7 Unconventional RV Overnighters that PUSH Boundaries (RV life)

Welcome back to Happily Ever Hanks. What are y'all up to tonight? It's Thursday evening. Or maybe it's Friday for them. Or it could be Sunday. And if it's Sunday and you're finally just catching up on this video, where are our peeps at on the Thursday nights? You know we release our videos on Thursday, right? Us crazy kids are still going at it. We're about at our six-month anniversary for living on the road full-time in an RV. Wait a second. RVing for six years but married for five. There's a discrepancy there. What's that about? Let's swing back to that one. We'll put that on the back burner. Now if you're anything like us, when we first got in the RV life, we had this amazing picture on our mind of what it's supposed to be like. You know, places we're going to stay every night. It's going to be beautiful and never get old. But those RV parks kind of get noisy and boring after a while. And I thought you could just pull over anywhere when we first started. So we went all in. We pulled everything out of our pockets. And went through all the data. And we thought of like seven unconventional, just off-the-wall places to park overnight. There's a lot of options out there on the road. And some of them are new. And some of them are just like, really? You can stay there? Yes, you can. Who would have thunk? We're gonna kick it off with the one that's the most new. The one that we've recently tried and we have mixed feelings about. But we still want to share it with you as an option. If I think you are going where I think you're going. I think we may have more than mixed feelings about it. I think we might think completely opposite on this one. Which creates cringy content. You know, when couples are kind of like bickering at one another. You know how we do it on this channel. Let's talk about Love's RV Stops. I'm not feeling the love! What is a Love's RV Stop anyways, by the way? You're like, what are you talking about? Love's is the name of a truck stop. And when you think of truck stops, you're like, RVs don't belong there, do they? Not really. No, no, no. We gotta put you guys over here. We're gonna create a whole section for you. Get away from the truckers. It's all like self-contained. Like you make all the reservations online yourself. Okay. You show up at your own time. There's no one waiting there to check you in. It's just all very convenient and super easy. You do make a good point. It is very convenient. But we have talked about the price of it. That makes it not so... I don't know. We'll let you guys be the judge of this one. We'll talk about the pricing in a second. But let's talk about all the amenities that they offer. When we showed up that one night, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We pulled up to a random gate. There was like a little check-in sign, a little pad there. It was like an iPad almost. And it actually walked you through it really simply. We threw all of our data in. It opened the miraculous gates of Oz. And we went through, not expecting what we were expecting to see. And there's also several of these around the country. We went to the one in Cordell, Georgia. But if you go to the Love's website, it'll show all the locations. And I think they're building more. After we got a good night's sleep, we woke up early to find a lot of amazing amenities that they offer there. Stuff you wouldn't think a typical truck stop would offer. We're talking laundry. Didn't they have ice machines there? They did. And you know, I'm just going to stop you right there. It's a lot of amenities for just a quick overnight. Because it's not like you're living there for several weeks or a couple months. I might want to live there. And I think you could stay there for a prolonged period of time. As many nights as you book, you're good to go. Okay. They got communal fire pits, barbecues there. They even got pickleball courts, okay? Like, what's up? They got dog park. They got everything you would possibly really need out on the road. We're still waiting to see who wants to play pickleball with us at Love's. Because we went to a Love's truck stop and we filmed the entire experience. I actually just saw someone raise their hand right there. Do you see them? You wanna go? It's like $60 for one night. Depending on where you are in the country, that could be normal. But where we were, it was like kind of a high price for an RV park or RV overnight stop. Right next to a truck stop. So I just thought that was interesting. But remember folks, we're talking unconventional here. Not your typical RV park. So listen to Carl when I say you want to go there just having some expectations, a quick, fast, easy, and convenient. Well, you're in the right place. I guess convenience pays. But if you're gonna be on NayNay's side this whole video, make sure you comment hashtag TeamNayNay below. Just so I know who's out there. Help me. A huge thank you to everyone who's been buying these hats. You guys are overwhelming us with love and support. And if you're looking at that and saying I want one of those, well you gotta hurry up because the sale ends extremely soon. And you're not gonna ever be able to buy one of these again. So come Tuesday and you're like I want one of those, they're not gonna be there. So if you want some more information on it, check it in the description. Go over to happilyeverhanks.com. We'll have it all laid out there for you. And if you're sick of us here and harping on this hat, well let's