Question on parking lot or walmart camping

CGs under $20 are out there but not that plentiful and not always where you may be traveling thru. Bottomless Lakes State Park (NM) cost me $14 for a W/50/30 electric site for 1 nite. This is now a reservation only campground and the reserveamerica reservation fee was $4. Unless you are running US380 (East-West), it's not "on the way" as it's 20 miles east of town.

On the other hand, I have been building a spreadsheet list to import into google my maps of cgs/rvps with electricity and allows pets that range from free to under $30. I'm verifying locations as some are a few miles off and some places are just gone plus adding links to a couple review sites (it's hard to add a link to a review that doesn't exist). They are out there. Not that easy to find and there are huge stretches with nothing. For one night, I don't like to get that far off my route. Some are private parks too.

Currently my list is over 650 and I an still thinning it down and adding to it. That is only for AL, AR, GA, FL, KY, LA, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN & TX. It is comprised of municipal (City & County), COE, Utilities, National & State Forests, National and State Rec areas, State Parks (not that many since they are pricing themselves out). They are out there but you aren't going to find a nice neat list of them. You will have to do your own homework. Many of these places don't show up on the reviews sites either.

I have been running into several of the COEs that require a 2 night stay for any stay that involves a Friday or Saturday night and a 3 night stay for holiday weekends. On top of that, I am finding a surprising amount that are reservation only or FCFS only for non-peak times. Not a biggie to me since I prefer a reservation. Reserve.gov is getting $8 per reservation for COE (Currently working mostly on the COE campgrounds). I think that is a bit high.

Hell, I haven't seen a =campground=, with no hookups, for $20.

Lyle

I don't know where you've been, but I haven't seen an RV resort for $20 in ages, and that includes out west, midwest, north, and south.

fj12ryder wrote:
I used to feel the same way, but with the price RV parks/campgrounds are asking, I no longer feel that way. $40-$50 for a dirt/gravel parking space is outrageous. We've started considering skipping one-night stays in RV parks/campgrounds too.

Maybe in the built up urban areas of the north east. We haven't been there yet but are in the early planning stages for next year. Or do you simply pull off when you see a "camping" sign and hope for the best?

I did a quick look back at the last 3 yrs (3-7months traveling each year covering everything from California to Florida to Pensylvania up to Alaska. Around 150 campgrounds. With the exception of staying inside Yellowstone (where walmart isn't a viable alternative), we paid $50 for 1 night (dumb move as we were tired and there was a beautiful scenic pull out in the middle of nowhere a few miles up the road) and $40 - 6 times.

Otherwise, we've been averaging between $20-35/n. Haven't felt the need to wallydock.

QCMan wrote:
The trucks will stay but with some limit on how many.
The reason for this goes back to before Walmart was Walmart. Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, was a trucker before he was a shop owner and understood that it was hard to find a safe and legal spot to rest. Where the practice is legal, trucks are permitted but may be restricted to certain parts of the lot. RV's are accepted by extension of that policy but non commercial vehicles can be excluded by some municipalities.

I'm sure it's buried in myth and legend but the story I heard was Sam was an RVer and saw it as a way to help out fellow RVers...while also understanding most would go in and buy stuff.

I'm sure there are exceptions but I've not seen commercial trucks wallydocking.

As far as the original question, so long as the parking lot has plenty of empty space and you are just stopping ofr the night, I doubt anyone will have an issue if you put the slides out. If you have a really heavy rig, put some boards under the stabalizers, so you aren't leaving divots in the asphalt.

Isn't Sam's club owned by Wal mart and just member's version?

Perhaps some of you should consider joining Sam's Clubs. They have zero problems with slide outs, staying hooked up, not staying hooked up, sitting outside in chairs, etc. All they ask is that you be a member and don't make a mess. You don't even have to buy anything from that particular store. You can even run a generator. When we spend the night, I am often told if they are running a special on steaks, burgers, etc and the store managers suggest we grill in their parking lot!

I currently don't have slides, but if I did, I really wouldn't care if someone objected to my putting them out if I had already gotten the okay from a store manager to do so. Perhaps some of you need to learn the response I learned when I first started homeschooling my kids. "That's your opinion and your opinion doesn't count with me" or my more common response.. "Okay. Bye." I also keep a baseball bat in the camper. It's amazing how many people will get violent over being told their opinion doesn't matter or if you don't do what they think you should do.

