As you may have heard, my wife Liz and I are on an indefinite cross country road trip in our RV
At the time I am writing this, we are in Baton Rouge Louisiana
and will be headed down to New Orleans soon.
We are thinking about going down to Bourbon Street and sitting in
the barbers chair at the bar called “Spirits on Bourbon “. We saw
that in an episode of Bar Rescue and always thought it would be
cool to go see it!
Last night was interesting when we rolled in and were looking for
a place to park for the night.
It turned into a life lesson of getting creative and being able
to overcome roadblocks that get thrown in your way.
We like to “boondock” our RV if possible.
There are campgrounds and RV Parks available but they charge $50
per night and their nights run 3pm to 11 am. So when you roll in
at midnight, it’s hardly worth 50 bucks for 11 hours of downtime.
The math just doesn’t work. Times that by 3 and 4 times a week
and that adds up.
So, as I said, we “boondock”- What that means is that we park the
RV and tuck in for the night with a super quiet external
generator running to charge our phones, my laptop etc and have
power to run my CPAP (very important)
You see, before we ever roadtripped and people found out we were
going to be nomads in an RV was when “everyone” (they) said that
RVs and campers are welcome at any 24 hour Walmart (Walmart
SuperCenters they call them) in the country.
Our local Walmart in Bangor, Maine is not open 24 hours, but it
always has RVs in the outskirts of the lot with never an issue.
Well, turns out that a lot of these 24 hour SuperCenters aren’t
so “super” so far.
We have been keeping track of the Walmart’s that do and do not
allow semi truck / rv parking overnight. So far 2 out of the
three Walmart’s that we go to have a no semi / RV parking policy
and signage telling you that in no uncertain terms.
So when we saw more “No RV parking” signs last night at that
Walmart (the sign was behind a huge RV that was already parked
there for the night LOL!) we went to a popular local truck stop
called “Pilot”.
Pilots are quite popular and are somewhere we have and do park
when possible. The problem is that they are so popular that they
are almost always full. And that was the case last night.
So we got even more creative and, since I am a black card member
at planet fitness, and they are open 24 hours, we decided to park
in their lot.
The reason i decided to park in the PF lot is that when I joined
the planet fitness in Arlington Texas, the gentleman who signed
me up asked if I was a trucker. I was intrigued and asked him why
he asked that.
He replied that planet fitness is very popular with truckers and
that they come in, park their rigs in the lot, sleep, then come
in the morning, get a workout, shower, and hit the road.
I was like- that’s awesome! So I thought that this was anoyher
great options I had. I was PUMPED. Or thought I had this option
anyway... Because my membership is recognized at any planet
fitness location in the USA.
So when I rolled into the PF in Baton Rouge I did my due
diligence because of a sign there that said “no overnight parking
EXCEPT for patrons, and employees” of the businesses, I thought I
was good to go.
I even did my due diligence and went in and asks the guy working
the desk at PF if it was common practice, and acceptable to park
in the lot overnight. He said yes.
So I had just started to put the windshield privacy cover on the
rig when parking enforcement came over and informed me (nicely)
that we could not park there even though I was a PF member....
He said that if I did, that our vehicle would be “booted” and
ticketed and that it would cost $400 to have the boot taken
off!!!
He was super nice and said that he saw our out of state
plates and just wanted to give us a friendly heads up. Which was
super cool of him.
Since he was so helpful and nice, i asked him where I COULD park
nearby without getting in trouble. He told me that there was a
recently closed down restaurant right at the edge of the Walmart
I had just been at and that I could boondock there without any
trouble. He said that truckers parked there all the time.
So we went back and pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant
and parked..... we were literally looking at the Walmart lit and
were only off of the lot by 10 feet and were only about 109 feet
from the other RV that was parked in the Walmart lot illegally.
So the point to all of this is that I had plan A plan B and even
a plan C but NONE of them worked out! But I got creative, and
asked for advice that helped me tweak the plan and active my
desired outcome.
Now, by the time all was said and done we had spent from about
midnight until 0330 am trying to get parked and running around to
all these places.
But it was totally worth the investment of my time, because- I
don’t know if the other RV got a ticket or not, but I certainly
slept better knowing- from a trusted authority- that I would but
have to worry about being booted or ticketed.
Remember that the plan may not always go as planned, but if you
don’t quit, you WILL, sooner or later, find a solution to achieve
your desired outcome!!
I am writing this as I am sitting in the restaurant parking lot
in my RV, no ticket, no troubles, and ready to hit the road!
And I am writing all this down and sending it out in an effort to
show everyone- other RV enthusiasts, and other online business
people - how to succeed and to cut down on their trials and
troubles when they finally take the leap and go for it!
I am cutting down on the learning curve, and informing and
helping as many as I can. That is what leaders like me do, at
least that’s what the leaders in our Dream Team in my NLS
business do!
So no matter what you envision for the life of your dreams - be
it in an RV, or living the life of a VIP- just know that it is
possible and that we can help!
I am living the life of my deans RIGHT NOW because of NLS and
want YOU to live YOUR dream life as well!
Join our Dream team here:
https://clarkie44.theconversionpros.com/sl/nls/
And let us show you how to get where YOU want to be!
Seely Clark IV
If you have any questions, you can feel free to contact me at the details below:
email: support@seelyclark.com
Skype:seelyc4
phone: +12076599949
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seely.clarkiv
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