Don't Camp at Walmart

We occasionally spend the night in a parking lot (generally Cabela’s), when we make our “once every 3 or 4 month shopping trip. Our closest large city (Costco, Sam’s, ect.) is 160 miles away from our home. So......we use our class c and spend the night. “Pre” class c, we would make the drive shop for hours, and then drive home....it made for a long, tiring day! We don’t like motels, and much prefer to prepare our own meals......camping in a parking lot works for us.. memtb

Gjac wrote:
I camped in Rock Hound state park in Deming NM in the article he referenced. It was hard enough during the day to find the CG, the later you check in the fewer sites available. As a traveler not familiar with the area I would not want to find a camp site at night in that CG or any remote state park. It is a very nice CG but even when we checked in during daylight hours there were no regular sites available so they put us in a picnic site. After rolling off my jacks in an unlevel SP Camp site and scraping my compartment door on a tree stump after dark that I could not see. I found that Walmart's after dark is a much safer alternative for a quick over night, especially when its been raining all day and unpaved CG's are muddy. The parking lots are always level, well lit and have security patrolling at night. You buy your groceries, refuel and are ready to go in the morning. My preference during the day is a NFS,NP,SP, COE or BLM land if out west CG if they are not more than 20 miles of of my intended route. After dark WM's are usually within 5 miles of the hiway and are the best alternative.

Well stated!

That exactly describes why we have stayed overnight in the type of places that I listed earlier. Convenience for a quick overnight place to park is sometimes the name of the game.

We even parked near the back of a Walmart lot one night where the Walmart Big Rigs were parked with their idling diesel engines because we figured it would be more secure right there among the sleeping drivers than out in the main parking lot where the night partiers were whooping it up and spinning brodies in their cars.

I wish commercial campgrounds located right in or just outside towns could offer $10/night non-hookup parking areas for overnight RV'ers just passing through - with some kind of a credit/debit card autopay kiosk with an electric gate to let you in. I'd rather use those for quick and safe overnights instead of Walmart parking lots. (I suppose certain types of RV folks would figure out how to abuse this kind RV service, though ... plus electric gates are expensive to install and maintain.)

I camped in Rock Hound state park in Deming NM in the article he referenced. It was hard enough during the day to find the CG, the later you check in the fewer sites available. As a traveler not familiar with the area I would not want to find a camp site at night in that CG or any remote state park. It is a very nice CG but even when we checked in during daylight hours there were no regular sites available so they put us in a picnic site. After rolling off my jacks in an unlevel SP Camp site and scraping my compartment door on a tree stump after dark that I could not see. I found that Walmart's after dark is a much safer alternative for a quick over night, especially when its been raining all day and unpaved CG's are muddy. The parking lots are always level, well lit and have security patrolling at night. You buy your groceries, refuel and are ready to go in the morning. My preference during the day is a NFS,NP,SP, COE or BLM land if out west CG if they are not more than 20 miles of of my intended route. After dark WM's are usually within 5 miles of the hiway and are the best alternative.

pnichols wrote:


Well ... Walmart is not the only quick-stop place to overnight. We've also used:

- a church's parking lot
- a Cabellas's parking lot
- a Cracker Barrel's parking lot
- a Port of Entry's parking lot
- a truck stop's parking lot
- a small business's parking lot
- a farmer's back yard after making a purchase there

:)

Don't forget casinos. Their parking lot security is second to none, and there's always a breakfast buffet.

BobsYourUncle wrote:
Browsing through the news on my laptop, as I do frequently to keep up with stuff, I came across the title of an article that got my attention.

Don't Camp at Walmart

Well, can't pass that up, so I clicked on the article.

It's really a good little short story. Check it out.

Well ... Walmart is not the only quick-stop place to overnight. We've also used:

- a church's parking lot
- a Cabellas's parking lot
- a Cracker Barrel's parking lot
- a Port of Entry's parking lot
- a truck stop's parking lot
- a small business's parking lot
- a farmer's back yard after making a purchase there
- a casino's parking lot

:)

Somewhat of a silly premise?
What if you are out east and there is no access to BLM type lands?
If you are very tired and a Walmart is available would it not be safer to hit the Walmart rather than have an accident?
Many variables here...

What that fails to account for is the people that drive until late into the night and just want a quick nap. Wallyworld is usually a short distance off the interstate not a additional drive. Myself being retired can take the drive to remote areas, not in a hurry to get to a destination.

Agreed, you shouldn't "Camp" at a WalMart, and we don't, we have however "overnighted" , pull in after a long drive and catch 4-6 hours sleep,then back on the road, usually by daybreak.
The story makes for a good read, and generally works well out West, but not very practical back East where you can spend a lot of time looking for a place to just pull off & boondock for a night.

Thanks for a great read.