I do my grocery shopping in a truck camper. I leave the dog in it with the fans going. I often have people tell me I can't park "there" (pick a store) and they don't work at the store. My daughter used to take the truck camper to work when she had a late night shift followed by a morning shift the next day or if the weather was going to be snowy (someone had to open the store). She was always being told that she couldn't park overnight in the store parking lot. She would just tell them that she gave herself permission since she was store management. It really ticked some people off.

I have spent many nights in Sam's Club parking lots. They are my preferred parking lot.

1st choice: Sam's Clubs. I do 90% of my grocery shopping at Sam's. When traveling supper tends to be in a restaurant or a hot already baked all meat pizza and we love the rotisserie chicken. I can put together a nice supper for around $10-$15 (two of us) and have plenty of leftovers for lunch or supper the next day. Last night we had Penne alla Vodka Pasta with Shrimp for under $11. It was one of those heat and eat meals they have and it looked good so we picked it up. We heated it up on the cooktop. It was good, heated up on top of the cooktop in under 15 minutes and had a surprising amount of shrimp. We are sitting in a state park just outside of the town we live in and I'm not gonna work too hard at cooking, especially since we couldn't check in until after 4PM. We had to go swimming in the lake. We hit the Sam's for supplies before driving the 20 miles out to the state park. It's far too windy and hot to cook outside most days. We had 21mph wind today with a high of 105*. Yesterday was 104* with 20mph wind.

2nd choice: Cracker Barrel. We like the food. The dog likes their nice thick grass. It's "cushy" to walk on. We can usually park overnight in one of their lots.

3rd choice: a W/E site in a campground/rv park under $30 per night. Free is even better. Amazing how many free w/e city/county parks there are in TX. Mostly on US HWYs. But I don't like to drive miles out of my way when traveling someplace.

4th choice: Walmart & truck stops. It just works out that way. I've only had one bad experience at a Walmart.

I suggest that everyone always use pads under their jacks. Too many places cheap out and don't use a thick enough asphalt in their parking lots. That's why they don't like heavy trucks and campers in their lots. On a really hot day, an RV can easily punch a hole in thin asphalt and both heavy trucks and RVs can leave "dips" where the tires sat. I did not know this until the cheap Walmart in Perry GA repaved their lot in 2006/2007 and put signs up banning RVs and trucks from parking (even for groceries). We knew the owner of one of the biggest paving outfits in the state (at the time) and he just laughed and told us why. He knew the people who paved the lot (it was too small for him to mess with as he was busing paving a highway). I suspect a lot of the bans are from heavy vehicles parking on thin asphalt.

BTW, those "No Overnight Parking" sign often do not mean what you think they mean. They often mean "Don't leave your vehicle unattended with for sale signs in it for weeks on end" which is what the "No Parking" signs meant at a local Walmart back east where I used to live. I was surprised to see someone post it online as not allowing RVs to overnight there. I know they could because I asked the store manager (we went to high school together) and my daughter worked at the DollarTree in the same strip mall and DollarTree also allowed overnight parking in front of their store as did the Ingle's grocery store at the other end of the strip mall. Ditto for the Walmart in Clayton GA. Just ask permission and have a backup location or two in case you are told "no" for some reason.

TenOC wrote:
I have a 36 foot 5er that needs all 3 slides out to access the beds. I park near the edge of the parking lot so the slides do not block too much traffic and lower the jack only enough to take the weight off the springs so the trailer will not rock too much.

Never a problem.

This is what I was going to say. I would use the landing gear and keep it hooked to the truck and get it close to level as you can, put out your slides and the next morning pull in the slides, retract the gear and go.

Michelle.S wrote:
The few times we've used Wally World we ended up spending more money in the Store that it would have cost to stay at a Camp Ground with full hook-ups.

Nailed it! As long as you spend money, I doubt they care. Never spent the night at one but had many stops with slides and awning out. Never had any issues. I always park out as far as possible.

Bass Pro and Cabela's are also (mostly) RV friendly.

Please post a review of the Air Museum. That's on our list when we visit the People's Republik of Western Oregon. Want to ride the train there, too. :-)

Lyle