Boondocking at Wally World

I have to laugh that I’m posting this.  I was just talking with a friend the day that we left South Dakota about this very topic.  Sleeping at Wal-Mart.  I joked with her about the notion and said I wouldn’t blog about it.

Well that decided it, I’m blogging about this.

For those of you that don’t know what our deal is, we are traveling from South Dakota to Florida with our 4 children in our 96′ Winnebago.

We had intended on pulling our van with a car transporter.  2 days before we left, we realized our hitch couldn’t support our Honda Odyssey.  So we settled on me driving our 4 children across country.  Our youngest is just 15 months old so I was really lacking in enthusiasm about our situation.

Here we are today, about 2/3rds through the trek and I have to say, it’s not been as bad as I thought.  The first day was pretty rough through and we ended up stopping earlier than planned.  Up north you don’t find many campgrounds open so we decided to park at a Wal-Mart.

Both sounded *NOT FUN* to me but with tired kids and a long day, I really didn’t care.  We pulled into the Wal Mart at Albert Lea, MN and I called them to see if it was okay.  Mark had read that you can park at Wal Mart overnight but I also had heard that some Wal Marts do NOT allow it.  We got the okay and went to our little corner of the parking lot to settle in.

Let me tell you, it was so NOT the big deal I thought it would be.

And really it was actually NICE.  Umm hmm.  I said it was NICE sleeping in the parking lot of Wal Mart.

Since we are in a Class A, everything is self-contained.  We have our own power, water, sewer.  We didn’t try showering or anything but we did put the slide out and had the bathroom to use if we needed to.  It took all of 10 minutes to get on the road in the morning and we really didn’t need the amenities that a campground would have provided.  We just needed to sleep.  We ran the generator that night because our refrigerator is a regular household type.

But the biggest plus to this scenario was the fact that we all slept like babies.  We had our normal beds and the same sounds (kids sleep with a sound machine)  I’d do it again.

Tonight we are camping in Kentucky.  Normal campsite, internet, water and sewer hookups.

All this to say, that boondocking at Wal Mart was easy and convenient.  There was zero stress in trying to find a location and we left very early in the morning.  I’d prefer a campsite, but I think there are times when it’s pretty pointless to go to the trouble of getting one.  In total we spent 9 hours parked at Wal Mart.  I appreciate that we could just park and sleep.

So that’s it for my thoughts on Boondocking at Wal Mart. What do you think?  I know many people don’t want anything to do with Wal Mart.  But what about truck stops?  Would you boondock there?