Staying overnight at a truck stop

We traveled from Northern Virginia to Georgia. Our destination was about 600 miles away.  We were not driving that in a single day. We headed out from our campground in VA about 11 am, typical checkout time at campgrounds.    We drove about 300 miles which seems a good distance in a single day.  We had actually mapped out the approximate half way point the night before and had a idea where to start looking for an overnight rest stop, Walmart or truck stop for the night.

We looked at the weather the day before and saw that a winter storm would be arriving directly in our drive path in the early evening, so we wanted to miss that and the dark.  With that in mind, about 4pm Joni started looking ahead at our route and saw a couple truck stops coming up.  We like the LOVES truck stops and saw one just a few miles ahead on our rout.

 

We pulled in about 5:30 as it was getting dark and the snow was starting to fall.  We drove slowly allowing a little survey time so we would not have to turn around unnecessarily.  We quickly found an outside spot where we could put our camper stairs down without fear of getting scrunched by a big truck.   We pulled into the spot, hugging the line as to not impede a truck that wanted the space next to us.  We left the camper hitched to the truck with the slides in and put the stairs down. 

Once we were in our spot and in the camper we had an ok night of sleeping.  The semi next to us was making a noise that sounded like air brakes hissing about every 2 minutes.  My wife timed it and claimed every 90 seconds.  It seemed to get quieter during the night, but it kept her up a bit.  

We warmed the camper using our furnace, which only requires a small amount of electricity to spark the furnace flame when demand was made.  That power comes from our battery.  


I walked our dog when we got there and before we left.  Not ideal, but doable.  You can see the little walking area we took full advantage of. As an added bonus, there was a nice view of a snow covered mountain across the road.

Overall, the price was right and the stay was comfortable.   We grabbed some coffee and a couple snacks for the day and hit the road about 10 am the next morning once the roads were clear.

James


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