get on to the next one. Bureau of Land Management Camping. A lot of RVers know what BLM camping is. And it's basically off-grid, dispersed, dry camping, beautiful views. It's ringing a bell. If you haven't heard of it and you're an RVer, it's probably because you primarily RV on the east coast. And BLM is so prevalent on the west side of the country. We're talking Utah, Arizona, California. Tons of boondocking there. And if you don't know what we mean by boondocking, it's just camping without amenities. No electric, no hookups, no sewer, stuff like that. You're just going out in the desert and parking there. Using your own stuff. You're talking beautiful views that you normally wouldn't get at a typical RV park. A lot less noisy. So when you're out there, you can just hear the crickets or the sounds of the wolves. Actually, if you heard the sounds of the wolves, that might be... You better go inside. This is federal land. And we're talking millions of acres of land for the taking. But we gotta say, if you're gonna get into this, treat it with respect. How long can you stay? I think it's typically on average like two weeks you could stay there. Yeah. And it's usually free. Sometimes they require maybe a reservation fee or whatever. Yes, that's true. Most of the time it's first come, first serve, which is great. So if you're on a long travel day, be weary. And the reason I say that is because if you show up somewhere at night, it could be all taken up and you could get yourself in a little bit of a pickle there. Yes, I was about to say Negative Nay Nay is gonna come in and say why this type of camping can be kind of stressful if you want a quick overnight. It's not as quick as just pulling off the highway and pulling into a random area and just going to sleep. Like Carl is saying that sometimes you might run into some sand traps or spots might be taken. Did I mention you might get stuck in the sand? Yeah, Negative Nay Nay, you did mention that. And listening to correct Carl, I think it's worth it. If you have the time to spare, go for it. You could plan a whole week out there and you could save. OK, let's say on average, it's like 40 bucks a night at an RV park times seven nights. That's two hundred eighty dollars. So that's a lot of money that you kind of clear up. But you should maybe show up before dark. Can we at least say that? I already did say that. OK, I'm going to reiterate. Finding these camping spots is not that difficult. You can go on the BLM.gov website. We like to use our camping apps, Allstays and Campendium. It'll show right there. It'll say dispersed. You know, you found it when it says zero dollars a night. All right. I got something to get off my chest. Literally, I have such bad chest pain for a week and a half. You may be asking yourself, why, Carl? Do you have chest pain for a week and a half? I took up hold your britches. I took up golfing. Yes, needless to say, I've been out there chopping away, swinging and looking like a maniac trying to get my golf game under control. Why is this pertinent to the video? You might be asking yourself, why are we talking about golfing? Well, if you're anything like me and you're really hooked on golfing, there's some awesome options out there for you. A lot of you guys have heard of Harvest Host before. We just found out that Harvest Host offers an additional membership where you can add on golf courses. Like you can stay, I'm guessing, like on golf courses. Like that's where you can park your rig for the night. And then Carl can just injure his chest more. Thanks, Negative Nay Nay. But let's take a couple of steps back for all the people that don't know what Harvest Host is. Because there's a lot of new people getting out there on the road. And I want to like make sure they're caught up to speed here. We'll include them. So Harvest Host is a program that you buy into on a yearly basis. It's not overly expensive. But once you purchase it, it opens up a plethora of places you can stay across the United States. We're talking like wineries, breweries, museums. What else we got? Golf courses. Yeah. Tons and tons of places you would have never imagined. These businesses allow you to come in for a night or two. You get to stay there for free. But the catch is you kind of help support that business. Yeah. So if you go to a winery, maybe you go buy a bottle of wine that night. If you go to a golf course, maybe you go swing your club that night and get chest pain. The options are endless. Harvest Host is running a sale right now where you can get 25% off their basic membership. It's normally $99 a year. So if you don't want to pay $99 a year, you want to jump on this before Monday. Well, yeah, I'm all about saving money too. RV life is always so pricey and everyone's always like get this and get this. So if you want to get this and it interests you, you might as well save 25% on it. We'll have everything in the description below along with the discount code. Feel free to click that link, use that discount code and save yourself some money. Something to know though about Harvest Host because you know, Nene's got to come in with the facts. It's not one of those places you can overnight like show up at nine o'clock at night when you're done driving for the day. You know, you want to get there preferably when the business is still open and I'm not going to sit here and go over all the like- Nuances. Yeah, because it's all on their website. But one of the things is it has to be a self-contained RV. You're just going to be running