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I finally found the video I did on places to stay which I’ll share at the end of this post. The last post I wrote stirred up some memories of places I parked and I decided to share.
Like many people road tripping in a vehicle I’ve parked many different places. My favorite places to park are truck stops. Some people don’t prefer them due to the noise and others feel they’re unsafe because there are so many people coming and going all night long but I don’t think this makes them unsafe. As for noise, it doesn’t bother me most of the time. Before covid, I would stay in a Walmart parking lot and Walmart became my go to for a place to park but that was back when it was 24 hours. I prefer a place that is 24 hours in case I have a case of upset stomach which happens from time to time. I still, on occasion will park in a Walmart parking lot if there is no other place. A few months ago I was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and there are no truck stops and I didn’t find any gas stations I wanted to park in so I finally stopped at a Walmart. I passed by the first one and stopped at the second one I came to which is actually in Surfside Beach and that is about the third or fourth one on the strand. One of the Walmart’s had a Home Depot right next door.
One time when I was in Michigan I got woken up in the middle of the night by a night manager after the day manager had told me I could park my camper there. There was a Home Depot right next door and I didn’t go any further than that but needless to say I didn’t sleep any more that night and ended up sleeping during the day. On occasion this happens. There are times you will be approached by managers, police and even the average person wanting to know if they can help you or asking if you live in your car. Once a woman approached me in a parking lot and asked if I lived in my car and offered me money. I’ve been approached a few times by law enforcement mostly and a couple of times by store managers.
I also stopped at a Walmart in Louisa, Kentucky last year when I was traveling US Highway 23 on my way to Ohio and I’d been driving a long time and had to stop. There was one gas station that I wasn’t comfortable staying at so I kept driving. For this reason I prefer Interstates because there will be truck stops but depending on what state in you’re in you may not find a stop for awhile. Last year when I traveling back from South Dakota I stopped at a lot of rest areas. I’ll only stay at a rest area if it’s busy. If there is hardly anyone parked there I’ll keep driving. I try to find someplace to stop before it gets too late but sometimes I keep driving because I’m not tired. It really depends on where I’m at. If I’m somewhere in the south I may keep driving because there are far more truck stops.
Sometimes I’ll stop at campgrounds if I make the reservations early enough. But more often than not I don’t know exactly where I’ll be.
There are a variety of places to stop at night. There are established campgrounds, dispersed camping spots, truck stops, rest areas, 24 hour gas stations and of course Walmart and I’ve heard people say Cabela’s is another place to stop. Truckers will stop at Home Depot, Lowes, even the side of the road(I don’t recommend this) but places like Lowes are okay if they’re close to a Walmart as in right next door. Sometimes if I stop at Walmart and it’s in a strip mall I’ll park outside the Walmart parking area. Wherever you stop I recommend that it be busy and well lit. And if the store is closed at night it’s preferable there be a few truckers and RVs, vans, etc. parked there so there are some people there too. And park near them. Not right on top of them but close enough.
There are probably a few other places to stop that I haven’t included but these are the places I prefer.
Here’s the video that I did over a year ago on places to stop when you’re traveling.
Related posts:This Woman Tried To Live A Nomadic Lifestyle And Wound Up Homeless, And Her Story Is So Important
Here are some sunshades for your car windows for privacy and they help keep out heat in the summer and keep it warmer in the winter. These are the ones I picked for my car. They have a lot of them. In fact, more than when I first started looking but that was a couple of years ago. This post contains affiliate links and I may make a commission from it at no cost to the reader.
Visit my YouTube Channel Sassy After Sixty here:https://www.youtube.com/sassygrrl32, my business blog Rizzo REI Partners~Rachel Holbert Jones Page here:https://rachelholbertjones.wordpress.com/, Medium here:https://medium.com/@sassygrrl32a, articles at Hubpages here:https://hubpages.com/@sassygrrl32andDiverse & Wickedly Crazed Diary here:https://rachelholbertjonespage.wordpress.com/which is a collection of personal posts, haunted abandoned places, cemeteries, nature, photography, strange happenings, road tripping, camping, hiking and van life.
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By Rachel Holbert Jones aka Sassygrrl32 in Memphis Tennessee & Clifton RV Park & Marina TN
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