? for those of you who stop for the night

[Bichon Barb]

Do you stop in an RV park or do you stop in a hotel/motel overnight? Do you book it ahead of time or wing it when you get down there?

We are stopping in NC for the night and have decided with staying in a motel. I just don't want the hassle of setting up camp just to sleep. I've found a decent internet rate for the Days Inn in Selma, but it's probably better to wing it, huh?

 

[mantaz]

We pull into a campground for the night just to have water and electricity. We dont unhook the camper and just get the local pizza joint to deliver. I know that most walmarts will allow you to park in their lot overnight. My sister has a book that tells you what is at each exit along the way and where the campgrounds are. You can find it at your local RV store if you have one.

Angela

 

[elastigirlfan]

We stayed overnight at Wal-mart - on our way down and back home. We have a map with all the Wal-marts on it (that we got in Wal-mart). We read about it on-line and they recommended that you call the store you think you will be staying at to make sure it is okay with them. It, apparently is a common camper experience. That explains why I've often seen campers parked at my local Wal-mart.

Alyssa

 

[kellyrae8]

When we go to FW in Oct. we will be driving until about 2:00 am. *(we are not leaving home until about 8:00 pm.) We want to just pull into a wal-mart parking lot and sleep for awhile. Do you have any idea in what department at Wal-mart I would find this map with the wal-mart stores on it?
We live in louisiana. We are thinking by that 2:00 am we should be in Alabama or Florida area. So I would need a map with the Wal-marts listed for other states.. Any suggestions????

Thanks,
Kelly

 

[LMC]

What route are you taking? I-10??

I'm not sure about the walmarts along that area. We usually stay at a KOA off I-10: Chattahoochie, Lake City, or Tallahasee East. It's not free but only about $20 a nite and safe. We only hook up power and water. We use their shower facility but let the kids use the camper toilet when they need to. We don't do the full set up that way we can pull out quickly the next day and be at WDW fairly early.

 

[bgula]

We used to do the campground thing, however we now just stop at a rest area for the night. Even though a lot of the states say that overnight parking is not allowed, we just look for one that has truckers parked and then park amongst them. Never been bothered so far!

 

[elastigirlfan]

When we go to FW in Oct. we will be driving until about 2:00 am. *(we are not leaving home until about 8:00 pm.) We want to just pull into a wal-mart parking lot and sleep for awhile. Do you have any idea in what department at Wal-mart I would find this map with the wal-mart stores on it?
We live in louisiana. We are thinking by that 2:00 am we should be in Alabama or Florida area. So I would need a map with the Wal-marts listed for other states.. Any suggestions????

Thanks,
Kelly

The Walmart we use has them just inside one of the entrances of the store. It is a Rand and McNally United States road map. It is a special edition that Wal-mart puts out and also lists all of the amenities of the wal mart in question...(only 5 or 10 Dollars VERY CHEAP comparatively) Do call ahead though. We found two that we called had closed in the North/South carolina border area....

 

[ftwildernessguy]

I know that a lot of RV'ers use Walmart lots as a stopover and consider them safe since they are supposedly under video surveillance. However, it was not that many months ago that a Walmart employee was kidnapped and murdered as she left work. The abduction was captured on the video cameras, and no one helped her. So much for Walmart security. My advice is to use caution.

In answer to the original post, we have done it both ways. When we had a pop up, it was much easier to stop at a motel on the way. Now, we just pull into a KOA, plug in the electric and sack out, leaving the TT hooked up to the tow vehicle.

 

[kellyrae8]

Yes, We will be taking I-10.
I just asked hubby and he said we should be well into like Panama City area by that time.. Hopefully. So, we may just do the KOA thing if there is one there.. or even the truck stop if it allows overnight. Like another poster said,, Look for the truckers and pull in next to them for the night.

Hubby said, that is what he was wanting to do anyway instead.. I think we will be fine with no Electricity. We will be stopping at like 2:00 am. It will be Oct. 29th. I will open the windows.. leave the screens closed and snooze..
If it is too hot, then we will go to a KOA.

