Overnight stay in travel trailor on way down

[connab]

I was wondering if anyone has stayed overnight at like a Walmart or somewhere and how you survive the heat. We have a travel trailor and are saying at Fort Wilderness in Sept 15th and we are thinking of leaving friday night and stopping 1/2way to sleep but it just occured to me that it may be hot as crap unless we stay at a campground for the electic hook ups. Just wondering what everyone else does.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

I was wondering if anyone has stayed overnight at like a Walmart or somewhere and how you survive the heat. We have a travel trailor and are saying at Fort Wilderness in Sept 15th and we are thinking of leaving friday night and stopping 1/2way to sleep but it just occured to me that it may be hot as crap unless we stay at a campground for the electic hook ups. Just wondering what everyone else does.

We dont sleep on the road when its hot out, I just cant sleep in the heat. We usually find a RV park near the expressway and hook up only what we absolutely need for the night. You can scout them out online or if you have an idea of where you might be for the night you can ask here and probably get some good options.
In the winter we usually just stop at a Flying J or Pilot to sleep for 6-8hrs. Our furnace runs on the propane and 12volt battery.
We stopped on the way back from FW in late June at a KOA in Cleveland TN. We dropped the jacks and plugged in the power for the AC and went to sleep. Got in around 11 and on the road around by 7:30 AM and only spent $23. I dont sleep all that well on the road but I gotta have AC in the summer or its pointless to stop.

Scott

 

[tiggger1]

where are you coming from. We stopped for 2 nights on the ride down and we stayed at a campground for cheap! and we had electricity. water, sewer plus cable and internet!~

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

where are you coming from. We stopped for 2 nights on the ride down and we stayed at a campground for cheap! and we had electricity. water, sewer plus cable and internet!~

Michigan, we come down I-75

 

[kimluvswdw]

We stop over night and sleep in the Walmart parking lots. There are a few there when we normally stop. We also run the generator for the AC.

 

[clkelley]

I'm going to the Fort in October and decided not to chance it. I have a reservation for a pull-through at the KOA in Forsyth, GA. I plan on pulling in, plugging in the power cord and going to bed.

Same thing for the trip home, I have a reservation for a pull-through at the KOA near Gainesville.

BigDisneyDaddy: How was the KOA in Cleveland??? I've got two nights reserved there later this month to use as a base to go Whitewater on the Ocoee. (We're doing the upper "Olympic Run" section, I can't wait!!) I know you weren't there long, but did you check out the "facilities". Were they pleasant enough??

 

[seven dwarfs]

We always stop at the walmart. It usually is not to hot and if it is we run the generator. When we get tired we start looking or call 411 and say the area we are and find one that way.

 

[seabee]

where are you coming from. We stopped for 2 nights on the ride down and we stayed at a campground for cheap! and we had electricity. water, sewer plus cable and internet!~

We are heading down from Maine in Oct. Out of curiosity which way did you go down?(routes) We are thinking of taking 84-81-64 and catching back up with 95 in Richmond. Also, how far did you get daily, and your stops? We have been trying to guess it, so it would be great to hear from someone who did a similar trip.

 

[becky1960]

Has anybody seen the new sigs that Walmart and Sam's put out about not letting engines or generators running ? Our local walmart has them. I do see rv's parked from time to time.

 

[gillenkl]

We are heading down from Maine in Oct. Out of curiosity which way did you go down?(routes) We are thinking of taking 84-81-64 and catching back up with 95 in Richmond. Also, how far did you get daily, and your stops? We have been trying to guess it, so it would be great to hear from someone who did a similar trip.

We come from Delaware - making 2 overnight stops:
Rocky Mount, NC KOA
Savannah South, SC KOA

We've also done it with just 1 overnight stop:
Fayetteville/Wade, NC KOA

 

[bradisgoofy]

You will find a lot of good information on RV.net under "Boondocking" Personally, I wouldn't do it.

 

[lawnspecialties]

There are too many good campgrounds along the interstates for me to stay in a Wal-Mart parking lot. We stay in one in central Ga. that has full hook-up (including cable) for $18 a night. Quiet and the kids get to ride the bikes or play while I fire up the grill. You can't do that in a parking lot with horns blowing and who knows what else going on.

Get The Next Exit and you'll have all of them listed for you all the way to Orlando.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

I'm going to the Fort in October and decided not to chance it. I have a reservation for a pull-through at the KOA in Forsyth, GA. I plan on pulling in, plugging in the power cord and going to bed.

Same thing for the trip home, I have a reservation for a pull-through at the KOA near Gainesville.

BigDisneyDaddy: How was the KOA in Cleveland??? I've got two nights reserved there later this month to use as a base to go Whitewater on the Ocoee. (We're doing the upper "Olympic Run" section, I can't wait!!) I know you weren't there long, but did you check out the "facilities". Were they pleasant enough??

It was a nice enough place. looked pretty much standard KOA to us. It sets on a hillside (like everything else in that area) and is all gravel. It would be a little tight with a really big rig. Nothing too fancy but we would stop again.
We didnt hear any road noise from the interstate but there is a racetrack nearby that was noticeable, that ended about 11PM but it didnt bother me at all. We were there on a weeknight so it may have ended earlier due to local restrictions.

