Traveling from Colorado to Minnesota to work the Sugar Beet Harvest is a long travel in a short period of time.  At least it is for us.  We are not fast travelers.  We enjoy our downtime and our goal in traveling is not to see how quickly we can get there.

On the way up to our beet workamping this year, we stayed in three Walmart parking lots and one Flying J Truck stop.  They were not too bad, for parking lots.  Our best night sleep was actually the Flying J Truck stop, tucked away in between two tractor trailers.

But our best decision was to book an RPI campground for six days before the beet harvest campground.  At first we questioned our decision to book another campground as we were already over budget on campsites for the year.

However, we quit questioning our decision when we arrived at the quiet, maintained Forest Hills Golf & RV Resort in Detroit Lakes, MN.  Wow!  After parking lot boondocking for four days, this campground was the answer.

We assume the campground for the Sugar Beet Harvest, although full-hookups, will not be as nice as the Forest Hills Resort.  I have plenty of walking area around the campground.  However, I could also work out in the gym, if I were so inclined.

We have plenty of downtime to catch up on shows and reading before working the long twelve-hour shifts of the Beet Harvest.  And, we cooked and froze a lot of food for the two continuous working weeks that we anticipate.

The $10 a night with an RPI membership is worth the relaxation and preparation we enjoyed while sitting at this campground.  We also met a couple who sat for a few days before they head to their Beet Harvest in North Dakota.  Windell also gained new adventuring ideas from them.

The older we become, the more we realize that we require downtime and relaxation.  I know many couples, both young and old, who push themselves.  They travel faster than we enjoy traveling.  We met one older couple in a Florida rest stop.  They drove sixteen hours and were continuing to their campground in Florida.  Of course, they couldn’t sleep in their bed as they could not access it in travel mode.  So, they just kept driving.

That is not us.  I am not sure if we are lazy or just cautionary.  But pushing ourselves to get to a destination is just not our ideal way of traveling.  We enjoy relaxation and yes, even anticipation.  Although sometimes we do get bored sitting at campgrounds, we become really frustrated and grumpy if don’t take some downtime for a little while.

So, here we are at this beautiful campground, preparing for our Sugar Beet Harvest workamping.  We are thankful for our RV memberships and our relaxation.  If you, like us, also need some downtime, be sure and take it.  No one receives a prize for getting to the destination faster.  Know thyself and what makes you truly happy.

As for us, we have already decided to book this campground again next year if we work the Sugar Beet Harvest.  After six days of resting, cooking, and cleaning, we are ready to face those twelve-hour long shifts!

Unfortunately, on our wat to work the Sugar Beet Harvest every year in Crookston, Minnesota, we have to travel for a few days without our Thousand Trails or RPI campgrounds.  Because staying at campgrounds can become expensive, we always end up boondocking in parking lots for a few days.  I will be honest, we are not great boondockers.  We can handle a couple of days hunting for a spot to land for the night, leaving the slide in, and running the generator.  But, we start to get grumpy after a couple of days.

Boondocking In Parking Lots – Our Experience

When we talk about boondocking, we include dispersed camping in the definition.  However, dispersed camping, to us, signifies finding a designated campground on public land or a park where we can sit for a few days in our own spot.  We can run the generator and put the slide out when we disperse camp.  Although we still prefer campgrounds with full-hookups, we have dispersed camped in one area for a week or two.

But boondocking in parking lots is completely different.   Yes, you can boondock in lots of different parking lots!  We have stayed at Casinos, Walmarts, Cabelas, Cracker Barrels, Truck Stops, and Rest Stops.  After four years of RVing full-time we definitely have our favorite parking lots for crashing for  a night.

Some of Our Favorite Parking Lots are Casinos!

The only parking lots we stay longer than one night in is Casinos.  The couple of casinos we boondocked at were awesome.  One even provided free electric!  Casinos are usually the best parking lots to stay in.  However, we did bypass The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Sioux City, IA.  It was downtown.  We didn’t like the parking lot and area.  So, we continued on to the Flying J Truck Center in Sioux Falls.

