Boon Docking at the Rest Area

We have, on three or four occasions, stayed at a Wal-Mart overnight.  Wal-Mart parking lots are popular places for RVers to stay if they are just passing through and only need a place to park for the night.  We have personally never boon docked anywhere else, although there are other places, some more popular than others.  Cracker Barrel restaurants allow overnight parking as do truck stops.  We have seen many people parked on the beaches here in Texas.  There are lots of places, but one that is rarely talked about is Interstate rest areas.  Not all states allow overnight parking, not even for truckers.  Texas is one state that does, however, so we decided to give it a try last night.

Since we have very little experience boon docking, I have very little to compare it to other than Wal-Mart, but here is what I thought anyway.  In my opinion, the number one advantage is convenience.  It is right on the interstate; you don’t have to go out of your way at all and you don’t have to find it.  Another advantage is that most rest areas have picnic tables.  This may not be an advantage for some if they don’t want to cook or if they can get to the kitchen with the slides in.  I like to cook and I can’t get to the stove with the slides in.  Whenever we plan to boon dock, I prepare a salad of some sort to eat cold.  That works out fine and that is what I did last night.  However, since we carry a 2-burner propane camp stove and many, many backpacking stoves, I could have fixed anything.  Additionally, at this particular rest area, there were charcoal grills at the picnic tables.  With a bag of charcoal and my grill basket, I could have had hamburgers or steaks.  On the other hand, at Wal-Mart I could easily go inside to purchase a rotisserie chicken and a salad from the deli and not cooked at all.

Gene's sunset from last night

On the minus side, at the rest area we could not put out our slide on curb side (or any side for that matter).  Most rest areas have angle parking which prevents the use of slides.  In the rest area we were in last night we had parallel parking on either side of the street.  We chose to park with the trailer door on the curb side.  I preferred that to having the door on the “street” side.  I felt less likely to get hit by an 18-wheeler going out onto the sidewalk.  However, putting the slide out on that side would obstruct the sidewalk and we didn’t want to do that.  At Wal-Mart, we feel comfortable putting the slide out on the curb side.  Having a slide out makes it so much more comfortable inside.

Mesa closer to Big Bend

Perhaps the greatest disadvantage of boon docking in a rest area is the noise.  Truckers were coming and going all night.  Many seemed to pull in and rest for a couple or three hours then leave.  In most cases, they shut down their engines.  One fellow, however, came in about 4 AM and left his truck running until he left about 7:30.  It just so happened he parked right across from our bedroom.  Wal-Marts can be noisy depending on where they are located, but I don’t think anything could compare to this except probably a truck stop.

Starting to see mountains

We would probably stay at a rest area again.  However, given the choice between rest area and Wal-Mart, I would pick Wal-Mart.

We arrived in Study Butte early this afternoon.  We got parked and settled in then drove over to the Visitor Center at Big Bend.  We have a hike planned for early in the morning.  I posted a few pictures from our drive today.  Enjoy.