Walmart....."NO......"

Came across a WM yesterday. NO TRUCKS signs everywhere. Designated RV area. Parking bays even. No RV parking anywhere else. Problem was EVERY single RV spot was occupied by a truck.

Our family farm brings in quite a few seasonal migrant workers form Central America.

Others who do the same and me are constantly hearing similar disparaging comments to the effect that we’re “giving away jobs to foreigners” even though we can’t get permission to bring anyone in until we post the job openings with the government unemployment office for 3 months and still need workers.

We have never gotten a single job applicant for those jobs.

When I hear those comments my reply is always the same, “No problem. Be there at 5am with your work boots. Don’t worry about lunch though, we provide it for free.”

Not one of them has EVER showed up.

OFDPOS wrote:

seaeagle2 wrote:
Here is Seattle, there are semi industrial parts of town where homeless people park derelict RV's, in several areas they've put 2am to 5am no parking zones to try to eliminate "stealth or not so stealth camping". They tried having areas where homeless could park their RV's, there were some fires, and some issues with drug use and they ran the numbers and decided that for what they could park 20 rvs they could provide shelter for quite few more so they dropped the program.

Was just up by Seattle visiting our son and fiancee both are in law enforcement.
Both said the state of Washington considers what a person is living in is their home/castle.

Meaning they can pretty much park their MH/tent and not be bothered by the law.

I can't tell you where we were ?
But we were driving down some nice streets with million dollar plus homes with the Seattle city view across the water. And there were MH's , travel trailers , even some on blocks , parked right out front of them and they said they have been there for months...

We saw this everywhere we went, they drove us around where we saw the Space Needle from the North, South, East and West and it was tent city, RV's parked everywhere and you could tell they had been there for a very long time.

As for Wally world parking.. Yep its getting worse and worse..

In the past going across country we would try to either Wally world , truck stop, or etc first two nights. Then on the third night hit up a CG , dump , flush, refill FW tank.
Then on the next third night pull off early, hit up a Wally world or ? replenish food . Head into a CG set up , and do laundry.

That worked out pretty good, once in a great while it would bite us and we would have to travel a few more miles before finding a place to catch a few hours of shut-eye.

Like a few posted earlier, there are alot of times you pull off after 7PM and the CG office doors are locked up, shower doors are locked, laundry house doors are locked. With just the night drop box to pay.
Every time I've walked up in the morning to the office and explained what took place and they agreed to only charge so much.
Only time it didn't happen was at a chain RV park.

We don't stop at them anymore.

The big reason a lot of campground showers and bathrooms are locked at night is because so many people sleep in the bathrooms and showers and leave all their used needles in the plus all kinds of trash.

drsteve wrote:

Roy&Lynne wrote:
We all know that as the cost of housing goes up, more and more folks are looking to living in RVs, not for camping and travel but just to have a roof over their heads. In my area, older RVs are seen parked in vacant lots, wide spots in roads, or parking lots. They might be there a day or two, or until someone complains and the police ask them to move on. More and more cities are now passing laws making this practice unlawful. More and more States are now allowing overnight parking at rest stops and we are going to find it more and more difficult to find places for overnight camping, especially in urban areas.

The US has become a low wage nation. Unless that changes, expect more poverty.

Have to call BS on that statement. What it has become is a nation of lazy people who believe everything should be handed to them and they should graduate high school, attend college on someone else's dime, then graduate and command $150K the first day of employment for playing around all day on Facebook and Twitter. I have been in the Industrial, Heavy, and Commercial construction industry for close to 35 years and what I have seen in the last 10, with the coming of age of millenials into the management end of things, is enough to make me want to puke. I have yet to see a smartphone or laptop put a building together, and when one of these snot noses gets in a position with some financial control, say a Project Manager, you had better deal with them by dotting I's and crossing T's because they tend to lie often. It's all about them. Sadly, the days of the jobsite handshake when it comes to changes and financial dealings are long over. Even if they say "please do it because we need it today, and I'll issue a change order as soon as I can" in open forum like a meeting with 20 people in attendence, you're probably going to get a good screwing for your effort later when selective memory loss sets in.

Get below the management level and try and find trade workers that are qualified, show up on time and consistently, and actually work. Good luck. Were not talking minimum wage jobs here either.

I have a new found respect for my little buddies from the deep deep South whose presence I resisted for years. At least they work, and work their asses off to boot.

seaeagle2 wrote:
Here is Seattle, there are semi industrial parts of town where homeless people park derelict RV's, in several areas they've put 2am to 5am no parking zones to try to eliminate "stealth or not so stealth camping". They tried having areas where homeless could park their RV's, there were some fires, and some issues with drug use and they ran the numbers and decided that for what they could park 20 rvs they could provide shelter for quite few more so they dropped the program.

