Finally hitting the road for the first time in 2018 and starting off doing something I’ve never done before and that’s staying overnight in a “Cracker Barrel” Parking lot. Not sure if it fully qualifies as “Boondocking,” you’ll have to let me know, but I wanted to do some of this, this year and what a better way to start off 2018.

So a little background, I had to head to Orlando for a work event which is about 4 hours away. So I decided to load up the rig on Friday night, start the trip then. Crash and then get up on Saturday and finish the trip. Now the reason I took my RV this time, is because on the backend of the event, I was going to finally get a chance to get out and hit the road for a couple of RV trips.

Now I’d been watching a lot of YouTubers do this kind of overnighting in the past, thank you all for posting your experiences, it was very helpful. I knew I was going to try to stop halfway through the trip. At first I looked at rest stops, then “Walmart” and Truck Stops like “Pilot.” And as I was looking, I saw there was a “Cracker Barrel” right off the freeway and so I thought that would be the perfect place to try this out.

Before I left, I called over and spoke to a manager and let her know I was going to be in the area later in the night and asked if they had overnight parking for RV’s and she said yes! I said great and that when I arrived I’d come in and introduce myself and probably eat as well. She said that would be fine and that they had specific spots behind the building for RV’s.

When I arrived, sure enough there were the spots and I pulled in. Now there were maybe 6-8 spots directly behind the restaurant, but more locations around the building so I suppose if there was not an RV spot I probably could have pulled into one of the spots anyway.

Everything I have read and saw on YouTube and other sites, people talked about not opening up your slides or putting down your jacks and honestly there is no way I could have really done either, because these parking spots WERE very tight. But at the same time, there was enough room to get in and they were larger than a regular spot.

Once I parked, I went in, introduced myself and ate. The manager was really nice and thanked me for stopping by.

After dinner, I went back to my rig and got ready for bed. I did forget to make my bed before I started my drive, so I didn’t have any linen on my bed, so I just grabbed a top sheet through it down and went to sleep to the sounds of the freeway, which in my head I spun into ocean waves.

The next morning when I woke up, both of the rigs next to me had pulled away and I really didn’t hear them leave at all, so either they were really quiet or I was beat! Lol

As I said I would, I went into the restaurant and got breakfast before hitting the road. I guess I could have just hit the road but I needed to eat something, so why not there. All in all between the two meals and tips I spent about $26 bucks on the night… yes in some places, that’s a night in an RV park, but this was a fun trial and I would do it again.

So my first overnight stay in a business turned out to be a good one. I’ll throw down the link to the “Cracker Barrel” I stayed at in case you ever go by it and need a nice place to crash! Another RV Bucket-List item to check off… now onto more adventures!

LINKS:

“Cracker Barrel” Gainesville FL

4001 SW 43rd Street

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