Good morning! From Flagstaff, Arizona and
welcome to the vlog! We are just
departing from a Walmart here. We spent
the night. We've had quite a bit of
experience, staying in Walmarts, over the
years. Some of them pretty interesting. We
thought we'd share with you today, what
we've learned in some of our stories. But
we're going to start the morning out by
logging some miles on our trip from
California to Kansas!
Well guys! We thought we would divide
this up into ahhh... Who, What, Where, When, Why and
How to camp at Walmart type of video!
First off, "The Who!" Well, the who is a band
and it's also you being the traveler and
Walmart. And as a traveler, Walmarts are
very, very valuable! Now, granted, they're
not our first choice of places to camp
for the night but when you're traveling,
your friend the Walmart is always going
to be there!
Moving right along, let's talk about "What"
First of all, "What is it?" It's free, easy
camping. Just about anywhere that you can
find a Walmart!
What do we like about it? Well, turns out
the list with pretty long when we
started writing out all the things we
like about Walmarts. So....Lets talk about this a
little bit. First of all, how convenient
is it to be able to do some of your
shopping right there wherever you're
camped for the night? And this is
something that has improved over time.
We're pretty big on shopping Organic and....
When we first started traveling, there
wasn't really an option at Walmart. But we've
seen a pretty significant improvement
over the last year and a half. And.... As
long as you know your brands, you can
definitely pick up a few things that are
organic! They have red boxes at the
entrances of the Walmarts so you can
catch a movie while you're staying there
for the night! Usually they are located
in areas with lots of other amenities.
Like restaurants, movie theaters, a
place to get your hair and your nails
done. All sorts of cool things are
usually in their shopping centers. It's
generally safe! The Lots are usually well
lit, there's grass for the puppy dogs and...
It's always kind of nice to take a
little walk with the dogs around the
perimeter of the shopping center!
Something that the Russos taught us, is
that, if you are able to park by the
garden center, you're able to tap into
the Wi-Fi that Walmart usually have
inside!
Alright I'm going to take on the "When"
and the "Where" because they're kind of
tightly related. But the "When" is anytime you
want because you can always find a
Walmart! And the "Where" is pretty much
everywhere because you can always find a
Walmart!!
We have camped in Walmarts in British
Columbia. Now I do have the idea of a
video of Walmart camping in Mexico...
Haven't tried that one yet
but it's definitely going to be on the
list of things we want to do when we're
down there next. So in relation to the
"Where" part, you will find that some
areas are more and less friendly for
RVers camping at their Walmart. And....
Just for example, in the Flagstaff area,
the Walmart on the West end of town had
unfavorable reviews for people staying in
the night. But the Walmart on the East
end of town, Well you just saw it this morning!
It was like a variable campground.... Well I
think with the "Why"  you're going to find
a trend in what we're saying here. But
why would you do this? Well, because you can
always find a Walmart! hahahaha!
But more importantly, sometimes it really
saves you! You end up in a town you weren't
expecting to be in because of weather or
breakdowns. We've had both happen.
Sometimes you can't find a place to stay!
We've had that happen! And Walmart is a
great backup to have in your pocket. It's
also really nice to embrace that spirit
of freedom. Sometimes you just need a
place to park and you don't need all of
the amenities of the campground! So... Or an
RV park. So you can just pull into a Walmart!... It's a
great option!
Now it's my turn to talk about the "How"
and the "How" you have to talk about
etiquette!
Now some people are super, gung-ho
Walmart rule-following
campers! And.... You have to kind of take
everything with a grain of salt. There is
definitely an etiquette and a respect
factor to pull into a Walmart for the
night!
But...Okay! Let's talk about "Jacks". I think
in my personal and professional opinion
as an RVer, that putting your jacks
down, as long as it's not like 110
degrees out, and we're going to like leave
indentations in the blacktop, I think
it's harmless! And I would be lying if I
said "We've never put our jacks down at
Walmart!"  And I'd also be lying if I said
"We've never put our slide-out, out at a
Walmart!" But you always want to make sure
you do that one kind of tactfully! Try to...
Maybe even park over one of those little
grassy areas or you know, just make sure
your popouts not sticking into the Elena
traffic! So another big one to talk about
is, "Calling the manager." You know, if we
see on the Allstays app, that it's like
totally, you know, a good welcoming
Walmart, we don't call the manager! Come
on now!
Like last night, we pulled into that
place and there were at least 20 RVs. I'm
not calling the manager for that!
I have better things to do with my time!But....We
will call and talk to the manager or one
of the employees, if we don't see any
reviews on Allstays. That way, we know
ahead of time, when we're searching for a
place to pull in for the night, if it's
an option!So you can't talk about etiquette
without talking about generators. And....
