Rest area advice. This is free advice so consider it worth every cent you pair for it.
If the Big Rig book does not have a campground near where I want to stop for the night, or if the one near there is a gazillion miles from the interstate our next choice is a rest area.
We have learned if we decide to use a rest area for the night that we stop early. Early is easily defined. It is the time we must stop to get the first parking spot on the end nearest the entry ramp. This spot is ideal for several reasons. By being an end spot there is only a 50% chance someone will hit you, whereas the middle spaces have traffic coming on both sides.
One side of the bus is exposed so anyone outside that monkeys around is visible to traffic on the highway or vehicles entering the rest area.
By being on the entry end we are at one of the furthest points from the toilets so the transients that stop to use the rest rooms, coming and going all night are not likely to park next to us. We generally end up with other overnight parkers.
When we stop early, usually before dark the rest area is not full, and other RVs stopping to overnight there will tend to park next to us. We do not worry about other RVs and they are good neighbors because they don't have the reefer unit kicking on and off all night long or cattle clomping around in an aluminum trailer. They also don't idle their diesel all night long with the air compressor kicking on and off.
Finally, by stopping early and getting the end spot once stuff settles down for the night it tends to be quite quiet relatively speaking. There are some rest areas that we know and we use the auto parking areas for the night. They are few and far between, but they tend to be very good. We still wish campground owners would offer overnight parking with no hookups just for RVs.
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