11 RV Overnighters That Surpass Walmart (RV Life)

You ready? I'm ready. I'm ready too. Let's talk about 11 awesome places to stay better than Walmart. I've been thinking about Walmart a lot lately and I'm just like, let's be better than Walmart. I'm excited about this topic because we have been on the road for just about five years and a lot of these places we have stayed at and we loved it. You're absolutely right. There's a lot of you guys that just bought an RV and you're getting ready to hit the road so we thought, hey let's throw some great resources at you and tell you how we rock it when we have to drive like this. That's going from one side of the country to the other or maybe you guys are up north and you're coming down to the south where it's nice and warm. Thanks for the illustration. All right, 11 places that we recommend you can overnight camp. Some are free, some are membership based, but put these all in your back pocket for when you hit the road. How do we find these places? Just throwing it out there, the best apps you're going to want to look into. Allstays, Campendium, and RV Life. Campendium, just note that is an iPhone app only, but you can access it on the computer. Yeah, all these programs are browser based. They're easier to use on your computer because on the iPhone app it's like really hard to see. You know, maybe that's just me. Did you bring your glasses today by the way? Oops. Jumping right into it, Nene. What do you got for the first one? Oh, number one is casinos. So many casinos across the country allow for overnight parking. And you don't have to be like a super big gambler. And here's what you need to know. A lot of the casinos do have campgrounds that are attached to the casino, but this is different. If the casino doesn't have like a designated campground, you can still overnight park in their general parking lot. Sometimes they have this expectation that you go in and use their services to like do a little gambling, maybe grab some dinner. Yeah. I mean, we're all about going and shooting some craps once in a while, right? Yeah. Crap. Super fun. So that would actually be a really nice, nice spot to stay. I imagine those casino parking lots are like really big by the way. Yeah. So you could probably park really far away from all the noise. And if you're not sure if they allow it, or if you're not sure where to park, you just go in and ask security. They're going to be your go-to when it comes to like, where can I park and how long, all that stuff. You know, these bugs are a little crazy right now. So why don't we walk and talk? Let's go this way. Listen, you're holding the camera. I'm holding this and we're going to go. You're going to hold that. So you can beat me with it. Maybe. Okay. What is next on the list? Number two County and city parks. Oh, I like those. This is like a favorite of ours and they're in the places you least expect them, but you need them the most. They're more popular in like the Midwest area, but they are sweet. If you find them out there, they are so secluded. There's like limited spacing. So you don't have like super noisy neighbors. Usually people are only there for a few nights and it gives you just a little off the grid stay so that you can get some work done or just catch up on a little R&R. Like I said, free sometimes with hookups. There was this one place, it was in Chanute, Kansas. Chanute. Yes. We stayed there for about five days. The first two nights were free. And then every night after that was only $10 and it was 50 amp water. And they had a dump station on site. Is that the place? Yeah, that was really cool. Is that the place with the really bad thunderstorms? No, that was a different place. And that was in South Dakota. But if they don't have sites and they don't have hookups, a lot of these city parks, you can just go and like park somewhere for free for the night. The best part about these places is they're pretty quiet. It's in town. So you know that there's going to be grocery stores and gas stations nearby if you need anything. It's a little more R speed because we're not big city people. So these small towns, you go to a mom and pop grocery store, get off the grid, catch up on work. Like it's just nice. They're well-maintained little county parks and city parks. So we enjoy hitting those up whenever we're like making the long drive across the states. Yeah. And we'll find them through All States Pro, but then I'll get on Campendium and I'll look at the photos and see what reviews people have said. Because obviously you want to make sure you're safe. Most of the time, feel safe at these places. You've never had a bad experience. No, no, no, never. Especially like compared to Walmart. Oh my gosh. Now you may be wondering, why are we offering all these places compared to Walmart? Don't get us wrong. We don't hate Walmart, but it is really noisy. You don't know what you're walking into. Some of those situations you stop in are just like. I think a lot of people out there that are new to this think Walmart is like one of their only options for overnight parking. So we're just throwing out like so many other options at you. So you don't always have to resort to Walmart. Walmart's great. If you have no other options, it's fine. It could be noisy, but we want to make sure we're giving you other resources. So you're never in a pickle. Pickles are no fun. They're good though. Oh yeah. Moving on to number three, very similar to county and city parks, the fairgrounds. Now this is when there is no like show or county fair going on. All of those hookups and all of those sites where they have RVs and vendors parked, you know, they're