How to live rent free on the road
Sometimes in this lifestyle, you just need to make miles to get to your next destination. When we have a few driving days ahead of us, we don’t really want to mess around with finding a campsite, driving on miles of backcountry roads to get there to only shut down and get some sleep. Fortunately there are better alternatives when all you need is a place to pull over and sleep.
There are lots of places that allow RVer’s to spend a night for free but some are much better than others. The best known (but least desirable) is stopping at a Walmart parking lot. Most Walmarts allow RVers to spend a night in their parking lot. We’ve done it, but its at the bottom of our list. I hate driving my car in a Walmart parking lot, maneuvering a 43’ bus in one is just not alot of fun. Plus, you have to worry about all the “Walmart” people coming and going all night long. Not great but its nice to have them available if needed.
Of a similiar nature but one that we really like is staying at Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrels are very RV friendly and most have large RV parking spots. Its great to stop and get dinner, some sleep and them some coffee and maybe breakfast before hitting the road in the morning. We’ve always had good experiences at Cracker Barrel.
Some others that work well but are less numerous are casinos, Bass Pro Shops, and Cabellas. These are nice since you can get some entertainment or do some shopping if needed.
But our all time favorite way to stay for free while on the road is through a service called Harvest Hosts. They charge an annual fee of $75 and for that you have access to over 5000 places that allow you to stay one night for free. There is a wide variety of places including wineries, breweries, museums, golf courses, farms and other attractions. We’ve stayed at many of these and they’ve all been very good.
Our favorites are usually the breweries and the farms. We’ve stayed at an alpaca farm and a pecan farm and both were excellent.
Tonight we are at a Harvest Host site and it is a bit unusual. We are staying at a car wash. It’s a place called MegaWash in Ashland Virginia, just north of Richmond. It’s a car wash that also has a drive thru RV wash which is great. There aren’t alot of places to wash the RV (many campgrounds don’t allow you to wash your RV) and this one worked great and the price of $74 seemed like a bargain.
This place also has free 30 amp electric, water and a dump station. We are pretty self sufficient so we don’t need that stuff for one night but its a nice feature if needed. Tomorrow we head to Raleigh NC for a 4 day Thanksgiving visit with our son NIck and then we head further south to Florida with another planned stay at a Harvest Host. The next one is a brewery!