First Wallydocking Experience - NOT TOO GOOD!

[Chuck_Hammer]

Originally Posted by Kxbronco

Chuck,

I assume you get permission from the store/resturant before you stay? Are most places accommodating or do you have to check with multiple each night?

I see your profile "upper right Ohio". If that means northeastern Ohio, the Walmart we were staying at was in Ashtabula. Close to you?

I always ask...
and I also get dinner at the chain restaurants if I am staying overnight.
.. sometimes Coffee in the early A.M. if they are open.

South East of Cleveland.. near Streetsboro.

[ladagobago]

Originally Posted by IC2

It always amazes me, 6-7 dollar figure RVs and their co-owners* cheaping out to stay somewhere free even at the potential expense of a crappy nights sleep and worrying about some dirtbag damaging your unit. I understand about those times when there is no room at any CG, but every night..... Oh well, every little bit helps with those monthly payments.

* You and the lending institution

I have no lending institution. I have paid cash- hear that - cash for everything I have purchased for the past 20 years. that includes Cadillac, boats, houses, property, MH etc. We are not cheap but when you are pulling a trailer at a total of 64 feet long the only place to stay is a walley world. I have had only two nights of stays that were negative. We are not campers but travelers and don't like camping at parks. My stay is generally only 8-10 hours and we are on our way. U don't know me or my life so not sure how you can give judgement. Some of you all just don't get it.

[Boogie_]

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

Look on the bright side...........


IT's FREE

Originally Posted by redcolorado

Sounds like an awful lot of bother just to save a few bucks.

hehehe
I've only had one problem with docking at WalMart.

....it's at a WALMART!!


We made several cross country trips when we first started RVing. I would always plot out the Walmarts along the route to overnite at thinking I was saving money.

We park, we go into the store "just to grab some fresh food, and pick up a few things".
We pull out the next morning and I'm $75+ bucks lighter.

Didn't take me long to realize that $30 at an El Cheapo RV park (or State Park if I'm lucky) was a way better deal.
And full hook ups to boot.

[VrrmmRydr]

Have stayed at many WM in my travels. Never to save money. Always to just get some sleep. 2 or 3 hours max, then move on. Usually stay in rest areas but they get filled up late at night.
Have never had a problem. Couple of load partyers once in a great while.
I never put my jacks down or my slides out. It is just a "rest stop" for me, not a camping stay.
don't care if trucks park next me and make a racket, I'm so tired I would sleep thru anything.
Usually (not always) end up spending money in their store before leaving.
I also shop at WM when NOT traveling, just to try to compensate them for their unselfish generosity. I fully understand that they do not HAVE to allow us in their lots.
BTW...I have also been known to spend a few hours at a CLOSED Burger King and McD when too tired to push on.

[luckyd]

We are travelling across Canada and try to boondock as we go.

No.......we are not cheap .......BUT
we have found the further East you go, the parks get worse.
They do not have what the websites say and they want to
charge huge fees.
We pulled into a major area late, called W/M and they said
W/M had no problem but KOA patrols the lot and reports
to the Police. Home Depot was next door so we asked them.
Same answer. KOA is trying to get a city ordinance to forbid
stores from allowing overnighting.

We decided to stay at a KOA at Barrie, Ont.
We were charged $74.00 for a site with 30 amp AND found
the WIFI does not work.

We pulled into one park and were told that if we hooked up
to power before 4 o'clock we would be charged $3/hour for power.

Parks are charging more for everything without investing in
better conditions.

W/M has great WIFI

[aeblank]

Entertaining thread. We find Walmart a huge time and money saver. Cost of a park is half a tank of fuel, and less handy. If we buy something, we were going to buy it anyway (and make a separate time-consuming stop).

One time the truck next to us (rock hauler, came in late, not really anywhere else to park, many trucks that night) lit it off at like 5am. Didn't know wtf was going on. Was pretty exciting for a minute, while I re-learned where I even was.

[OCM]

I look at sites (Walmart, Home Depot Lowes, ect) via satellite/street view to plot a spot. Pulling in late isn't the time to find out you're trapped pulling a toad in a 37ft DP. Also you can find nearby food, shopping, ect. I calculate about how far I'll be driving, look for an easy place to stay, and have a backup plan.
You can pick out RR tracks, highways, vegetation, trees, all kinds of "stuff". And no, I'm not a photo analyst with the DoD.

[oatmeal]

Originally Posted by Boogie_

We made several cross country trips when we first started RVing. I would always plot out the Walmarts along the route to overnite at thinking I was saving money.

We park, we go into the store "just to grab some fresh food, and pick up a few things".
We pull out the next morning and I'm $75+ bucks lighter.

Didn't take me long to realize that $30 at an El Cheapo RV park (or State Park if I'm lucky) was a way better deal.
And full hook ups to boot.

You see this type of thing a lot in the Great Walmart Debate, but I think it's a false equivalency.

You may spend $75 in Walmart, but your stay in their parking lot didn't cost you $75 because you bought things you wanted to buy, and presumably would have bought at some point anyway (unless you're buying things you don't want or need and will never use, and that's a topic for another discussion/intervention). Not only that, you probably paid less for those items by buying them at Walmart than if you'd bought them somewhere else.

Originally Posted by ladagobago

I have read about 50 of your responses to various threads and most statements fall into the "New Jersey" realm.

I wish everybody would read my last 50 posts--they'd learn a lot.

And if it's "negative" to correct the statement that going around New York City from Connecticut to Liberty Harbor will avoid the expensive toll on the George Washington Bridge (there is no toll on the bridge going in that direction), or that lawyers took 70% of the Norcold settlement (they took 33%, and that 33% had to cover their out-of-pocket expenses), then...guilty as charged.

"Constructive negativity."

[KSagal]

Originally Posted by ladagobago

I have no lending institution. I have paid cash- hear that - cash for everything I have purchased for the past 20 years. that includes Cadillac, boats, houses, property, MH etc. We are not cheap but when you are pulling a trailer at a total of 64 feet long the only place to stay is a walley world. I have had only two nights of stays that were negative. We are not campers but travelers and don't like camping at parks. My stay is generally only 8-10 hours and we are on our way. U don't know me or my life so not sure how you can give judgement. Some of you all just don't get it.

To each their own. If you want to justify blowing airhorns at 2 am because the guy annoyed you, so be it. I say that if he was wrong, you do not correct that be being more wrong. You correct it be being right.

As far as some of the other claims, you remind me of my mother. She used to brag about how she never had accidents. I was with her several times when she cut people off she never saw, was with her when she ran into curbs and blew both tires on that side, and recall stories about how all the kids in the neighborhood where she retired used to run and hide every time she got behind the wheel. But in her mind, she never had an accident. She passed on several years ago, but I suspect the locals still run and hide when she gets behind the wheel.

I travel a lot, and I know people from NJ. For the most part, it is like most other states, some people are nice, courteous, and respectful of others, and others are not. Some are quite the opposite. But to blame your own antisocial behaviors on the state of New Jersey is a bigger insult than any others I have seen on this thread.

I invite you to make your own judgement. For me, I believe we are responsible for our own actions, and be they good and courteous, or be they rude and boorish, they are ours to own by our selves. I fall short often, but do try to be the guy I would like to park next to. It is the best I can do.