Sams Club?

I know that lots of folks stay free in various business parking lots but I have not had very good experiences with that. It usually happens that because of poor planning I am desperate to get off the road at 8 or 9 and just need to get a little sleep. Not uncommonly my sleep is interrupted by traffic noises or panhandlers knocking on my door asking for money. These days I really really try to get off the road before dusk in a peaceful and secure park.

I have tried out a couple of those town RV parks, and some can be really nice. One we stayed at in the UP (Houghton) had a beautiful view of Portage Lake!!

CavemanCharlie wrote:
I just know that these city owned parks exist. It may not always be convenient to use them.
I guess I was think of traveling with a plan,
Forgive me I'm my dad's son...Everything was planned out to the minute.

Caveman, I hear you on this!! We usually go with an exact plan also, and if our campgrounds aren't chosen for sure I know all the ones along the way, and what our possibilities are. The DW starts after noon on her ipad making our reservation for 3-4:00. Heck, I enjoy the planning part, its part of the vacation. I've just heard of people who stop for a short 5-6 hours sleep time over a long haul, and thought I might try it sometime just to see how it works, especially when I was going to travel about 8 driving hours away, but couldn't leave on first day until afternoon.

.

2oldman wrote:

Bumpyroad wrote:
if the walmart does not allow overnight parking it is probably because of a local ordinance. parking would not be allowed on your bare bones lot unless it met campground requirements.

Perhaps. I'm just a campground with very few amenities.

I am sure that the campground regulations would require much more than your muddy lot unless it was out in the boonies.
bumpy

We've stayed at Sams locations before. We have always checked in with the store manager first though, never any issues.

Bumpyroad wrote:
if the walmart does not allow overnight parking it is probably because of a local ordinance. parking would not be allowed on your bare bones lot unless it met campground requirements.

Perhaps. I'm just a campground with very few amenities.

westernrvparkowner wrote:

hokeypokey wrote:
We've used a school parking lot when school wasn't in session. Didn't see a soul come or go in the short time we were there. I've heard of using a church parking lot and the camper put some money in an envelope and left it with the Pastor for the collection plate.

A stranger camping in an elementary school parking lot surely wouldn't trigger anyone to shout "stranger danger". The local residents will just tell their six year olds to ignore the creepy old man in his underwear. Perfectly good plan.

Well the poster did say parking lot and not in the middle of the classroom.:D but it has worked for us as well, as a general rule school is out by dark.

BulldawgFan wrote:
Rvparky is a great app for searching overnight spots, complete with phone numbers and even some reviews. We use it on long trips, search ahead, call the store manager, get approval enroute. When we arrive we go in, pick up a few things and stop by and thank the manager.

I checked out RVparkey and found it to be purdy good. It missed a few of my local campground but, got most of them. About 75% really. A lot of the other campground RV sites I've checked missed more campgrounds then they got.

It seems to be a good site.

2oldman wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
why pay $5.00 for a dirt lot with nothing when Walmart offers paved parking, ...

Very true. The best thing I would strive to offer is quiet, but, that usually makes a place more off the main road and harder to find.

I'd have to cough up some big bucks to put up a sound wall, or find technology to solve that. I'd be wise to put my lots near Walmarts that do not allow O/N.

if the walmart does not allow overnight parking it is probably because of a local ordinance. parking would not be allowed on your bare bones lot unless it met campground requirements.
bumpy