Lots of nights on the road, where do we stay?

We touched on how we decide where to stay during our travels earlier in this diary; currently we are at Chantilly Farms in Floyd, Virginia. RV parks are great for a stay of two or three nights or more - they have full hook-ups and amenities that we need to make our stay enjoyable. That said, pulling a 40 ft "home on wheels" can be tiring for the driver (aka Bill) so we try to limit our day to 4-5 hours of driving which we can stretch to six if need be. For those times when we need a one-night stay between reservations, we have found a few places that work well.

You may have heard that Walmart stores offer "free" stays in their parking lots but that has changed significantly in the last few years. More and more of the chain locations are discouraging rv/overnight stays by putting up cross-bars at entrances to the parking lots that would prohibit entrance to a rig higher than 10 feet. If you frequent your local store, check to see if yours is one of them - usually the bars are bright yellow and have warning signs about height restrictions.
Alternatives are Flying J or Pilot travel plazas - they are certainly large enough since they cater to long-haul tractor-trailers but they limit rv's to one per night per location in order to maintain enough spots for the truckers that need to pull in due to restrictions on hours on the road. Plus we have read "horror stories" about what goes on in the parking lots late at night - hmmm, not so interested in finding out if they are true. Pulling off into travel rest stops is also an option but you have to know where they are in order to plan ahead and most of them are on the interstate - great, if that is what you travel, but not so great if you are on local roads.

What we did find are two options that have worked out really well for us. First - Cracker Barrel. Yes, the restaurants - who knew?? They are almost everywhere, especially around major cities in the midwest and south and they are generally located right off major interstates and city bypasses. By calling in advance, Cracker Barrel managers will allow an overnight stay in the back of their parking lot. Some we stayed at even had a dedicated spot for long rigs like ours. The bonus is eating dinner when we pull in and coffee available first thing in the morning! Lighted parking lots and lot security gives us an added sense of peace while we sleep!

Our favorite, however, was brought to our attention prior to leaving Alaska - we can thank our friend Cyd De Rocher for recommending it to us. The program is called "Harvest Hosts" and is a system where a traveler can sign up for a membership (cheap at $49 per year) and stay for free at one of 100's of sites across the country. Most of them are wineries or farms, some are museums or other attractions and the Harvest Host group just increased their number of available sites by adding golf courses to the mix.

In order to stay for free (maximum is usually two nights - we only stayed one), you have to do - NOTHING! That's right, you don't have to buy anything, tour anything, or do any chores. A quick phone call in advance to the Host to let them know when you are arriving is all you need. The website lists the details (directions, hours, any restrictions) of each of the available hosts and you "search" based on where you are traveling. For instance, we stayed at the Tennessee Valley Winery on our way out to Vegas earlier this fall. We found it by putting in our location request in "search" on the HH website (or the app) and three or four options pulled up. It was our first HH visit - we arrived just as they were closing for the day and did have a free "tasting". We bought a bottle, broke out some cheese and enjoyed the vineyards.

Usually, when we overnight, we don't put the "slides" out. We can access the bathroom, bedroom,

fridge and kitchen due to the floor plan in the home we chose even with the slides "in". We run electric on battery and have propane for stove and fridge while we travel. That said, we generally have a pre-made dinner (salad or sandwich made in advance) and play a couple competitive games of Scrabble before we turn in.
While we did stay at more than one winery, we liked to stay at museums, too. The Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY, was interesting. Parking was in a large city-owned lot across the street - perfect for us rv parking newbies. We also stayed at the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma. While it was closed by the time we pulled into the large parking lot, we did take time to visit the impressive outdoor displays.
We stayed at the Sombra Antiqua Winery near El Paso, Texas (with an added bonus of being near the pecan grove) and the Red Caboose Winery in Meridian, Texas (near Fort Worth). Our favorite stop (to this point) has been the Chennault Aviation Museum in Monroe, Louisiana. Favorite not because of the accommodations (small parking lot, no wine :( ) but because of the gracious hosts that greeted us even though it was at closing time, allowing us to stay as long as we wanted in the museum viewing the displays of all matter of military stories from World War I through the current conflicts around the world. For free. We would NEVER have visited this gem with Harvest Hosts.
Harvest Hosts just added golf courses to the list of available overnight

stays - you don't have to golf to stay for free, but why not? Some of the better public courses are listed and discounts apply especially if you come in later in the afternoon. Golf course restaurants are open to get a nice dinner and cocktail, views from courses are some of the best around - can't wait to get back on the road and try these spots out!

If golfing isn't your thing, you can try a llama farm (the baby llama's eat carrots out of your hand), distilleries (yes!), apple orchards and Hodgson Mill Mercantile - one we will stop at in Decatur, Illinois, as we make our way north later this Spring.