Anyone know of any Cheap KOA's around in the Destin or Panama City areas???
Thanks, Kelly

 

[RocklandRVers]

We have done it many ways:
1) Leave right after work and drive straight through stopping maybe for an occasional nap (or 2 or 3). I swore I will not do this again. Sure we got there the next afternoon but it was a total waste and was way too exhausting for a vacation.
2) Driven about 12 - 14 hours and stayed overnight at a Truck Stop (usually a Flying J). I have a Flying J RV Club card for gas discounts and usually stop for gas at those stations. They have separate RV parking. We usually also eat dinner and get coffee in the morning at the restaurant if we stay there. We have done this a few times
3) Stopped overnight at a campground. Did this once and found it a total waste of $30. We made a reservation ahead of time arrived after the office had closed for the night. They had our name and site taped to a map on the door. We literally drove in, set up the bunks and went to bed. The next morning we were up and out by 5:00 am. We didn't use the bathrooms or any of the "amenities" Couldn't tell you if the place was clean or filthy. We just paid for a parking space. Did it once..never again.
4) Stop at a motel. Usually its as cheap as we can...Motel 6 for example. They take dogs and its a room with beds and a bathroom. Nothing fancy. Sometimes we reserve in advance. Sometimes we just start looking for billboards and exit signs and just pull off and take our chances. Sometimes we call the hotel chain 800 numbers on the cell phone from the road if its getting late and want to make sure of a vacancy on down the highway.

It really depends on how I feel. If I am really tired early we usually do the motel. If I can go on until later at night when vacancies are harder to come by, then it might be a truckstop for a few hours.

 

[Bichon Barb]

RocklandRVers, DH and I NEED our great 8! That's why driving straight through with naps just wouldn't do it for us. We'd be miserable when we got to WDW. LOL. I also need my morning coffee and a shower. For $20 extra, it just seems easier to get a room.

We are thinking leave at 6 or 7:00 am, arrive Selma around 6 or 7:00 pm. If I book now I can get Days Inn (with pool for the wild ones) for $47.

Leave early in the morning and drive straight to FW.

 

[kellyrae8]

I gotch ya Rockland Rvers,
That is why we don't want to stay at a campsite somewhere. It will be a total waste of money. Plus,, don't want to be the one pulling into the campground when everyone is sleeping at 2:00 or 3:00 am and hooking up electricity and worried about waking them up. I really can't see paying for a place to sleep for a few hours when we have everything aboard that we will need, bathroom and all. The only way I feel we may stay at a campground, is if it is too hot to stay without electricity or with the windows open. I am hoping that that time of year,,(oct. 29th) the windows open will be fine.. atleast at that time of morning.
Now we are planning on leaving about 8:00pm after I get home from work about 6:30 or 7:00pm. We will drive until 2:00 or 3:00 am.. sleep until 7:00 or 8:00am then eat and get back on the road. It is anywhere from a 10 to a 12 hour drive I believe from here in New Orleans. We figured this would be the best bet that way the kids can watch tv, until 10:00 pm or when they fall asleep. then we can all just go in the camper and sleep once we get to our overnight destination spot.
Then in the morning, the kids will be well rested. Hubby is used to working late, long hours and he is good with 6 hours of sleep.. I myself,, need more.. lol
We are planning on just hanging around the campground the first day, setting up camp, so I will probably take a nap later after we get there to be well rested for the next day.

What has been your experience with driving at night??? We thought this would be the best time to drive due to little to no traffic??

 

[elastigirlfan]

This is DH... As we said, we stayed at a Wal-mart, both down and back... I would agree that they can be somewhat unsafe, as we parked in ones that didn't have a lot of activity, However, we had our very watchful Doby with us...One person was just walking to their car past our camper and "Suzy" noticed him... needless to say, the poor gentleman walked about a block out of his way to get to his car...

 

[kellyrae8]

or Dh,, lol thanks for the info on the wal-mart maps.. I will check it out next time I go to Wal-mart.. I am there atleast twice a week..
Thanks,
Kelly

 

[emeraldlover]

beforehand. The one near me in NH has signs posted for absolutely no overnight camping. They had a problem with travel trailers and motorhomes parking and putting out slides and awnings.

We always either just stop in a rest area or truck stop. My DH is a truck driver so he pretty much knows all the stops along the way. We just put the slide out just enough to move around and get in the bedroom.

Sam's Club (part of the Walmart chain) also allows parking in their lots. However, I don't think any of them (truck stops, rest areas, store lots) expect you to "set up" camp.