open now for the rest of the year. That's true. And it's great because you can usually call ahead or look online and they'll tell you like, yeah, come on in. It's like 10, 20 bucks and you get hookups. You get water. There's a dump station nearby. Really, really nice. Can't beat it. We've used those a couple of times. Yeah. Do you remember that place in Kansas? It was like on the Western side of Kansas. Oh yeah. Yep. So we pulled in, we spoke to them on the phone prior and they told us, yeah, just come in and fill out this paper, put money in an envelope, drop it in the drop box. You're good to go. Works for me. Easy in, easy out. We had 50 amp. So not bad at all. Most of the time they are very quiet. But I remember at this fairground location, there was like some kind of event or like corporate event or wedding going on. So people were kind of noisy. They're throwing down. They were partying, but at the same time it didn't feel unsafe. It was just a little bit loud. Hold on attention on me because I actually just thought about a couple more that aren't on the list that I want to bring attention to because I love you guys. Hold on, hold on. Babe, I want to talk about these. Let's save those for the end. I don't want to lose my train of thought. I have this whole list here. What is up with you and lists? You're always like, we got to stick to the schedule. I guess we'll get to those. Don't be jumping the gun here. Hopefully I remember them. All right. What do you got next? I wrote them down on my phone. The next one is Boondockers welcome. Oh, that's a really good one. We use that a lot. I was a little hard headed at first because Renee's like, let's sign up for a program. Let's put money into this to save money. I'm like, that doesn't make sense. You don't just throw money out there to save it. But lo and behold, was I wrong. And the amount of friends we've made, like people we've made on the road. So cool. Wow. Our family can't quite get over this concept of us staying on random people's property. And to be honest, we were a little skeptical about it at first as well. We were, but as we went along and after we had our first experience, I think we stayed in Virginia the first time they were so awesome. And so as every single host after that been just as amazing. They're so welcoming and sometimes they'll cook you dinner. You have fires. You just get to know each other. And the best part about it is, is most everyone else is RVers as well. So they have that same like-minded connection where, Hey, we're both in this together. Yeah. It's a little weird having random strangers on our property. You got to look at it through their eyes. You know, it's like, uh, you both share the same emotions. Exactly. You're putting yourself out there. So the membership covers you to dry camp or boondock on people's property. But a lot of these hosts will actually have hookups that you could pay extra for. That's true. And we love that because some of them will have the full shebang, like a pull through site, water, sewer, electric. Some even give us their wifi, like access. Currently the membership price is $50 a year, but they're increasing their price really soon. Actually in a couple of days or they're going up, their prices are going up to $79 a year. If you book it before the price goes up, you lock in that low price of $50 a year for life. As long as you stay a member and you use the specific link to sign up. We can even offer you guys a little bit of a discount too. If you're interested in signing up. Where are you pulling all these strings at? I just, I have the hookups. I would say lock in that price. If you're interested in this, this will save you a lot of money because the first time we left Pennsylvania down to Florida, oh my gosh, we went how many states down? We spent like $25 in total on stays. Yeah. We boondocked, welcome hopped. And it was awesome because of all the people we met and all the great locations, because some of the areas like these people's property where you park, it overlooks like their farm. And that one place had a turkey. Remember Dexter with the turkey? Where's the bird? You know? Oh, how can I forget? He was like, what is that? So if you want to save some money, check out our discount code. If not onto the next one. All right. Cabela's. Cabela's is a good one. I like that. Or Bass Pro Shops, right? Either one. Fun fact, we are from where the largest Cabela's in the country is. Remember that one time we went and visited your family? We actually pulled over at that largest Cabela's there in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. And that's where we stayed the night. Why do they call it Hamburg? Hamburger Pennsylvania. Along the Appalachian Mountains. It was awesome. The views are spectacular. They even have a dump station that you can pay like five bucks to dump. Well, I think the dump station is five or ten. But if you go in the store and purchase something, that receipt, you'll have the code and you could actually get it for free. You know, letter rip for free or discounted letter rip. Something like something. Cabela's is nice because it's nice and quiet. When you think about Walmart, it's just like constantly busy because it's open 24 seven. Yeah. Everyone's in and out. Kids are having fun at nighttime. Listen, we've all been there. But when you're looking for something that's a little more quiet, I'm thinking like Cabela's is bougie. You know what I'm saying? Like that is like, that's pristine. And I love walking around Cabela's. So it's like something to do the next day. You can always go restock some of your camping supplies, RV supplies, and ready to hit