bothered one time in Atlanta at a wholesale house we stayed at waiting for them to open, someone knocked on the door when he heard the slide go back and a round in the chamber he got lost real fast. I am a retired combat Marine (Korea/Viet-Nam wars) and a retired long haul trucker and its nice to have others openions.
I would sooner answer to the Judge why I killed the intruder rather than be in the morgue waiting for someone to come claim my body.
Be safe and enjoy the ride.

So, just knocking on the door is a capital offense? Even if I just wanted to tell you that one of your tires was flat, I would also have left quickly.

I remember a few years ago there was an I-10 rest stop killer out west. the D.C. sniper killers were captured in a rest area about 4 miles from where I was at the time.
bumpy

Well I've been all over the country. Some states have beautiful rest stops with 24hr security and free coffee. Some have 55 gal barrels for trash and nothing else. I never overnight, but I frequently take a short nap during a long day. mostly in the day. At night I prefer a nice campground with clean bath rooms and showers. Once I was parked at a rest stop on 495 outside the Boston area. In the middle of the day a pimp pulled up and 4 "working" girls got out and started going from truck to truck selling Girl Scout cookies maybe? Broad daylight! Now way out in the middle of the dead flat great plains, I've stopped at rest areas and hardly seen another soul for hours. I just assume 99% of folks are allright, but that 1% can show up anywhere.

depending on the stop. we have used them. but if we pull in and get a feeling that it isn't the right spot we keep going.

Ln a MH safe you are only 1 min away to drive off
dont even have to get dresed 5 steps to driver seat

C-Leigh Racing wrote:
so if the rest area is some distance from a city or town, I'm stopping if need to.

Our rule of thumb, too. The farther away you are from a town or (especially) a city the safer you are.

My DH is also a LEO. Over the last two years, we have stayed at rest areas in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Iowa, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. We have never had a problem, never been asked to leave.

When we first started rving, we tried truck stops. The noise was overwhelming, way worse than any rest area we have stayed at. We tried a Walmart once but there were about 10 rvs in the lot and quite a few had generators (construction) running, grills out, and patio furniture. I thought it was a party (we found a quiet rest area about 10 miles down the road).

We love rest areas and welcome centers. We scout them out on our route beforehand and get a general idea of how large they are, how busy they are, what rules they have in place, and the security they offer. We have never felt in danger or feared for our stuff and usually have a very good night sleep.

HappyKayakers wrote:
Fulltimer for 7 yrs, use rest areas frequently while traveling for overnight stops, usually less than 8 hrs. Yep, they can get noisy at times but never had any security worries and never had law enforcement tell me to move on. No doubt others have had different experiences.

X2

Fl added armed security guards to their rest areas after a few murder/ car jackings in the 70's. I don't likethe constant diesel trucks coming and going all night. A lot like not sleeping so I do camp grounds.