Stopping for grub n gas

[Cdaddy]

Do you just look for truck stops. Any suggestions or clues to look for so I don't pull off and find places I can't fit. I'm pulling a 33 foot travel trailer. Thanks and happy camping

[Old-Biscuit]

We traveled secondary/back roads during our 'on the road adventure'

Used regular service stations for diesel fueling

Stopped at various restaurants all across the USA

Never had an issue finding a place to park truck/5vr.
Had to back out of a couple stations but no big deal

Harder getting into some CGs then fuel/food places

[RRinNFla]

When fueling up while towing, I try to give myself as many options as I can.

On a recent trip, traveling through East Tennessee, I used the iExit app and selected an exit that had 3 gas stations and several fast food places. It turned out that two of the stations were virtually inaccessible at the time (waiting for the far right pump would have left my rig blocking the road), and at the third station only one lane seemed suitable, and I had to wait for the customer in front of me to finish pumping their fuel. Even then it was going to be a tough right turn to exit the station. As I am fueling, a sedan pulls up to the pumps on my right, and pulls so far forward that I can no longer make the right hand turn to exit, and they disappear inside the store for 10 minutes.

My point is, without the third option, I would have been back on the interstate looking for the next exit.

[NCWriter]

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:

NCWriter wrote:
That way you'll not only see where the best recent diesel prices are

I have found a real problem with the GasBuddy App. It relates to price reporting.

Over the past three months I've seen about two dozen Murphy USA/ Walmart stations closed. They were rebuilding / upgrading the stations. This is in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas.

In the Dallas/Plano are I've seen several Racetrack stations closed for rebuilds/ upgrades.

Yet all these stations were reported in GasBuddy as having recent fuel price updates - within the past six hours.

After some complaints to GasBuddy, and even getting so far as to talk to a real person in their customer service staff - this is what happens.

A company like Murphy USA or RaceTrack or Exxon or such will send out their daily price change to their various stations.

And they have a program which goes out to GasBuddy and updates the fuel prices at all their stations.

Having been in corporate IT dealing with in-store systems and price updates - I understand the technical reasons that stores which are not actually in operation/ open get price updates.

So what we are seeing on GasBuddy likely more than half the time are messages from the corporate HQ reporting the latest prices - disguised by GasBuddy as reports from customers.

That's really interesting. I've never arrived at a closed station that had a report on GasBuddy, but I then again I haven't been out west lately.

Posts usually have user names like eddie9208 or Jeff301. I guess corporations could create user names, and if they send a truthful price, I don't have a problem with it. If it's a fake price or a closed station, I'd vote with my wheels. Sure wouldn't create good will for the brand.

It's good you reported it. Maybe Gas Buddy can add a mechanism for reporting such things as obviously closed stations on a future upgrade. I like that they now make it possible to report "cash price" which is beginning to appear on the app's prices, so you get a clearer picture of the true price before you head for that station.

[Jim_Shoe]

I avoid restaurants as much as possible. I'm a single RVer, and sitting in a restaurant staring into space while waiting for my food to arrive is boring. Since I drive a 'C' and pull a Jeep Wrangler four down, I'm more concerned with finding gas stations where I can pull through rather than having to back out of the station. That requires unhooking the Jeep, moving it out of the way, backing the RV out and then re-hooking the Jeep.
So I look for truck stops (If a semi fits, so do I) or stations like Flying J so I can pull through. I start looking at a half tank.

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

tragusa3 wrote:
We get almost 400 miles on a tank

I really wish I had that range. Not to drive 400 miles a day - heck no. But to avoid having to look for fuel so often.

It would not change how we stop at mid-day though. My wife's hip won't take more than two or three hours of driving before she has to get out and walk around for a while.

And I certainly don't have a bladder capable of 400 miles.

[tpi]

Out west I've often stopped in regional shopping centers anchored by the typical chain stores. There's usually plenty of parking out back in the parking lots. Often shopping and restaurants. Usually on the outskirts of cities or in moderate sized towns. Usually close to major highways.

