Van Dwelling and Car Living 27 Jun 2008 08:59 pm
Highway rest areas for a good night’s sleep?
Do you ever stay a highway rest areas? Why or why not?
–josh
Simply, I stay long enough only to rest with my eyes open. Why? Well safety and legality are both big issues.
Being that I live in a doctored up conversion van I doubt that anyone would bat a single eyelash at my being there for extended periods. But then, I also like to sleep at night when the rest stops are least populated, and where there is isolation there is also danger.
At the least someone could assume that my van is abandoned and ripe for thievery. At the worst someone might assume someone is inside and have far more nefarious plans than a simple smash and grab.
From a legal standpoint, I don’t want cops messing with me. They are annoying when not desired and tickets are expensive. Generally speaking rest stops are legally set aside for people to stop, pee and stretch their legs a bit so there are–varied state by state–limits as to how long you can stay there.
As an alternative what I’d do if traveling on a long trip, or just slowly meandering, is to head to the next town and find a hotel parking lot. Some chain place that doesn’t look too crowded where one more vehicle will fit in nicely. Wal-Marts and other 24 hour stores make a decent stop for me in a pinch as my passenger van fits in nicely with all the other late night shoppers and workers. And specifically in the case of Wal-Mart they have an unofficial policy of, where allowed, to let RVers stay overnight in their parking lots.
Hotels though are my favorite, especially as there’s often some free wi-fi floating out of them. This though is speaking of my personal experience. I’ll imagine there’s areas of the country where chain hotels aren’t spaced quite so conveniently and I wouldn’t trust my luck pulling into a little mom and pop motel. Even as stealthy as I am if I’m the 15th vehicle that night I’m going to stand out.
There has been a couple of times where I’ve just pulled all-nighters and drove until dawn. Then pretty much any parking is fair game early the next morning as all the businesses are open or opening and a long-term parked vehicle, sufficient for a little catch-up sleep, is of no special notice.
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on 28 Jun 2008 at 11:04 pm 1.Josh said …
Thanks so much for answering the question! I live in Florida and am ever so steadily heading to a situation where I might have to live in my car for awhile, I’m planning on getting a van asap, I know its just not doable in a car.
The problem here in Florida is the head and humidity, its just unbearable and wish gas prices the way they are its not feasible or probably not safe to run the engine all night to keep cool. Its a problem I don’t know how to solve other than get out of Florida.
A few years ago there was a lot of crime at rest areas and so the state closed several of them and put armed guards at night at the locations they kept open. I’ve scoped out a few of them to see if I’d be able to get away with staying overnight and I don’t see why not for one night. Truckers have to stop for 8 hours at a time, I could do that too but oh the heat!
Windows are impossible too during the summer as we have rains every afternoon.
Again I really enjoy your site and wish you all the best!
on 30 Jun 2008 at 6:03 pm 2.April said …
You should consider a Fantastic Vent ( http://www.fantasticvent.com/ ) as they’ll turn over the air in your van quite rapidly. I had one on my old van and it was usable even in mild rains, I just needed to keep it down low. To avoid killing your starting battery you’d need to install a secondary battery, a deep cycle one, which is also nice for running other devices as well.
Gas these days is a killer. I was just last night pondering where to go for winter and I’ll really need to save up money to get anywhere warm at all. I might have another worst case scenario and have to tough it out in the Midwest and just deal with space heaters and tons of blankets.
on 02 Jul 2008 at 10:11 pm 3.Hitek Homeless said …
The high speed fan is definitely a good option. We have a Northern Breeze and combined with opening the correct window to maximize air flow, it will keep the vehicle roughly the same temperature as the outdoors.
I’m not sure I’d like to try summers in Florida with just a fan, though. It was already hitting the low 90’s when we hit the road in April.
I have been told that a fan blowing past a cooler full of ice works wonders, but getting and keeping ice can get expensive. Perhaps snag some from a hotel that has outdoor ice machines?
Good luck, Josh. I hope all works out for you.
on 12 Oct 2008 at 8:06 am 4.steve1963build said …
Hi All,
I love the chat and the enthusiasm for van dwelling and car living here. I am setting up to do it myself.
I live in Florida, and my ideas to deal with the heat are as follows: vehicle with light-weight “tow” hitch on rear to attach a 20″x60″ shelf-like cargo hauler available pretty much anywhere for about $50-$100. Here’s the catch, uou gotta splurge for an expensive, small, inverter generator like a 1000 watt Honda or Kipor. I’ve seen them for as low as $350- used or under a $1000 (yep) new. Now, the air conditioner: either a roof mount rv type ac or a small, cheap window ac either mounted INSIDE the vehicle with discreet venting through the side or bottom of the vehicle OR mounted on the cargo hauler with 4″ ducting into the vehicle (and operated with the included remote control). I am making a light-weight plywood box - with suitable venting - to cover the generator and a/c on the cargo hauler. It will professional and low key and can be disguised pretty well. The whole thing can be covered with a $50 black rectangular vinyl cover that is sold for the cargo hauler, so it looks like the same one anyone else might have.
Admittedly, requires some bucks and some skills, but for me it’s worth the investment. Once the ac thing is solved, the freedom of hot-weather travel is there.
Not saying I have all this mastered, but wanted to share my ideas, especially with Josh, to throw it out there, since I too live in hot, muggy FL (Fort Lauderdale to be precise).
Happy to chat with anyone about this or other related topics.
Be well,
Steve