off your battery. So if it's super hot out, you don't want to be staying overnight there because oh, I don't know. It could just get a little toasty. That's where the loves comes in then. See how you can just kind of put these pieces wherever you want to fit your own puzzle. That's what RV life is all about. I like that. Me too. I like you guys too. You're freaking awesome. Still here watching us. We love you. Good for you. There's another little mini program that falls under the umbrella of Harvest Host. It's called Boondockers Welcome. Now this program saved us hundreds of dollars literally when we first started getting an RV. Yes. When we're looking to pay off our debt and not like paying all of our money to RV parks, Boondockers Welcome came in so hot and it just rocked our worlds in a good way. Very similar to how Harvest Host works, but instead of staying on business properties, you're staying in people's yards and people's home property. And a lot of people when they hear this are like, that's weird. We've never run into a situation that felt like unsafe. No, because all these people that are hosts nine out of 10 times other RVers as well, which is really cool. They know how RV life is and finding spots overnight can be a hit or miss. So they are always so welcoming to have you on their property. We have met a lot of great people over the years. Yeah. Boondockers Welcome. That you buy separately. It is $79 for the year. Now, if you do the discount with Harvest Host, that only works for the Harvest Host portion, but you can get on their website and you can buy the full package, which includes Boondockers Welcome, the Harvest Host, including the golf package. Another great way to overnight is state parks. Now, a lot of people go to state parks for the weekend when they want to go camping with the family, but did you know that you can just overnight there? And before I go into like, you know, the cons that NayNay, the negative NayNay comments of like why it's not the most ideal situation. I'll let Carl talk about why it could be an ideal situation. Take it away. I just have to laugh when you say negative NayNay because you're like the most positive person I've ever met in my life. She's such a positive. Not today. The state parks are awesome because they're really family friendly and they also offer what other RV parks can't. We're talking getting out into nature, keeping it quiet, very well maintained. It's very clean. The state does a good job, depending on what state you're in. Okay, I hear you. But the state for the most part does a really good job at maintaining the actual park itself. We've been to some awesome places and they're on the cheaper side as well. Some RV parks can be like 80 bucks. You can land a state park for maybe 30 bucks a night. Or that one place in New Mexico, Rockhound State Park. It was only like $18 with full hookups. It was amazing. Beautiful sunsets. It's just, it's everything you imagine RV life would be. They take a little bit more planning ahead of time. So it's not really on the fly options. It's worth looking into. But for the most part, you're gonna find yourself wanting to look at these things maybe like a few days ahead of time or a week ahead of time. Well, you can book it that night. You could look on the website reserve.gov or Reserve. Reserve America? Reserve America. Yeah. A lot of these state parks do have walk-up sites. Some of them list that they have walk-up sites on Reserve America and some of them don't. Like they hide it. The thing I will say about state parks being a quick overnight is that some of them are like big. Like you are driving for several miles just to get to that loop. And then it's like a back inside and there's obstacles. So it's not always the most ideal for a quick overnight. There, I said it. I said my negative nay-nay moment. I'm moving on. State parks can sometimes be a hit and miss as far as the length of your RV as well. That's true. Just be cautious when you're booking your reservation and knowing exactly what they can accommodate at that state park. The other issue is once you're there for just one night, you wish you could be there longer. Okay. Well, I had said my negative comment just a second ago. Kind of take that heat off you, but you just put it all back on you. Everyone's yelling at you. Yes. You're on your own. Fairgrounds. I'm just going to say it. Fairgrounds. Would you ever think about staying on a fairground in your RV? We've done this multiple times and it is a great way to do a quick in and out overnight. We recently stayed at Far Horse Park in Louisiana, Baton Rouge. That was a fun time in Louisiana. If you know, you know. We went to Mardi Gras. We were skeptical about being able to reserve a site, but we did some research and we found an equestrian center. And the best part is they also had hookups as well. And it was on the cheaper site. Now I do have to throw it out there that not all fairgrounds offer hookups. No. Yeah. You can dry camp there if you'd like. Yeah. But some of them have dump stations. Which is great too. If you want to refresh the tanks before you get out on the road, shed some of that weight. They have that as an option. How does it work when you want to stay at the fairgrounds? Well, the best thing to do is check the website. It'll say whether you need to call. You just show up and put it in a drop box. It gives all the information there. A lot of these fairgrounds that offer hookups for RVers are available on RV Trip Wizard, but Allstays also has them. It's