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It's up to the discretion of the store manager, whether or not an RV can park for the night. I work in a shopping center where there's a Walmart, and when I left the other night, there was a big Class A parked for the night.
I suspect it has more to do with coronavirus than anything else. Many of the 24 hr stores are closing at 8:00 pm and they don’t want people out there unattended. I was on the road when this change took place and that’s what I saw.
I'm willing to bet the decline is due to what's mentioned in the article, decline in general etiquette of people. A lot of people these days have zero respect for anything but themselves, leaving a mess everywhere they go.
If you’ve seen some of the rolling hazards masquerading as RVs parked in Walmarts and a whole lot of other places (allowed or not), it’s not hard to understand why the very generous old policy might be changed. A few of them are occupied by people who look sketchy, to put it nicely.
Then there are the people living in their out-of-state-plated cars, moving them to shady spots around town every few hours. If this were just an occasional “tourist,” nobody would give it a second thought. When you see the same cars and drivers sticking around for weeks or months, driving around looking at parking spaces, thoughts turn much less charitable.
This probably varies, but around here Walmart is one of the top places for shoplifting, plus fighting both verbal and physical. Substance abuse frequently plays a role in them.
Even new, clean RVs owned by respectable people take a LOT of space and ruin the view in scenic places, depending how they are parked. I remember when a big RV was pretty much an object of derision. People forget that not everybody thought it was a sign of having “made it.” Planning to do road trips staying every night at free parking (or illegally “camping”) definitely is not a sign of having made it.
The occasional one-night stay at Walmart isn’t the norm now.
I had no problems with Walmart overnight parking on my way from Arizona to Minnesota in June. Now I plan on heading back to Arizona for the fall/winter months and debating which route to choose. I'm starting out September 8 or 9, depending on when people are basically home after traveling for Labor Day. I have to be back to get car tabs before the end of September so will be taking my time.
I'm leaning towards the southern route as I have never been to Louisiana and want to see/experience it. I have been to Texas, although just the Dallas area which I didn't really care for but would love to visit San Antonio.
I will have to keep checking on Walmart decisions along that route. I'm waiting on the new road atlas which also shows national parks and plan on spending most nights in them but hope to keep Walmart as a back-up.
I think the last Walmart parking lot I overnighted in was the one in Barstow last year. There were many other RVs there when I arrived, so I assumed it was OK. We were all as far from the store as one could get, right next to the dirt lot where the truckers parked.
The next time, only a few months later, there were no RVs there and a security vehicle was conspicuously parked in front of the store. I didn't need to be told twice. I continued on my way and spent the night at the Love's truck stop in Tehachapi.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hawk J
We haven't taken our motorhome on the road for several years, but years ago we sometimes were allowed to park overnight at some:
. . .
truck stops
. . .
Good Luck...Drive Safely...Be in Good Health.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TakingItEasy
Have to agree. I'm in the retiree group - and have a small travel trailer - but have never opted for a overnight @ Walmart. I have used truck parking lots on the interstate (allowed by Pilot,TA/Loves). I've used a Cracker Barrel a couple of times. Using these places are repelling though - usually loud, poor sleep, hot and uncomfortable.
The issue with using truck stops is trucks have even more issues finding places to park than RVs, and their penalties for parking illegally are often much steeper since they're commercial vehicles. And compounding the issue even further is at some point they have NO CHOICE but to pull over and park because of service hours limitations. So they're getting triple-squeezed by a) regulations telling them the HAVE to park, b) more regulations and private property owners telling them they CAN'T park, and c) finding more and more RVs taking up spaces in the remaining lots where they're allowed to park because they too are finding themselves increasingly unwelcome elsewhere.
I wouldn't be surprised if the major truck stops like TA and Love's and Flying J and whoever else start limiting the number of spaces for RVs to make sure their bread-and-butter customers have places to park.
ETA: I should note that many of the big well-known chain truck stops have designated RV spaces, but those often fill up quickly and RVs have started taking spaces meant for trucks. While some of the truck stops allow it, it's still a jerky thing to do if you have any other option at all.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,744 posts, read 58,090,525 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by meo92953
...
I'm leaning towards the southern route as I have never been to Louisiana and want to see/experience it. I have been to Texas, although just the Dallas area which I didn't really care for but would love to visit San Antonio.
...also shows national parks and plan on spending most nights in them but hope to keep Walmart as a back-up.
Consider seeing NW Arkansas / Ozarks on your way south (Look to leaf color web sites that track the fall leaves)
San Antonio and Hill Country area is really nice near Christmas time!! (Since you are taking your time )
Usually all the lights in different towns are up by Thanksgiving / the following weekend has a lot of 'Lighted Parades'.
Emilyann memorial in Wimberley is very touching at Christmas time.
Plenty of Cabela's, Bass Pro and Cracker Barrels in southern USA. (Free overnight parking).
Get your 'Silver Sneakers' medicare perk assigned to a national gym, so you will have a daily place to freshen up.
The issue with using truck stops is trucks have even more issues finding places to park than RVs, and their penalties for parking illegally are often much steeper since they're commercial vehicles. And compounding the issue even further is at some point they have NO CHOICE but to pull over and park because of service hours limitations. So they're getting triple-squeezed by a) regulations telling them the HAVE to park, b) more regulations and private property owners telling them they CAN'T park, and c) finding more and more RVs taking up spaces in the remaining lots where they're allowed to park because they too are finding themselves increasingly unwelcome elsewhere.
I wouldn't be surprised if the major truck stops like TA and Love's and Flying J and whoever else start limiting the number of spaces for RVs to make sure their bread-and-butter customers have places to park.
ETA: I should note that many of the big well-known chain truck stops have designated RV spaces, but those often fill up quickly and RVs have started taking spaces meant for trucks. While some of the truck stops allow it, it's still a jerky thing to do if you have any other option at all.
I haven't seen any RVs taking up truck spaces. There are always plenty of car spaces near the restaurant. My van is only 19 feet long and fits in a standard car space.
That being said, I know truckers are squeezing their rigs into any space they can find, even parking on the shoulder of off-ramps.
That being said, I know truckers are squeezing their rigs into any space they can find, even parking on the shoulder of off-ramps.
Even that's a roll of the dice depending on which state trooper is on patrol that night: the dicky one who will roust the trucker and give him a ticket, or the big-picture one who will look the other way because he knows it's better to let a trucker take a breather out of the way of traffic than to drive tired and/or violate his service hours restrictions.
Consider seeing NW Arkansas / Ozarks on your way south (Look to leaf color web sites that track the fall leaves)
San Antonio and Hill Country area is really nice near Christmas time!! (Since you are taking your time )
Usually all the lights in different towns are up by Thanksgiving / the following weekend has a lot of 'Lighted Parades'.
Emilyann memorial in Wimberley is very touching at Christmas time.
Plenty of Cabela's, Bass Pro and Cracker Barrels in southern USA. (Free overnight parking).
Get your 'Silver Sneakers' medicare perk assigned to a national gym, so you will have a daily place to freshen up.
Thanks for the tips. I'm only taking my time through September. Have to get my car tabs by the end of September or I would have stayed in Minnesota through October as it's beautiful here in the fall, as it is in so many places.
The only Cracker Barrel I've seen was when I visited another brother in Southern Illinois. I didn't realize they were so prevalent in the south. It's nice to know they are out there and, although it's been quite a while, I remember their food as being quite tasty.
I'll have to look into the silver sneakers thing. I hadn't thought of it, with so many gyms closing along with everything else when I left Arizona. I'll have to see what's open now.
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