Shug was in Mich.??? I thought I felt a disturbance in the force....
Shug was in Mich.??? I thought I felt a disturbance in the force....
Ha! He would have stuck it to you. I was just out there at the end of February and that ranger was a complete no-nonsense kind of guy. My buddy and I talked with him for a while and tried cracking a few jokes. Man, talk about falling on deaf ears. There was rain in the forecast and jokes or not, all he wanted to do was make sure we got out of the canyon after one night. We asked about camping on the way out, close to the exit from the canyon and we got nothing but a death stare. LOL. Love this.
Camps sites would likely be filled with other campers with a shared interest and common goal of safety. The rest stop has far more traffic from outside that community, many whom are vultures waiting to take advantage of an unlocked car or complacent traveler. I think it is active transient predators versus passive opportunists--not an irrational fear at all.
One can develop paranoia about rest areas reading this thread. I've never had any concerns about using them, or snoozing there. The busy ones can make it hard to sleep, but if I'm tired enough I can catch some rest. Before reclining seats became the norm, I used to pull into a rest stop and lay on the warm engine hood to catch a nap.
Perhaps my most memorable road-side evening was spent in the middle of Nebraska. I was traveling some tertiary highway in the middle of the night when my alternator gave up the ghost. My car seats didn't recline, and the rear seat was too small to accomodate me. I had my fart sack with me, but didn't feel comfortable sleeping right along side the highway, which didn't have much traffic, but cattle trucks came barreling by every now and then. So, I hopped the barbed-wire fence and found a place in the pasture. It was a bit chilly, and I recalled hearing about pioneers making fires from buffalo chips. I gathered some dried cow pies and found they burned nicely without putting out an offensive odor. I fell asleep next to my bovine excrement-fueled fire, woke up in the morning to the sound of a speeding cattle truck, hitched a ride to the next town, and found a garage to tow me in and replace my alternator.
What was that movie where a guy hitches a ride and they stop at a rest stop, the passenger goes to take a piss and the cops turn on the flood lights to bust all the gay guys who meet there. And the driver was a cereal killer that always killed at a rest stop?
From a lot of road trips all over the place, I have seen a few rundown shady ones, but they were more of the state run type rest stops that were not much more then a washroom parking lot and soda/snack machines. The ones that cater to truckers are much nicer.
There are several rest stop in Canada I have seen are a bit of a picnic area as well, well suited to hanging.
...And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun... "TIME" by Pink Floyd
www.linvillegorge.net -Ken's site
www.heavens-above.com -(set your own "home" site)
TA (TravelCenters of America) charge $10 without a 50 gallon diesel purchase.
Link
Pilot does the same, but doesn't state what the cost of the shower is.
Flying J has showers, but no info on the website about cost.
At a guess, I'd say they're all probably about the same.
Mike
A Buddy of mine who used his RV as base camp for a 3 month trip across the West a couple of years ago said he found out from other RV campers that the buzz was to just pull up in a Walmart parking lot. So as he traveled he'd just park and sleep. He said it was cool and it saved him a bundle of money. Not sure if I'd do that in a car.... seen a lot of strange people in Walmarts you know.
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