the road the next day. Get some camping gear. I like that. Allstates Pro has a category for Cabela's. Oh, right. Really, really nice. So you could filter it for all the Cabela's across the country. I'm a trooper with this thing. I look like I'm gonna, I'm a professional photographer. That's the spot. Come on, sweetie. Let's not scare anyone out here, okay? National Forest. We actually have stayed at one before too. We've stayed at a couple, but there is one that's like our favorite that we stayed at. How do you remember all these spots, by the way? You're like, do you remember that one time we stayed in 2019 on our trip? It was around June, July. And I'm like, how could you not remember? Right guys? How could he not remember these beautiful places and locations? I keep track of the location. Good heavens. Okay. So National Forest. There's a lot of places across the country where it's considered a National Forest and they may or may not have designated campsites where you pay. Sometimes they have hookups. Okay. But there was this one place in Montana. It was called Red Shale Campground. Of course you would know that. It was so nice. We were actually worried at first that we weren't going to fit. And then we looked at photos on the Campendium website and it showed like really big rigs in there. That was so cool there. If you're looking along your travels and you see National Forest, sometimes you can just like pull in really quick, stay for the night. Okay. Have a really peaceful, quiet sleep. Yeah. You could have a fire there, which was really cool too. You think like being in a forest, you're like, I can't fire. Well, that was allowed there. So that was nice. We made up some nice dinners. We're just hanging out, drinking, enjoying the beautiful sunsets. And there was only a couple more people there. So it was very quiet. I always speak of being quiet because when you get to my age, you just want some peace and quiet. You know what I'm saying? For all you young, young chickens, young spring chickens out there, you don't understand what it is to be 30 and wanting some peace and quiet. So I did not hear him say that. Hey, get back here. I'm not a spring chicken anymore. I stick, I stick true to my words. Put the weapon down and let's get back to talking about National Forest. Before we move on, I just want to say some of these places with National Forest, some are first come first serve and some you have to reserve online, but sometimes it's a great experience. So look into it. I will. Another one of my favorites. Let's talk about Cracker Barrel. Oh, Cracker Barrel. Talk about the most bomb breakfasts known to mankind. I'm so hungry now. I mean, I might, even the dinners are super good. Yes. Once we discovered Cracker Barrel parking, that's when Walmart really went out. Once you go to Cracker Barrel, you never look the other way. It's just, it's just the way it is. And why is that, Carl? Well, once again, if I'm allowed to speak freely, I don't know that I am. I don't know why. You guys know how it is. You just get gut feelings out there in life and, you know, Cracker Barrel just feel a little more safe. It's just nice. It's clean. It's welcoming. And they have designated sites for RVs. Like it'll, you pull around and it'll say RV parking and it's like pull through sites. The issue with this though is like, you can't be pulling in and like disconnecting and put all your slides out and your chairs. It's just for pulling in, staying connected and going to sleep. Yeah. So we'll usually go grab a dinner there. Yeah. Just make a night out of it. Wake up early and hit the road again. That was cool because in Ohio, we remember we were driving from Pennsylvania to Ohio and we were driving all day. We didn't feel like pulling over and cooking dinner, but we were like, hey, when we get to the Cracker Barrel, even if it's like eight or nine at night, we can still get a late dinner. Yeah. And you know, what is amazing to do on a full belly of chicken fried, whatever, is to go to bed. The bugs are still awful. Yeah. I just have one fly in my eye. Before we move on, the etiquette with Cracker Barrel is that you usually buy dinner or breakfast the next day before you leave. Just support them and say thanks for letting us park here. The next one is BLM LAND, which stands for Beautiful Loving Memories Bureau of Land Management. All right. You always gotta get so official. I wrote it down so I don't stumble over my words. It is basically public land through government agencies. Free public land. You imagine going out to the desert like they do in Arizona. What is it? Quartzite or whatever? Yeah. There's a lot there. We always go out there and stay out there for a couple of weeks. That is BLM LAND, so. Yeah. That's pretty cool. I mean, we're not really set up to be boondocking. If you don't know what boondocking is, that's basically where you stay out somewhere with absolutely no hookups, like no sewer connections, no electricity, and no water connections. Yeah. You're relying off your battery or your generator or solar. You're relying off your internal tanks and everything like that. So, if that sounds like something you're into, then go check out these BLM LANDs. Just don't do what Nene and I did. So, I have a little story for you. Before we started YouTube, one time in our old trailer, we pulled down this long dirt road. Further we went, it just got more and more narrow, and the ground got softer. I don't even know. We're like a mile down this dirt road. Yeah. It dead ended into this super, super soft ground. Yeah. There was nowhere to turn around whatsoever. There was like a bulldozer off to the left. You could