Walmart RV parking app

Matt_Colie wrote:
To those that do not approve of overnight parking at other than a designed campground (or often cramp grounds), I have this comparison to offer.

Do you often spend money on a meal to leave it on the counter?

If we are traveling in a self-contained unit, and we want a quiet, more or less level place to stop for the night, should we have to pay for a pool, a weight room, a kids play yard or a bathhouse? I don't think I need to do that.

The places we choose to ONP are convenient to out planned route. As we don't need to get to an office, our arrival time is never an issue as is also not our departure time. Some states still have rest areas along the highway, most are pretty. Tennessee or Kentucky (I would have to go back to trip reports) has plowed a bunch of their rest
areas in. We now drive right through there too. That is unless we find a good flat place off the highway.

Back in our days when the vehicle was not self contained we bought nights at a campgrounds that fixed out current attitude. One time we got off the highway and drove 6 miles through the hinterland to pay for a place that was so tight we had to be careful opening the car's doors. We hadn't heard of slides. We were also back next to the highway we had left, but long side a grade where the trucks were either powering up the slope or Jake-braking down the other way - All Night Long. And, this place was not cheap. Our dog really did not appreciate the play yard or pool either.

Now, we stop where we like. If it is a business that we can patronize, then we usually do. We used to like the Cabela's in Hammond (IN). DW like to shop for interesting bargains when we did. Then the local law enforcement chased us out one evening. We haven't spent any money there since.

Some years back, a lady in the state of Maine was pushing a law that made over night parking of RVs outside of campgrounds a violation. That was the year I had planned to take the coach east. I cancelled a grand tour but we went and visited family and friends. We flew in and borrowed (you didn't want to rent a car in Rhode Island) a car and stayed with family and left behind almost no money. We spent that money in other states. The law got changed. Move championed by the lady that started the first law, but the plan has not been revived.

There are lots of ways to find free ONP. We tend to use all the sources listed. With demise of the good underway navigators of Streets & Trips and Street Atlas, it takes a lot more doing now, but we still manage.

Matt

You sure are hateful towards an entire industry that does nothing but provide services to RVers. Over the years we have provided service to hundreds of thousands of guests. Many of those guests return time and time again. Seldom do complaints arise and those that do are most often of a very minor nature.
But like most things, you tend to get what you pay for. If you always seek out the lowest cost provider, you are likely to get the lowest level of service.
If staying in parking lots fills your needs, no problem. But constantly berating those people who don't want spend their nights in the midst of Walmart shoppers as well as always slamming Private RV Parks that provide services the vast majority of RVers seek just reeks of someone angry at the world. In your brief post you apparently hate RV Parks, Cabelas, the police, truckers, the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Maine and Rhode Island. You are upset that two publications went out of business. Perhaps the problem isn't all those entities but rather the image you see in the mirror.