What unusual location have you parked overnight at?

Pretty hard to top Whazoo's parking spots. I stayed in a bar's parking lot one time, wasn't too bad until they closed and everybody filed outside and decided to talk(loudly) for another half hour, no problems after that though!

Stayed at a cemetery once.....Lots of beautiful flowers to enjoy, no loud music coming from the neighbors, everybody gets along well, and no complaints about running the generator during quiet hours...

We camped next to a diner one night. Had too much to drink, as usual. When I came out my head was swimming.


We also spent the night in a WallMart, I mean MoonMart parking lot with out any issues. My wife thought I was a lunatic for eating Moon Pies with beer though.


They were both kind of boring places though, nothing to write home about...

Cannon George wrote:
Should've not be unusual; but boondocked overnight in Sheep Canyon, Anza Borrego State Park in California. (In 2013) This is a VERY remote place, but offers very good star grazing and even a chance to get away from cell phone. Stayed there many times before.

Glad the sheep have something to graze on there. :)

Should've not be unusual; but boondocked overnight in Sheep Canyon, Anza Borrego State Park in California. (In 2013) This is a VERY remote place, but offers very good star grazing and even a chance to get away from cell phone. Stayed there many times before.

Everything was fine until about 1:30 AM in the morning, when vehicles with (I guess) 20+ (several armed) INS personnel showed up, plus a helicopter! (A helicopter landing next door will wake you up!) Turned out I was in middle of an INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) staging area, complete with construction of holding pens, and "Intake Processing" queues. Due to the noise I couldn't sleep much more after this. Everything and everyone was gone though, by daylight the next morning.

I am not criticizing INS, nor Anza Borrego S.P. But this was an unusual camping experience for me, hope it stays that way!

We met some folks while in Newfoundland that were from Halifax, Nova Scotia. They said if we were ever in the area we could stay in there driveway with electric and water hookups. We stayed there two nights. We met a lot of great folks in Canada.

When our first child was born, I spent the night in the hospital parking lot. Other than some perodic sirens and one helicopter, all was quiet.

On a wonderful trip all around central and northern California, we passed many nights on the pull-offs along Rt 1 the coastal highway, with our slideout on the edge, the rocky coast hundreds of feet below.

The ultimate was a night spent in San Francisco on the parking lot of the USS San Francisco Memorial overlooking both the Pacfic Ocean, Seal Rocks and the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay. We were never bothered.

msiminoff wrote:
The lot had a closed gate but she thought I might be able to somehow pry it open (we were exhausted and feeling desperate), and she suggested that I get out to give it a try. When I approached the gate I was met by an armed security guard who firmly stated "sorry sir, we're closed". I calmly explained our story to her, pointing out that kids were sitting (now staring at us) in the back seat the truck. To my amazement this angel said to me "OK I'll open the gate for you... come on in... I'm on duty until 7am... Your family will be safe in here. "Cheers,-Mark

This is a great story, Mark. It also demonstrates how a simple request can provide the opportunity that otherwise might not be found.

Hope your trip to New Zealand and Australia is fantastic. Hope you have a future TR planned.

b

Next to the building at Danbury Spring and Brake, Danbury Connecticut. Left Long Island for a trip up to Maine. Got as far as Danbury when the right rear bearing went on our F350. Danbury S&B was the only shop that would take us in (Really good folks!)

Had the rear brakes done several weeks before the trip. To change out the brakes on an '03 F350, you have to pull the rear axle shafts. Seems the mechanic forgot to refill the rear end with oil. Driving around town without the camper for a few weeks showed no problem, but the load of the camper and highway travel fused the bearing to the spindle. They ended up welding on a new spindle.

The shop ran an electrical cord out to the camper so we could stay overnight. Next day we rented a car, loaded all of our gear into it and drove home. Went back up a week later to pick up the truck and camper.

Oh - Ended up getting a new mechanic and a new truck!