tell that they were like restoring the area. Problem was, is that there was like gullies on either side of the road. So, there was absolutely no way we could turn around. So, what we had to do, put it in four-wheel drive and back the entire mile up, like a mile backwards in the truck. I am so glad we did not have the fifth wheel because we probably would have been stuck. Probably would have quit RVing. Yeah. That was so stressful. I'm behind him for like a mile just backing him. I wish we had video footage of that. That was insane. So, we don't want to scare you with a story like that, but just do your due diligence and do some research. Check on places like Empendium. They have awesome pictures. It's free. And just, you know, do your research before hitting up these places. Make sure that you have plenty of room to turn around, back up, do whatever you need according to the size of your RV. Yeah. Because a lot of the times these roads are not paved. And when you pull in, you can tell on a map if it's way off the beaten path. So, just look at the map, look at the photos and look at the description to say, is this big rig friendly? What do the reviews say? All that. Because sometimes it's a scary situation like that, but some other times it's like the most beautiful place you've ever came. Yeah. It's like an unforgettable experience and you're just like, I can't wait to have many more of these times to come. The rule is that you could stay on BLM land for up to two weeks. Just throwing it out there. If you notice on a map, BLM land is way more popular on the western side of the U.S. versus the eastern. Like towards like Arizona, Utah. They're heavy when it comes to BLM land. But then also you have the considerations that they're going to be more hot in the summertime. So, you have to kind of like plan according to that. You can't just like expect to go out in these areas and just run your AC. But check the weather ahead of time because if you're driving cross country and you can access these places, it'll probably be perfect when the temperature or when the sun goes down at night. Yeah, I'd imagine it'd be really pretty. Let me see what our next one is, Carl. All right. Can I, while you're looking at that, can I mention my other ones I don't want to talk about? No, not yet. A couple to get through. We have some good ones to get through and then you can mention your like really exciting ones. Fine. You don't have to yell at me. I have feelings too. So, the next one's truck stops. I am a little skeptical about mentioning this one because I like to show lots of respect to the truckers out on the road. You guys always respect us RVers. So, we want to reciprocate that respect and tell everyone out there that you don't want to fully rely on these. But we do have one exciting news to come with Luvs. Yeah, we just found out that Luvs is coming out with like RV sites at their gas stations. That is super cool. Yeah, like where you can pay and hook up and everything. How does that work though? Would you like to swipe your card at a random RV site or something? It's either you can reserve ahead of time or it's first come first serve and you go to like a little kiosk and you, you know, swipe your card and reserve for the night. Also, parking next to y'all truckers is allowed. That's true. It is a good situation if there's nothing else and you need a place to park, you can park at a truck stop. Absolutely. You are allowed to park there, but it can get very crowded very quick. So, you better get there early. Loud and I just want to expect like a super good night's sleep because a lot of the truckers like to sleep with their trucks, you know, kind of idling and stuff. That's fine. I don't know, if you're into white noise, that's good. We are. So, but we only stayed out like one, one time, right? Along our travels. I can't remember. We might have stayed at one truck stop one time and it was a place where we were far spread out away from truckers. Like there was plenty of room for lots of people. We got the job done. So, you know, food for thought. It's there and they have so many other amenities. They have food and you could fuel up, you could do laundry, go take showers, which is really cool. They keep all these facilities really nice and clean for all the truckers. So, you're more than welcome to use all that. Rest up and get ready for the next day. That's what it's all about. But it's the same scenario as Cracker Barrel where you're in like a small, not a small site, but you don't really have room to be putting out all your slides. Yeah. You're not supposed to be putting out any slides whatsoever. Remember, you're not camping. Right. You're overnight. You're pulling over for the night to get some rest so you can continue your journey. Overnight spots are always good. We're just getting you away from the O'Wally world. All right. Next up, Harvest Host. That's a good one. Harvest Host. Dude, that saved our butts so much this last trip from California to Florida. Oh yeah. And it's another membership-based program where you pay a fee and it's good for the whole year. If you're into like checking out some really cool wineries or breweries or other businesses, Harvest Host is like Boondockers Welcome, but it's for businesses. To touch back on what I was just speaking of the diner, we stayed at Peggy Sue's Diner on the way out here, just out Barstow, California. And that was so cool. When we pulled in, you felt safe once again. There was truckers, there was RVers there. We called ahead and said, hey, look, we're coming in. We just need a place to sleep overnight. And they're like, yeah, we'll see you here. Just don't