Most casinos have a designated area for RVs to park for the night.  Some charge a low fee.  Sometimes you get free electricity.  Usually the casinos have large parking lots where you can have a bit of privacy from the customer parking lots.  Before parking our vehicle, we always enter the casino and speak to an employee.  We ask if overnight parking is okay and where we need to park.  We also do this for other parking lots.

If you are traveling and need to crash for an evening, we recommend trying a casino.  Again, the only casino we didn’t stay at was the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Sioux City, IA.

Boondocking Overnight in Stores and Restaurants Parking Lots

Let’s be honest, Walmart parking lots are our most frequented parking lots.  Not all Walmarts allow overnight parking and we don’t like all Walmart parking lots for boondocking.  If we arrive before the store closes and do not see any other RVs, we will go inside and ask if overnight parking is allowed.  Sometimes, you don’t even have to go inside.  They will have signs posted all over the parking lot saying no overnight parking!

Before we arrived at the Flying J Travel Center, we visited the Walmart Parking Lot in Sioux Falls.  Per Campendium, it allowed overnight parking.  However, when we arrived, the parking lot was filled with “No Overnight Parking” signs.  And, we wouldn’t have boondocked there anyway.  The parking lot was small!  It was way, way too small for all the traffic to the Walmart and Sam’s Club right beside it.

We have sat overnight in some really nice Walmart parking lots.  They were away from the highway and much quieter than you would expect.  We always try to park the farthest away from the store entrance and sometimes you will see RVs sitting in a back parking lot.

However, we have also left Walmart parking lots.  Once we were traveling through a city and had decided to stay at a Walmart overnight.  I don’t remember the exact location of this city, but I believe it was in Montana.  We pulled into the parking lot, parking as far away from the building as possible.  When we looked around more closely, we noticed a lot of older RVs that appeared to be living there.

The final large warning light to us that we didn’t want to stay at this Walmart occurred while we were fixing supper.  A car with a couple and some children pulled in near us.  The children left the vehicle to stand on the corner of the street right above us, panhandling.  That was enough for us.  We packed up the camper and headed to the Cracker Barrel.

The Cracker Barrels that we have stayed at have a few nice, long RV spots.  They are usually around the back.  However, you should always go in and ask if overnight parking is allowed.  You will not have as much room to put stairs down and work out in a Cracker Barrel parking lot.  However, they are usually pretty quiet except for street noise.

Cabelas is a fabulous parking lot to sit for a night.  Usually you have a lot of room, with no other RVs near you.  We have seen a huge bus with a long trailer pull into a Cabelas to set up.  Although we usually only sit for one night (who wants to sit in a parking lot longer?), we did sit at one Cabelas for three days.  We were traveling west at the time.  For some reason, we needed to sit for a couple of days.  We went inside and talked to the staff in Cabelas.  They were very friendly and told us no problem to stay a couple of nights.

We were not the only RV staying for a few days in that particular Cabelas parking lot.  However, usually, Cabelas allows one night overnight parking.  They are usually very quiet spots, away from the downtown area, and are perfect for a good nights rest.

Because our stairs are the heavy type that you have to drop down, we usually try to park on the last passenger side slot.  We don’t want to block anyone else from parking.  Also, we don’t want someone to take out our stairs.  Whether it be in store parking lots, truck stops, or rest stops, we always try to park early enough to grab the last parking space on the right hand side.

Boondocking in Truck Stop Parking Lots – Always An Option

My husband drove for the oil field and over the road.  He has more experience with truck stops than I do.  When he first suggested that we pull over for the night in a truck stop from Texas to Missouri , I was hesitant.  That first experience was not our most comfortabl in a truck stop.

We had to pull the truck and camper into a middle spot.  Because we had no experience with our camper or stairs at that point, we didn’t park early to grab the far most parking spot on the right.

