RV Dreamers

I’ve been doing some heavy duty research to find out where we can stay in our RV for free, or at least for very cheap.  Here’s what I’ve come up with:

• WalMart parking lots - Not the most glamorous, but it doesn’t cost a dime (at least not until you set foot in the store).  Scott and I recently tried this out.  You can read about our experience here.
• Rest areas - from what I could gather from searching the Internet, you can stay at a rest stop in Oregon for up to 14 hours.  We haven’t tried this yet.  I would assume it would be noisy and perhaps a little scary.
• Home Depot/Lowe’s parking lots - I think you’d have to check with each store just to make sure you could stay there.
• National Forest/BLM land - It’s called “dispersed” camping, where you head out into the woods and pick a spot along a river or out in the woods somewhere.
• Truck stops - I would imagine these would be VERY noisy, but beggars can’t be choosers!
• City parks - I’ve read across the Internet that if you contact a Chamber of Commerce office and ask nicely, they may let you stay overnight at a city park. 
• Military campgrounds - You do have to check with each one to make sure your military service qualifies you to stay there.  My husband was in the Oregon National Guard, so we booked a weekend at the Oregon coast at Camp Rilea.  It was one of the more spendy ones - $20 a night, but we saw plenty of military campgrounds for much cheaper in this online directory.
• Casinos - We love gambling, so this is NEVER free for us.  But it can be quite the bargain for those who can refrain from setting foot inside the casino (or who can actually win some money if they do).
• Your own driveway - To be honest, Scott thinks it’s dumb to do this and I haven’t been able to convince him to do it yet.  I tried it by myself one night, but the neighbor was blaring their music too loud for me to sleep.  So I went right back inside the house.  Scott just laughed at me.
• A friend/family member’s driveway - This is actually quite handy - they will most likely feed you, let you use their shower and perhaps let you make off with some type of supply you need for your RV.  Just beware of the aerosal can in their bathroom that looks like a hairspray bottle.  Details here.
• FreeCampgrounds.com - Handy little site with a lot of good information.
• Elks/Moose lodges - According to my mom, you can park at these for pretty cheap.  She said some even have hookups.

I think that’s about it.  If you know of anything I’ve missed, let me know.

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Tags: campground, camping, rv, travel