 

[kellyrae8]

Believe me,, I will call first.. We are not looking to stay at a wal-mart though. Would much rather stay at a truck stop or a rest area.. Alot more people around and I would feel alot more secure. Besides, DH said he is not going to drive around just to find a wal-mart parking lot to sleep in.. (ofcourse after we have called earlier to be sure we can do that)
BUT, I do want to have a map on hand incase I need it in the car with me. I can always call information from my cell phone and get the phone number to the wal-mart. I don't like leaving things to last minute. Just want to have a back up plan of where the wal-marts are just incase,, kwim???

We won't be setting up camp anywhere other than the campground either. Definetly won't be putting no awning out anywhere.. and we don't have a slide out. So we can use the restrooms in our camper with no problems at all.. just walk to the restroom in the camper and go..
We just need a place to pull over, jump in the camper, and sleep for a few hours. That is why rest stops sounds so much more better to us,, plus they are usually better lit up than wal-mart parking lots anyway. I don't like the feeling of sleeping in the middle of a big parking lot with NOTHING around me.. too scary!

 

[Tinkmom]

We won't be setting up camp anywhere other than the campground either. Definetly won't be putting no awning out anywhere.. and we don't have a slide out. So we can use the restrooms in our camper with no problems at all.. just walk to the restroom in the camper and go..
We just need a place to pull over, jump in the camper, and sleep for a few hours. That is why rest stops sounds so much more better to us,, plus they are usually better lit up than wal-mart parking lots anyway. I don't like the feeling of sleeping in the middle of a big parking lot with NOTHING around me.. too scary!

I have seen too many Walmarts and rest areas which do NOT allow parking in them to risk staying at one and getting kicked out. I also would not want to stay at a truck stop for two reasons -- one, there are some rough types who hang out at these and crime is a problem (not the truckers themselves, but these stops are magnets for other types of bums and criminals) and two, you may not be surrounded by nothing, but instead a very noisy place with a lot of comings and goings.

We have stopped during the night between home and WDW a few times. Once we stayed in a motel because it was storming. The other times I have gone online and checked on campgrounds on our route and narrowed it down to 2 or 3 (depending on how far we might get) then called and gotten prices. AAA and Good Sams discounts have always yielding something in the $17-19 range, which is well worth it for the security and electricity, if nothing else. We do as little "setting up" as possible, sleep, sometimes shower there or in the camper, then fix a quick breakfast (even that savings nearly makes up for the minimal cost of the campsite for the night).

Just my experience and thoughts........

 

[RocklandRVers]

RocklandRVers, DH and I NEED our great 8! That's why driving straight through with naps just wouldn't do it for us. We'd be miserable when we got to WDW. LOL. I also need my morning coffee and a shower. For $20 extra, it just seems easier to get a room.

I only did the drive straight through once and won't do it again.

When we stayed at a Flying J it was because we lost a lot of time stuck in traffic around DC. So we tried to make up the extra time and we stopped at around 8 pm, ate dinner at their restaurant and then went to bed. I also like a shower to wake me up so although we have a shower in our RV, I sometimes buy a shower at the truckstop. Usually $8 and they are nice and clean.

Of course all truckstops have fresh hot coffee by the gallons so that is easy to get. I don't always need 8 hours especially when I am psyched to get to my destination. DW and DS usually just sleep in while I get up, shower, get coffee, etc. and wake up when we are well down the road. When we stop that late at a truckstop its because we are only 5-6 hours to Disney. Sometimes I can wait for my shower until we arrive. BUT its usually the first thing after we arrive and set up regardless.

By far our preference is to leave early, drive 12-14 hours and stop early (by 6 pm). That gets us to around Florence SC and if we make great time as far as Savannah GA leaving us 6-8 hours to go.

 

[PrincessMom98]

We pulled our 5th wheel down for the first time in Dec. We stopped both ways at South of the Border's campground. It was worth the $20 traveling with DD6, DS1 and our Akita. We don't set up much but we need to open our slide to set up the pack-n-play. I felt safer camped with other families than in a truck stop.
Their hotel may be another story. In Feb. I drove down myself with the kids (no camper) to visit friends. We stopped at SOB on our way back. My DD was begging to stay there. I asked a clerk in the gift shop what the hotel was like and she recommended we stay down the road.