So, we were in a middle spot.  The first truck that pulled in beside us was super nice.  They gave us plenty of room to put our stairs down.  However, when he left, the next truck pulled in right beside us.  Jumping out of the camper, over the stairs, is not the most fun way to wake up.

We have learned a lot since that first experience at a truck stop.  On our way up to the beet harvest this year, we decided to stay overnight at a Flying J Travel Center.  We backed up the truck and camper into a truck spot way in the back.  Windell parked the camper perfectly next to an unhooked trailer.  When we pulled the stairs down, they landed right on the line.  It was the best night sleep we had in two days, parked between two tractor trailers!

If you do not arrive too late and you plan how you are going to park, truck stops are a fabulous overnight parking option.  We loved the Flying J back parking area.  The tractor trailers were still running.  But the camper was behind most of the noise and we slept like logs.  It was way better than the Walmart parking lots we popped a squat on for the previous two nights.

Be Careful of  Boondocking Overnight at Rest Stops

We have stayed at lots of rest stops.  You can’t beat Florida for the quality of its rest stops.  Usually they have water to fill your tank and sewer dumps.  Some are away from highway noise.  You can stay overnight at rest stops in Florida, with no issues.

We know when we travel through Florida, we will be staying at rest stops.  They are easy pulloffs from the main highways and interstates.  They usually have 24 hour security and we have never had any issues at Florida rest stops.  In fact, Florida rest stops are our favorite overnight boondocking parking lot!.

However, not all states allow overnight parking in their rest stops.  Some states allow twelve hour parking.  Some limit it to ten hour and others may only allow you to sit at a rest stop for four hours.

When we travel to a state and are looking for a parking lot for a night, we mainly use our Campendium app.  If you click on a rest stop parking and scroll to the bottom of the description, the app tells you how many hours you can legally stay at the rest stop.

We know some people break the rules.  While traveling on Interstate 29 North, we saw a Class C with two flat tires sitting at a rest stop that only allows ten hours.  If you read the comments in Campendium, people will say they stayed longer in a rest stop parking lot than what was allowed with no issues.

However, we don’t want to be those people.  We don’t want to risk having a knock in the middle of the night, startling us.  So, we avoid rest stops that do not allow overnight parking.

If they have signs of “No Camping”, we don’t stop for the night.  If the rest area states ten hours maximum, we don’t stop for the night.  When we travel and look for boondocking parking lots, we want to sleep and sit for at least twelve hours.  We are not speedy travelers.

So, if you are thinking about boondocking at rest stops, know the rules and beaware that they change from state to state.  No matter where we do pull into a parking lot for the night, whether a store, restaurant, truck stop, or rest stop, we do not run our generator overnight.  Although it probably would not bother tractor trailer drivers, it is just a habit we have to shut the generator off.

The Campendium App is a great resource to find parking lot and other boondocking sites.  Be aware, though, that you should scroll down the screen to see how many hours you can legally stay in the parking lot.  Also, ordinances change.  So, we always try to go into the store or restaurant or call ahead to ensure it is okay to park overnight.  Some of the spots we have found in previous years are no longer available for overnight parking.

Are We There Yet?

The hunting and pecking for boondocking parking lots is our least favorite way of traveling.  We enjoy knowing we have a campsite at our next location.  However, we have boondocked at various parking lots.  Casinos and rest stops are our favorite overnight parking spots.  Yet we have had some peaceful nights at Walmarts, and yes, even at truck stops.  But we miss our campgrounds when we boondock.  We love full-hookups and programmed coffee.

Although our full-time RV memberships provide us many options for campsites, some areas just are too expensive for us to stay in campgrounds.  So, we boondock in parking lots in these areas simply to travel through them quickly.  Sometimes you are just trying to get to greener grass.