park over here and you're good to go. And then same thing as always, we respect them and try to support their business. Maybe go grab a little bite to eat before we hit the road. Yeah. And then we're, yeah, it's awesome. Harvest Host, that's the way to go. Yeah. We haven't done the whole like winery experience yet for Harvest Host. But legit with you being as much of a wine connoisseur as you are, I am so surprised we have not partaken in any of these. I've been looking a lot at the Harvest Host locations and there's some like alpaca farms. Yeah. That would be sweet. I know. Can you imagine Dexter? Taking them to meet an alpaca. I'm sure they would get along. Alpacas just sit there and like, they just eat all the time. And that's what Dexter does. That's exactly what he does. You're right. And I think we're afraid to go to the wineries because Renee might get a little out of control. Like, honey, I bought like 37 bottles of wine. It was like, buy three, get 37 more at half the price. Let me know if you have a Harvest Host winery and you want me to come there and buy 30 bottles of wine. Just let me know in the comments. I'm done feeling your bad behaviors. Things to note about Harvest Host is 99% of the time, it's just one night stay. And some of these locations do have hookups, like electric, water, maybe sewer. And they will ask for, you know, that you pay a little extra for those amenities. Oh, but it's still nice to know that they have those. That's really cool. So maybe we should check that out more. I know, I know one similar to truck stops, rest areas. Rest areas. Yeah. Our favorite place to pull over to have lunch, but have we ever stayed at one overnight? No. And why is that Carl? Well, because mostly we like to leave that spot for truckers. So we try to respect the truckers, you know, so they have a place to park at night. But if we're in a pinch or a pickle, listen, it's all, it's all fair game. So you're more than welcome to use those. Every state is different. Some states will say like absolutely no parking overnight. Some will say up to eight hours. And then sometimes you pull up to one and it'll say no overnight camping. All the research I did, I found out that that means, Hey, please don't pitch a tent in the grass here and put your chairs out and all that. So what you're saying is like RVers are more than likely okay to come and pull over for the night and have a spot to stay. Like pull into the lanes. Don't put your slides out. Once again, stay hooked up to your truck and just go to sleep. So that's where Allstates program comes in handy is finding out if you can actually stay at these spots overnight, if it's okay. Get the okay. Yeah. Cause sometimes they're really strict on the parking and sometimes they're like, eh, come on in. No, I don't care if we're done or not. I'm going to do some honorable mentions because I've been super patient. Okay. Okay. Awesome. I'm glad I have you guys here. Weird off the wall spots. You never thought you could park and then you're going to be like, what? And I'm gonna be like, it's true. Airports. I'm not talking about like JFK airport in the middle of the tarmac. I'm talking about like a, a small regional airport. Sometimes they have RV spots that you can stay at. Definitely check into these apps and see if that's something that's available. I've heard and seen many people say I've stayed on an airport before. Another one is cafes. Like we mentioned, cafes are cool. Strip malls. That's another one or big shopping malls way out. If they have like lots of parking, usually you're okay with that. As always ask for permission. But if you're in a pinch, strip malls are where it's up. Churches. I've heard people doing churches before. You know, why not? It seems safe. Hospitals, hospitals, ER nurses. So we know all about that. That was definitely one. I just call the hospital and see if they can accommodate that. But I have seen that on one of our assignments, somebody stayed in their RV at the parking lot. So that is an option. Do you remember tractor supply? We did stay at a tractor supply in Wyoming. Yeah. When it was really windy. I remembered that we didn't know you could, you guys didn't know. I can remember that. Or we didn't know we could stay there. We didn't know that we were allowed to stay there until I looked at Allstays Pro and it was like, oh yeah. They actually said in the app, Walmart here, it's kind of crazy. So we went to the tractor supply. That's like what everybody did. Tractor supply, Lowe's, Home Depot. Yeah, those are some great spots. Like the big box stores. Now here's the thing, guys. Every city has a different ordinance when it comes to parking. The best thing to do is to call ahead of time and say, hey, we've been driving all day. We need a place to park just to like rest for a couple hours before we hit the road. Is it okay? Please don't pull into these places without asking because then you might get a friendly or not so friendly knock on your door at two in the morning. And that's not fun. Nobody wants that. A big one is convention centers where they hold like concerts and venues and stuff like that. That's true. That's another potential. You could reach out and be like, yo, there's no convention going on right now. Can I come in and park my RV right out here right now? And they're like, yeah, sure. Yeah. All potential locations. If you guys enjoyed this information, don't forget to subscribe because every week we have a new video coming out that is going to rock your socks off when it's related to RV living and RV travel. It's happily ever Hanks checking out. We'll see you next Thursday. Love you guys. Bye guys. Peace.