rest/sleeping spots

Every so often you find a "perfect spot" and you keep it a secret of your own. I found a large lot, a 24 hour diner with a very clean bathroom and the sign say it is truck parking so no one gives you crap for being there.

 

I normally tried to stay at a Wal-Mart as it was less crowded than a truck stop, cheaper for food, and they have most anything you need. Very few of them will prohibit overnight parking, and then it's usually because the parking lot is too small to easily accommodate a big rig.

 

I usually don't mind rest areas unless I really want to take a shower or eat something I don't have stashed in the truck. Depending on where you are they can be very quiet. There are some truckstops that charge for parking, usually smaller ones that know they have a corner on the market in an area without many options, one in Bell CA and another in Sumner WA come to mind. Usually, like someone else said, you get free parking if you spend X amount in the store or get X gallons of fuel (usually 50-75).

As far as other sneaky spots you really just have to keep your eyes out (and then remember them when you come by the next time!) I use Streets and Trips on my laptop and if I'm coordinated enough I will try and stick a pushpin on the map if I spy a good spot while I'm going down the road. Of course you want to use common sense here too. A spot may look nice and quiet when you go by during the day but it could be downright unsafe if you're there alone at night.

 

Page, AZ....Walmart....5 spots....but you need to get there before 5 pm...otherwise...You have to park above the dam....

 

How do you know which Wal Marts lets you park there? Is there a map of parkable wal mart that someone has compiled?

 

If truckers keep up what a lot of them do so well like throwing their trash on the parking lot, standing next to the drives and urinating in public and crowding the parking lots as if it's a truck stop you can pretty much watch the "use" of the lots being stopped! It doesn't matter what Sam let us do the kids are all into making money and having the workers at a Walmart having to go clean up where a bunch of pigs parked is not going to happen much longer! I notice more and more Walley Worlds are putting up gates over the driveways to keep trucks off the lot! Yes some have truck parking spots like the new one at Vandallia, Il on I70 but for some reason when those get filled drivers start to park behind them taking up more of the lot!
I very seldom stayed overnight at any of the Walmarts on an interstate! Yes occasionally I would out in the twigs but I would be sure that I was gone before their business started up and I would do the same any other place not a truck stop that I might have found to lay down at!
Yeah, yeah, yeah I know 8/10 or 10/14 and now whatever they are going to change it to but just because it says drive for whatever it is this month it does NOT mean you HAVE to take up a businesses parking or destroy their asphalt because you think you HAVE to drive until you are out of hours! That a limit not a MUST DO! The FMCSA doesn't say that! That BFI you drive for might but you need to route yourself a heck of a lot better!

And to prove the point about Walley World stopping trucks on their lot. I had a real nice setup with one close to my sisters house for when I stopped to visit! some MORON ruined it for me and another guy by pulling in, parking across several lanes, sleeping until 11 am, getting out and on camera pulling his little buddy out and squirting the ground, walking around and opened his passenger door and dropped 2 nice bags of garbage out and a large bottle of piss and then drove off driving over 2 curbs and the grass which had to be repaired and cost you know who money! There was no viewable name on the truck so they could not find out who this idiot was! He never even went into the store and bought something to "pay for his parking" which I always do! Thanks to him, when I came in to ask the manager if I could park over night he asked me if he could show me the tapes. I was so pissed when finished and then he told me that Corporate told him that no more trucks could park there because of this and it wasn't a stand alone store anyway he told me he was sorry as me and the other guy always parked as far away from the building as possible and never ran over the curbs and grass

I've said it before and I'll say it again....We are our own worst enemy! Because of you low life losers who think "truckers are the backbone of the world and the world owes us something and we have no respect" this is just one reason why we don't!

What I'm saying is don't use WalMart as a freaking truck stop! They aren't! go in, get your supplies and leave! If you are half as good at routing as you think you are then stopping 15 or 30 minutes before your clock dies at a real truck stop, rest area or industrial zone that allows street side parking then do it! That's why it's called routing and time management!

With the tools we have these days finding a parking spot is not that hard! Computers, broadband, satellite overheads (google maps) and mapping programs and even city cameras, yes those cameras you see over intersections (NOT red light cameras!) can give you information not even thought of before 10 years ago or before! NOTE:: PC Miler 20.0 has these little red dots all over the place called "truck parking" YEAH RIGHT! I think they told their field people that if there was any asphalt then it was considered as truck parking! If you have an illegal or legal copy of PC Miler do NOT route your self thinking that the AME Church wants trucks parking in their lot the same as Joe Blow 's Dentist's office or the local hospital or even Teds Transmission Shop! Think about your hours and then give yourself that "cushion" for stops and meals! Tell BFI to KYA when you need to stop! Or tell them to drive while you get your rest!

 

I normally do not park in truck stops for the very same reason. There are so many drivers that have no respect. I think eventually the truck stops will have to start charging just to pay for cleaning up the mess and the damage. I try to drive at night if all possible, stay in rest areas, ramps or other spots I have spotted and marked. They are generally quieter and the bathrooms are much cleaner. I stop in a truck stop for a shower and fuel but try to avoid the bathrooms. I swear that some drivers would put pigs to shame in the messes they leave and the damage they cause.

 

I always look for a small truck stop, with space for 5-20 trucks. There are a few other trucks around, it is quiet, and there is a bathroom and coffee and maybe breakfast in the morning. I always try to buy something, coffee, food, fuel, etc.

 

previously mentioned abandoned lots. these are my personal favorite, no other trucks to deal with. be VERY careful when doing this, however. you are making yourself a target to be robbed. nice expensive truck, no witnesses if the wrong person drives by and notices you. probably should have some sort of protection if you do this regularly.