Because we don’t want to be awaken or visited by the law, we try to make sure we know the stay limits in parking lots and talk with store staff to ensure overnight parking is allowed.   When we finally reach our next campground, we both let out a sigh of relief.  No more parking lot boondocking, no more driving around with a camper to find a spot for the night, and no more walking Walmart for exercise.  Finally, full-hookups and regularly scheduled programs!

We finally accomplished our childhood dreams of riding on a steam locomotive train, or choo-choo, to us, for short!  Months in advance we booked the Durango-Silverton Steam Train Ride in Colorado.  Originally, we booked the tickets for May.  However, after arriving in Colorado in late April, we were afraid the weather would be too cold in the open gondola car.

Although it states expressly on your tickets when you purchase that no refunds or exchanges are allowed, we called the customer service number and asked if we could change our ticket days to later in the year.  The very nice lady in customer service moved our tickets to September 9 on our desired seats with no issues.  Although we had a little rain on the return journey, otherwise the weather was perfect.

Of course, when the day of our train finally arrived, we had already changed our traveling plans many times throughout the year.  It was a little more difficult than we initially thought to travel to the train depot in Durango.  When we originally booked our tickets, we thought we would still be truck camping and staying in the area.  But the middle of the summer we decided to quit truck camping and hook the camper back up.

Which meant, we were sitting at the Thousand Trails campground in Gunnison, CO for our train ride.  This was a long nine-hour roundtrip drive with the West Highway 50 Bridge closed.  We also did not realize that the train ride was from 9:00 a.m. to 6:15 p.m.  Wow!  It was a long day, but so worth it.

A Steam Train Ride through the San Juan National Forest

The Durango-Silverton Train provides you with so many options to experience this gorgeous train ride.  You can choose a diesel engine or a steam engine train from the Durango Depot to Silverton.  If you want a shorter ride, you can take the Cascade Canyon Express that lasts only 5.25 hours roundtrip.  The Cascade Canyon Express does not travel all the way to Silverton, but instead turns around halfway.

If you do not want to ride the train roundtrip, you can choose a bus one way and ride the train for the other.  You can take the train to Silverton and catch the bus back.  Or you can take the bus from Durango to Silverton and catch the train back to Durango.  There are lots of options and season specials to experience this exciting adventure.

We decided to take the long way and booked the steam engine for both ways.  When we booked this train ride, we did not realize that it takes 3.5 hours each way and you stop in Silverton for two hours.  Of course, the website clearly states this.  We tried to be really smart before our trip and we brought tuna fish and snacks.  However, not realizing how long the day was going to be, we left them in the truck.  The only regret we have on this trip was not bringing our snacks with us.

But, riding a train through the San Juan Forest!  Wow!  We will never forget this amazing train ride through the gorgeous national forest.  The views of the Animas River and the gorgeous Canyons of the Rocky Mountains will have you standing up on the train for better views and photographic moments.  We oohed and ahhed once we reached the national forest on our steam train.

We booked the open car, or gondola, on the 9:00 a.m. Steam Train from Durango.  After riding the train, we would again book the gondola and the steam train!  You can see so much of the scenery and everyone on the gondola has a first-class seat facing the open windows.  We brought sock caps and I brought gloves, just in case.  And, on the return ride from Silverton, we used them!

The Steam Engine provided the childhood glee of the chugga chugga.  Every time the engineer blew the whistle, we giggled and tried to capture it on our recording.  Seeing the steam rise above the engine and sometimes, from the sides of the locomotive, made our faces light up.  We were our childhood selves again, riding a choo choo train!

The San Juan Mountains and the Animas River

Although the right side of the train from Durango to Silverton has the best views, if you ride the train both ways, you will see all the views.  Most websites that we searched recommended booking the right side.  And, we did for our morning ride.  However, in the morning the sun was right in front of us on the way to Silverton.  And on the return ride to Durango, the afternoon sun was also right in front of us!  If we booked again, we might take the bus to Silverton and ride on the right side back.  Or sit on the left in the morning and the right in the afternoon, depending on the time of year.