Hope you have fun there.

Scott

 

[rjan67]

We just travelled down I75 in that heatwave and that's what I thought about staying at a Walmart. It would be just too hot! We stayed at a really nice KOA in Corbin Kentucky. We also stayed in a KOA in Valdosta Georgia that was ok. Pool was really small and lots of bugs, but people were nice and you got a continental breakfast. We came back up 95 to 77 and made one stop at a KOA in North Carolina. Have to check the name but it had a great pool and one of those jumping pillows which the kids LOVED! It was also near a theme park so we got fire works at night to boot! I know that there were cheaper campgrounds but I had the koa directory and was able to call ahead although I never found a campground that was full. We wanted a full hookup place and we needed to run the air conditoner. The only thing was it seemed that some closed early (like 8pm) so you needed to have your reservation in (they would post your site and info on a board to pick up once you were there if you came in late). Another KOA was open til 12am so it varied.

 

[mecamper]

Seabee,

We just returned from driving to FW. We took 84 through Conn, then 81, then 17 to get back to 95 in Fredricksburg. We really enjoyed the scenery in Pennsylvania. If you are a member of AAA they will map it all out for you. We have the RV plus AAA and has been well worth it. We broke down in NJ one year and we called AAA and they sent two tow trucks out for us, one for the van and one for the camper. We ended up having to stay all night in NJ and the people at the towing company were very nice to us.

We left home @ 7:30 in the morning and drove all the way to Carlilse, Penn, where we stayed at a Flying J truck stop. It was a long drive, we got to the Flying J @ 8:30 and stayed until 4:30 the next morning. The next day we drove until 6:30 pm. We decided to stay at a hotel off 95 in SC, near Point South. We left there at 6:00 am and got to FW at 12:30.

On the way home we left FW at 6:20 am and drove all of the way to a Flying J in Carmel Church, VA, stopped there at 10:00 pm and slept until 4:30 am. We got on to route 17 twenty minutes later. We drove until we got home at 8:30 that night.

If you are interested in sleeping at Flying J's you can go to their web site and get a list of all of the stops on your route. Another thing that I did was to make a list of all of the Cracker Barrell's on the way(from their web site). We find them to be a great deal, good food and plenty of it.
I hope this helps.

Maine Camper

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Seabee,

We just returned from driving to FW. We took 84 through Conn, then 81, then 17 to get back to 95 in Fredricksburg. We really enjoyed the scenery in Pennsylvania. If you are a member of AAA they will map it all out for you. We have the RV plus AAA and has been well worth it. We broke down in NJ one year and we called AAA and they sent two tow trucks out for us, one for the van and one for the camper. We ended up having to stay all night in NJ and the people at the towing company were very nice to us.

We left home @ 7:30 in the morning and drove all the way to Carlilse, Penn, where we stayed at a Flying J truck stop. It was a long drive, we got to the Flying J @ 8:30 and stayed until 4:30 the next morning. The next day we drove until 6:30 pm. We decided to stay at a hotel off 95 in SC, near Point South. We left there at 6:00 am and got to FW at 12:30.

On the way home we left FW at 6:20 am and drove all of the way to a Flying J in Carmel Church, VA, stopped there at 10:00 pm and slept until 4:30 am. We got on to route 17 twenty minutes later. We drove until we got home at 8:30 that night.

If you are interested in sleeping at Flying J's you can go to their web site and get a list of all of the stops on your route. Another thing that I did was to make a list of all of the Cracker Barrell's on the way(from their web site). We find them to be a great deal, good food and plenty of it.
I hope this helps.

Maine Camper

Everyone in our family likes cracker barrel so we stop there regularly. They are usually RV friendly (some are a little tight) the ones in GA on I75 are usually packed at dinner time so we try to stop during the off peak hours.

We also use the Flying J when we can because of the convenience. The kids like their pizza and we can stock up on soda and ice for a fair price.
During the winter we will stop at the "J" for sleep since we dont need hookups, the furnace runs off of 12 volt.

Scott

 

[loveDmouse]

We debated stopping at a campground or doing the Walmart or Flying J thing last year on our first trip to the Fort which was actually our first big trip in our RV. We decided we felt more comfortable staying at a campground. We didn't make reservations but when we got some what close to when we thought we would stop I just looked in my book. It is called The Next Exit and is great for RV travel down 95.
We were glad that is what we did. We stopped at Point South KOA in SC not too far from GA. We will do the same this year.
Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[seabee]

Thanks for your responses. I will be going to Barnes and Nobles to get "The Next Exit". We actually were thinking of stopping at the Flying J's, I have been checking out their site. MECAMPER-how was Rt. 17 to drive?

 

[PenskeSth1]

We use to stay at Truckstops when we went north. DH is a trucker and swears they are the safest place to stop...(I have my doubts). But those big trucks purring all night use to put me out like a light.

Now we just pull into a motel that will acommodate the rv.