[Cdaddy]

Love that idea deanrlowa

[2gypsies1]

We usually ate in our motorhome for lunch - fast and easy. However, we drove secondary roads and the small towns have excellent little local restaurants with friendly fast service. Parking is easy right along the curb on the streets. We sometimes used these before stopping for the day to have a late lunch/early dinner. Then we didn't have to take the time to get to a campground and have to go out again.

RV-friendly or RV parking signs don't apply to every size RV. 🙂

[NYCgrrl]

We want to see this country from a snail's pace so will prolly drive no more than 200 miles per day. Also want to avoid interstates as much as possible.
Lunch will mostly be "home made" or local spots.

[DeanRIowa]

I am a bit anal on long trips where I am not that familiar with the area, so I create a online document(Google's) to map out all of my stops using Google Maps and then I zoom in looking for parking spots. I use street view as well for a better view. I than use a program called Snagit to do screen capture and paste it into my travel document. Thus my travel document has time, distance, Exit #, picture of stop, notes such as best fuel pump and food.

Example Below

[Community Alumni]

My GPS finds truck stops for me for gas but to eat, we prefer using state welcome centers and rest areas. We always have some lunch ready to go before we hit the road each morning.

[JAC1982]

Oh and as for food, it seems all of the truck stops in the areas we go to have some kind of fast food attached to them, like Wendy's. So we grab something there. I also keep substantial snacks like trail mix and jerky in the truck in case there isn't anywhere good to stop, just to curb the hunger til we can get to a better stopping point.

[JAC1982]

NCWriter wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:
.... I take diesel, and have driven through many normal car gas stations to find out they don't sell diesel. Those are the only ones we've had trouble with.

We stop quite frequently when we travel. A 3 hour drive will take us 8 hours, because we stop so much. Small Mom and Pop stores to mega Wall Marts! Small back road gas stations and restaurants that aren't even listed in a phone book they are so out of the way. ...

Just a suggestion, but during one of your stops (or your passenger can do this while moving on the road) you could plan ahead and use the Gas Buddy app for a cellular-enabled tablet or smart phone. Set Gas Buddy on diesel, and type in either the town where you want fuel up, or just press ""Find fuel near me." Many listings are shown well off the interstates.

That way you'll not only see where the best recent diesel prices are, but you'll also avoid driving through gas-only stations looking for diesel while towing.

This is what we do, use the GasBuddy app to find which stations have diesel. I will map out our trip and use the app to find which stations have diesel, then I'll pull up google maps and look at the Street View and satellite to see how the station is arranged. My husband is not an experienced tower, so knowing where we can stop ahead of time reduces his stress.

Also, in my limited experience, if a station has diesel, they also have room to pull in and out. The only time we haven't found that to be the case is along I-70 in Colorado in the mountains in areas like Vail. They just don't have the space to have big pull through gas stations. So, we plan ahead to avoid having to need to stop there.

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

NCWriter wrote:
That way you'll not only see where the best recent diesel prices are

I have found a real problem with the GasBuddy App. It relates to price reporting.

Over the past three months I've seen about two dozen Murphy USA/ Walmart stations closed. They were rebuilding / upgrading the stations. This is in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas.

In the Dallas/Plano are I've seen several Racetrack stations closed for rebuilds/ upgrades.

Yet all these stations were reported in GasBuddy as having recent fuel price updates - within the past six hours.

After some complaints to GasBuddy, and even getting so far as to talk to a real person in their customer service staff - this is what happens.

A company like Murphy USA or RaceTrack or Exxon or such will send out their daily price change to their various stations.

And they have a program which goes out to GasBuddy and updates the fuel prices at all their stations.

Having been in corporate IT dealing with in-store systems and price updates - I understand the technical reasons that stores which are not actually in operation/ open get price updates.

So what we are seeing on GasBuddy likely more than half the time are messages from the corporate HQ reporting the latest prices - disguised by GasBuddy as reports from customers.