listed under the category of city park. So that's where you'll see fairgrounds. And the more middle of nowhere it is, the better. So when I say- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Before we move on, I have to say my negative statements about fairgrounds. You know, everything's- I have to be honest about every single one we go over. Are you ready for it? I guess. If it has just rained, you're looking at a lot of mud. We really haven't been to a lot of these fairgrounds where the site is, you know, gravel. Usually it's all grass, right? That's true. You're a real stick in the mud. You know that? Yeah. And it is not just a stick in the mud, but Jack's in the mud. You got tires in the mud. Your levelers are going down because you can't level. I'm just saying maybe avoid the fairgrounds if it just rained. I want to say one of my favorite- and the reason I say favorite is because it's the most convenient- is actually big box stores out there. Right off the highway that you can pull into, take a quick nap, and get right back out on the road. I'm talking like Costco, Tractor Supply. Cabela's. Nailed it. Big five sporting goods stores, Lowe's, Home Depot. Lots of options out there with lots of parking lots and free for the taking. However, once again, you have to ask for permission before staying there. You can't just show up and assume you stay there overnight. Yeah, and the thing about these places is every city has a different ordinance about overnight parking. But if you are completely out of options and it's late at night and you guys are like, we don't know what to do. Don't hesitate to go to some of these places and find a number that you can call or security guard and say, hey, we're really exhausted. We need to rest our eyes for a few hours. We're just going to sleep inside our RV and then take off in the morning. Is that okay? Nine times out of 10, they're cool with it. And this is a great option for not only RVers, but we're talking truckers. We slept side by side with the truckers out there. We got van lifers, people living in their cars. It is actually a good option for anyone out on the road that's looking for somewhat of a safe environment just to lay their head down at night for a quick couple hours. Yeah, definitely look into this. What you want to do is steer away from big cities. For example, if you're driving through Albuquerque, New Mexico, I would not choose Albuquerque, New Mexico as like the big box store to stay at. Like go away from the city and go to the nearest big box. Like 30 miles, 30 miles outside the city limit. Something like that. Do your research and figure out what the next big place is. Don't be scared. Just ask. It's simple and usually they'll give you a direct answer. And then if they say no, just move on to the next option, which is Cracker Barrel. Awesome place. Becoming one of our favorites. It is. We stayed at one on the way out west just recently on our caravan trip and it accommodated all three of us. We all have massive RVs. Yes. And they're like, come on in. Cracker Barrel is super, super accommodating to RVers. They even have designated parking spots for RVers. And you can get some breakfast. You get some biscuits in the morning. I feel like I don't have anything negative to say quite yet. Positive notes are it is very safe and it's, what's the word? It's just doesn't give off Walmart vibes. If you ever stayed at a Walmart overnight, it's, it's, yeah. But Cracker Barrel, it's kind of more classy. You know, you go in there, you're parking overnight and you just feel, overall feel a little bit more in good company of RVers. And what do you do if you want to stay there? Well, you just show up and then you walk inside and you ask for permission. Definitely want to do that. And then you get some biscuits. Yeah, you can't just park at any Cracker Barrel and assume that they are going to accommodate you, but definitely go in and ask for permission. Yes. And just like the previous program of Harvest Host that we talked about, it is very highly, highly encouraged that you go in and just kind of support the Cracker Barrel. Like buy some breakfast, get a cup of coffee or have dinner. If you've ever been to a Cracker Barrel, you know that their store is next level. Hank's Soda, readily available. If any of you guys have been to a Cracker Barrel and you look through their selections, if you've seen a Hank's Soda, throw it in the comments below. If you haven't seen a Hank's Soda, next time you go to Cracker Barrel, be on the lookout for one because it exists. Yes. Hank's Root Beer for the win. Not sponsored. Not me, obviously either. I wish. All right. Let's get into your salty attitude. What do you got? Well, I know you said it doesn't give off Walmart vibes, but those dumpster trucks in the morning, they can be a little bit loud when they come in. And also they have deliveries some mornings as well, so they can deliver the goods and the foods and you're like hearing that at six in the morning. But overall, I'm pretty thankful that this is an option and I don't want to ruin it. We did come close. I know what you're going to say. There's some RV etiquette there that you're not going to want to break. They're kind of strict on these things. And unfortunately, we found ourselves in this pickle where we kind of crossed the boundaries that we shouldn't have and we explain it all in a separate video that you have to check out next. So head on over there and we'll see you guys next Thursday. As always, we love you. Bye, guys. Bye.