For the first part of the trip leaving Durango, the views are not spectacular.  You ride a little ways through the town of Durango, which is more fun on the way back, as I will explain later.  The Missionary Ridge that you can see after leaving Durango is nice, but not epic.  You also follow the highway for a long while and can hear the noise in the open gondola.  But, you are riding a steam engine and that in itself is so much fun.

After you pass the Missionary Ridge, you start the climb.  Just when we thought, well at least we experienced a steam train, we begin to see the Needle Mountains.  The views become amazing.  As you travel further along towards Silverton, the Animas River makes its appearance.  The colors of this river in places remind you of a glacier lake.  You cannot get over the beauty of the river with the Grenadier Range in the backdrop.

The most exhilarating part of the journey for me was the river below, the mountains in the background, and the train taking corners around the rock.  You can witness the Engineer on the Locomotive with the steam and whistles, maneuvering around rocks with the river below and the mountains in front.  Oh, my goodness, what a sight!  Sometimes you will also see the Conductor waving his hat on the side of the train, which adds to ambiance.  I had to stand up to take in the entire magical scene.  I would have done a happy dance on this amazing ride, but the train rocks along on the tracks and the cars sway from side to side.  What an adventure!

One gentleman living in the area was explaining to his family beside me the different scenes along the route.  He kayaks the river and frequently catches the train.  Of course, I had to eavesdrop to learn about the underground cave where the river flows and different scenes along the journey.  I enjoy listening to the knowledge of others when they have more experience than I do.

Another fun tip while traveling on the train is that along the journey, the train passes inches by large rocks.  Windell and I both let out a couple of deep breaths on some of the turns around these rocks.  We tried to record  these close encounters with our GoPros without bruising our knuckles, and it is a memorable experience.

As the train continues towards Silverton, you gasp with delight on the views.  Waterfalls make their appearance and the gorgeous river below with the amazing canyon views wll make you gasp.  Eventually, you reach the town of Silverton for a two hour exploration and lunch.

Arriving at Silverton, Colorado on the Durango-Silverton Steam Train

Everyone disembarks the train in Silverton for a couple of hours to eat and explore.  Silverton is a very small touristy town with mainly dirt roads.  Because we had forgotten our tuna fish, against our usual adventuring style, we bought some lunch in Silverton.  Although many tourists were waiting in line to enter one restaurant, we choose to go cheap and eat fried food.

The main enterprise of Silverton seems to be tourist shops and restaurants for those arriving for the train.  To stretch our legs after the long train ride, we walked the town for a while after eating.  There are public bathrooms that are clean with plenty of stalls.  It was fun to walk around after the train ride, but the town is very small.  Silverton is not a place we would visit if it was not our train stop.

If we were to take the train again to Silverton, we would remember to bring our tuna fish and snacks and sit in the public area, recalling our amazing train trip thus far.  If you like the touristy things, there are many shops in Silverton, although some were closed on the day we arrived.  We did buy our postcards here, knowing that we would be late getting back to the Durango Depot.

Ending Our Memorable Steam Train Experience

In addition to the beautiful train ride and the delightful steam engine, riding back through the town of Durango is another enjoyable experience.  On the way back, during the afternoon, people wave at the train.  It is so much fun to see the children and adults alike, waving as you pass them by.  People wave from parking lots, balconies, and even at the railroad crossing when you travel past them.  You cannot help but wave back.  Some bystanders even asked how our trip was as the train slowed through the town.

This friendliness of the town at the end just enhanced the entire experience.  We had such a warm, fuzzy feeling taking a steam engine train with views of mountains, a river, and waving at the friendly people as we returned.  If you like train rides, or have a childhood dream of riding a train, we recommend the Durango-Silverton line.  We highly recommend the Steam Locomotive and the open gondola car.  Bring your cameras so you never forget the amazing beauty.  Or better yet, record yourself giggling with delight when the engine whistles!