Overnight rest stops at Loves

Everyone has their personal preferences and dislikes based on experiences. I too have done lots of business traveling, much more than I care to even remember, and have been in motels and hotels I didn’t like. But I’ve stayed in campgrounds that are worse for dirt, noise, crowding and rude neighbors. From my travels I have taken away an aversion to commercial airports and airline travel but not hotels. You couldn’t get me to go somewhere that required airline travel for recreational purposes.

It’s quite easy now to identify hotels and campgrounds to stay away from as we have the internet available. Trip Advisor is quite good for example. And if you want to explore some urban amenities like museums or galleries on your travels campgrounds can be pretty inconvenient.

In any case, I was just pointing out that there is an alternative if rest stops, truck stops, Wally Worlds, Cracker Barrels, etc don’t appeal. There is no right or wrong answer here. We have small enough trailers (well, maybe not the new really big rpods) that we can stay in hotels and motels if we choose to. If that doesn’t work for you then that’s ok too. Just sayin’ it’s worked out very well for us, especially my wife who enjoys camping but not for weeks in end, she wants a nice hot bath, more space, and a good restaurant meal once in awhile.

+1

As a counterpoint, we just don’t stay in those places. It’s safer and not really much more expensive than a private campground to stay at a motel when enroute somewhere. We use those stops as an opportunity to wash clothes without waiting around a laundromat, get a nice meal out, and the wife to get a nice hot bath. Followed by a good nights sleep and a free breakfast. Then back to boondocking after a night in “civilization”. Works for us.

Good points....I was beside an abandoned RV so only had a truck on one side but I thought the same as it was tight quarters.  The Cracker Barrel or WalMarts may be the best option for me.  You can usually find them right off the interstate so it is works well for a quick stop.  We are also looking into Harvest Hosts as they seem to have some interesting stop overs at winerys, breweries, and farms.  Not sure how far off t he beaten path they would be.

   Be careful in high crime areas we stopped at a Walmart that had security guards in parking lot. The security guard and a customer told us to be careful that there was a lot of crime in the parking lot to keep our door shut and locked. After a while I felt uneasy and drove on some place safer. Majority of Walmart's are safe but there are some located in high crime areas where you need to be careful. I generally look for other campers in parking lot and park near them. It is good if you have a dog to alert you if there is someone near your camper.