Was just up by Seattle visiting our son and fiancee both are in law enforcement.
Both said the state of Washington considers what a person is living in is their home/castle.

Meaning they can pretty much park their MH/tent and not be bothered by the law.

I can't tell you where we were ?
But we were driving down some nice streets with million dollar plus homes with the Seattle city view across the water. And there were MH's , travel trailers , even some on blocks , parked right out front of them and they said they have been there for months...

We saw this everywhere we went, they drove us around where we saw the Space Needle from the North, South, East and West and it was tent city, RV's parked everywhere and you could tell they had been there for a very long time.

As for Wally world parking.. Yep its getting worse and worse..

In the past going across country we would try to either Wally world , truck stop, or etc first two nights. Then on the third night hit up a CG , dump , flush, refill FW tank.
Then on the next third night pull off early, hit up a Wally world or ? replenish food . Head into a CG set up , and do laundry.

That worked out pretty good, once in a great while it would bite us and we would have to travel a few more miles before finding a place to catch a few hours of shut-eye.

Like a few posted earlier, there are alot of times you pull off after 7PM and the CG office doors are locked up, shower doors are locked, laundry house doors are locked. With just the night drop box to pay.
Every time I've walked up in the morning to the office and explained what took place and they agreed to only charge so much.
Only time it didn't happen was at a chain RV park.

We don't stop at them anymore.

drsteve wrote:

Roy&Lynne wrote:
We all know that as the cost of housing goes up, more and more folks are looking to living in RVs, not for camping and travel but just to have a roof over their heads. In my area, older RVs are seen parked in vacant lots, wide spots in roads, or parking lots. They might be there a day or two, or until someone complains and the police ask them to move on. More and more cities are now passing laws making this practice unlawful. More and more States are now allowing overnight parking at rest stops and we are going to find it more and more difficult to find places for overnight camping, especially in urban areas.

The US has become a low wage nation. Unless that changes, expect more poverty.

In a perfect world that's a good line of thinking.

The problem is though that everyone wants THE lowest price possible, AKA the "Wally World effect", and every business owner wants maximum profits.

Nobody is going to volunteer to pay double for a loaf of bread or an oil change so that a farmer or mechanic can make a 'decent' wage.

Roy&Lynne wrote:
We all know that as the cost of housing goes up, more and more folks are looking to living in RVs, not for camping and travel but just to have a roof over their heads. In my area, older RVs are seen parked in vacant lots, wide spots in roads, or parking lots. They might be there a day or two, or until someone complains and the police ask them to move on. More and more cities are now passing laws making this practice unlawful. More and more States are now allowing overnight parking at rest stops and we are going to find it more and more difficult to find places for overnight camping, especially in urban areas.

The US has become a low wage nation. Unless that changes, expect more poverty.

We all know that as the cost of housing goes up, more and more folks are looking to living in RVs, not for camping and travel but just to have a roof over their heads. In my area, older RVs are seen parked in vacant lots, wide spots in roads, or parking lots. They might be there a day or two, or until someone complains and the police ask them to move on. More and more cities are now passing laws making this practice unlawful. More and more States are now allowing overnight parking at rest stops and we are going to find it more and more difficult to find places for overnight camping, especially in urban areas.

The rest of the audience and I got quite a laugh a few years ago at a town board meeting near our upstate NY vacation cottage when a woman who was identified as the sister of a local campground owner complained to the board about RV's parking at Walmart and asked for an ordinance against it. She first showed a photo of a TT set up near the garden shop with a carpet laid out, the awning out, a large BBQ grill, several lawn chairs and tables, and other camping gear. The next set of photos was of a line of various RV's set up along a parking lot boundary with slides out, BBQ grills, and even dog fences erected. She claimed they'd been there for a week! Once the initial wow factor passed, the Walmart store manager promptly pointed out that the first photo showed a camping supplies display that Walmart had put out in cooperation with a local RV dealer, and another local campground owner pointed out that the rest of the photos were of a traveling carnival workers living quarters for the carnival set up nearby and were there with the permission of the parking lot owner. Needless to say, no ordinance was passed, and the woman left the meeting with a very red face...

Most of the cracker barrels I've been to teh RV spots are like 40-50 feet (usually 40) My Class A is 38 and I tow a car so I can either "Stick out" or "Drop" the towed and take up two places

Same at far too many Truck/RV spots too (like the loves in Fair Play SC).

As others have said,, But expanded.. The Campground Owners Association lobbies for state, county and local laws and ordinances prohibiting overnight parking of RV's anywhere OTHER than a licensed campground.. They often use the story of the RVer who Dumped his black tanks in a Wal*mart parking lot as a "Scare" tatic.

NOTE that I said "Story" not "Stories".

I know of entire states who have .. bought the scare.