That is something you don't want to skip... And it can be something to easily solve. Camping is one way to do it, if you have approximately thirty dollars a night to spend there are plenty of places to camp. A great app for your ipad or phone would be; All Stays Camp & RV. Or if you wanted to spend more money and crash in hotels/motels there are coupon books at almost every Rest Area but, that can get expensive.
I think the best option is Walmart. If your vehicle allows you to make a bed (put the backseat down and buy foam) that is the most comfortable way to do it but, we did see people just push down their front seat and call it a night. Also, there are Walmart's EVERYWHERE... We rarely had to drive out of our way to sleep. Ninety five percent of the Walmart's were on our route and if not they were just a few miles out of the way. It was the best sleeping option for us and we saved lots of money.
Most Walmart's are open 24/7 and they have bathrooms, food, plus any sort of product you may need unexpectedly. Some Walmart's that are not open 24/7 still allow you to sleep there. When we were on our road trip we opted against those unless there was another camper spending the night. It creeped us out being alone in a Walmart parking lot all night long. (Although the one in Toronto, Canada told us they have people stocking all night so we would not be the only vehicle, if we knew to ask that before we may have stayed at more non 24 hour Walmart's)
A great app for your ipad or phone would be All Stay ONP Walmart. (Over Night Parking) The app gives you a map of the U.S. and you an zoom in on cities or towns and will either have red W or yellow W. The red W means they are known for saying no to overnight parking and the yellow W means there is a possibility of you being able to camp there. I would recommend calling the Walmart ahead of the to verify it is okay because there were some yellow W that still said no because of campers ruining the privilege.
We did not have a bad experience staying overnight in a Walmart. We parked near other campers when necessary and stayed to the back of the parking lot. Some Walmart's were sketchier then others but that comes with the territory too. Tampa and Chicago were two of the more adventurous Walmart parking lots we 'stayed' in (bad area), Madison, Ohio and Perry, Florida were two of the best Walmart parking lots we 'slept' in.
We also found out in Eureka, California that you can try calling KMart's to see about sleeping in their parking lot. They are not open 24/7 and it was a sketchier experience but we made it through the night with no problems and did not have to spend a dime.
Therefore, I would highly recommend Walmart parking lots if you are on a budget and don't mind spending the night in your car (even better if you have a RV). We saved lots of money and it was the perfect option for our amazing adventure. Maybe we will even do a couple over nighters near our home town and call our friendly nearby Walmart's.....
Our favorite Floridian parking lot. Look at all the nice landscaping, newly built, quiet and plenty of space!
Really ladies? Don't you feel the breeze.......
Our home for two and half months!
On the road again.
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