When people learn that I live a good part of the year in a van, I can see in their eyes that they are getting ready to ask me the four most asked questions of a van dweller.
- Where do you park at night?
- Where do you shower?
- Where do you go to the bathroom?
- How do you keep warm in cold weather?
Let me answer these questions from my perspective. I will answer them as one blog entry for each question.
Where do I park at night?
It would be difficult for me to tell you how long it’s been since I last paid for parking my van in an RV park/resort or other similar paid to park area. If driving on the freeway, I might spend the night at a rest stop. Aside from that, I might stay in a Walmart parking lot, Cracker Barrel parking lot, 24-hour fitness centers or one of several other RV or van friendly lots. In addition to that, I have several apps that can direct me to free parking places while traveling. If I intend on spending more than one night in an area, I look for BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Land, National Forest Land, etc.
These areas are usually open to free camping and many of them will let us (the public) camp there for up to 14 days at a time. When that 14 days are up, I can move to another BLM area for another 14 days as long as it’s (I believe) 25 miles distant.
I might mention that when I stay at a Walmart or Cracker Barrel or similar business, I will always make a purchase from those establishments.
This paragraph is not about parking at night, but I feel is relevant to this post. As this lifestyle gains in popularity, there comes with it, abuse; abuse of the land so graciously opened to us for our use at no charge. It seems that every time I’m out, I see more and more trash left by non-caring campers and dumping of grey tanks and other waste. As a result I also see more and more areas of once free land being closed to the public thereby making it more difficult to find good, free camping.
Please respect the land and other campers by picking up your trash and carrying it back out with you.
Source: Most of the photos in this blog are provided courtesy of pixabay.com.
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Until next time…
Here in Australia there are dedicated free camping areas for RV's, caravans and tenters. Many are very nice and have toilet and running water facilities. No showers usually. There's an app where people can look them up (wikicamps). I've stayed at many and they are really handy. I assume you have the same in the States. With most of Aus being remote though, some of these free camps offer amazing views, creeks, walks and solitude. 😄
Good post. Happy trails.
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Yes, similar to USA. Thanks for your nice comments.
You're welcome. Making me jealous with all of that talk of getting out there and camping. I'm in the office. 😥
I don't understand people that leave rubbish behind and then they complain when they are no longer allowed to camp in those spots🙄. As well as the rest of us miss out to.
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Been to a few free camps like that man. Disgusting. But then, I think flicking a cigarette butt on the ground is disgusting and that seems to be the norm for smokers so...What do I know? Maybe littering and fucking up a campsite is the done thing. (Certainly for some.) This is why I prefer remote camping.
Yep, remote is my preference as well. Love boondocking.
Me too! Less people is my thing.
For sure. I've never understood these types of people either. Thanks for your comment.