Unless you have a full-blown solar setup,
you're probably going to have to run
your generators! But there's chance you
won't have to run your generator if
you've been driving all day and charging
your batteries that way. But yeah! Just
use the basic common sense, 6am to to
10 pm. And truthfully,
those are a bit on the extreme side! You
know, when we camp and you know, if we're
like staying at a place for several days,
not Walmarts. We'll try to charge our
batteries in the middle of the day so....
When people are eating dinner, watching
a movie, trying to put their kids down, you
don't have a generator running until 10
o'clock at night! So I touched on this
one a little bit when I talked about
the slides. But always try to park near
the back of the lot or if the Allstays
app on the reviews say "Hey!They want you
to park over near the garden center or
park near the a&w root beer." You know,
follow those directions! So always try to
be a good houseguest. And I say that
meaning, go into the store and buy a
little something! Even if you don't need
anything, there's always some little
thing you can find at Walmart. That's not
even going to be wasteful. Like, "Hey! I
need to have an extra quart of oil on
board!" You know, just kind of pay for it and
you know,
spend a little money there! And lastly
for etiquette, "Signs." Signs are everywhere.
Do you always have to obey the signs? ...No!
Clearly, at the Walmart we stayed out
last night, there were signs everywhere! I
think there were more signs than there
were RVers but you know what? There's
power in numbers and there's safety in
numbers. So we completely disregarded the
signs!.... Well you know you always get full
disclosure from us. Right? Especially Ben.
I'm going to finish this up with a list
of resources. Just a couple that will
help you to find your Walmarts and know
whether or not it's okay to stay there!
So.... We're not huge fans of the Allstays
app but... When it comes to Walmart camping,
we really like it because... We can always
find Walmarts on the Allstays app and
members are great about posting their
experiences! Whether positive or negative.
So that you know what to anticipate and
whether or not to even waste your time going
there!
That's always a frustrating challenge as
you know, if you show up at a place and
then they tell you no! So it's better to
call ahead and check your Allstays app.
The other thing that I've really found
useful over the years is to check Google
reviews for the Walmart itself! Sometimes,
like for example, when we stayed in
Fresno to look at the expedition vehicle
earlier this winter, I actually looked at
google reviews to see which ones sounded
like they were in safe neighborhoods and
good areas.And we ended up in a great one
because I did that!.... Alright! So now it's
Walmart story time and I'm sure you guys
have some amazing stories! So feel free
to put those in the comments below. But
we're going to start off with the
SHADIEST Walmart! The shadiest Walmart
we've ever stayed at was in Cortez,
Colorado. And it's borderline looked like
a junkyard. It was bad! It was so bad that
I was like, "Hey hun, you probably should
get out of the RV. Let me just go take
care of the dog." So that was our roughest,
shadiest Walmart!..... I'm going to share
our best Walmart experience and that was
in Kalispell, Montana. First of all, it's a
beautiful city! So you're surrounded by
incredible views! The Walmart itself, was
awesome! Had great stuff and I found some
rugs for the RV in there! But the
highlight had to do with the
surroundings. So we found a Mongolian
Grill which we love to eat at Mongolian
Grills. There was a movie theater across
the street, so we went and saw a movie!
Just doesn't really get any better than
that..... Alright! The last Walmart story
has to do with our longest stay! This
happened on our last RV road trip around
the country. And it was a very, very, rough
time for us! A tree had fallen on the
motor home in Northern California so we
had to get body work done!
As we were pulling into this area of a
Tigard, Oregon where this RV body shop
was, the left rear brake caliper locked
up. And so it was just, grinding like you know,
grinding bad! You know, not really good state
to drive and the timing of it all, was on
like Eastern Spring Break week! So all of
the RV parks were occupied. They had no
space at all! Even on weekdays! So we
checked out this Walmart nearby and well,
just as the story goes, we called and
they said "No!"  But we went there to go
shopping because you know, we shop at
Walmart to! And we saw a handful of RVs
in the lot and they were definitely
kind of settled in the inside! So we
decided to just, "Hey you know, we're going
to take a shot in the dark here." Because
it was only like a half mile from the RV
body shop and we decided to stay the
night. Well! Since there was nowhere else
to go and we literally had no other
options, we decided to stay another night,
another night and another night. Well it's
like a whole week at a Walmart. And we
literally were trapped!
You know we catch a lot of heat on this
video! And I'll put a link to that video in the end screen.
We're just a few miles outside of
Albuquerque and I had looked at Allstays
early this morning and kind of
picked out two different Walmarts that
were close to the 25 and the 40. Because
we're coming in on the 40 and we're
going to turn North on the 25! We kind of
wanted a movie theater nearby, in case we
have the opportunity to go see a movie
this evening! So.... I googled both of the
Walmarts that I had picked out for
location and found the one that is close
to a huge mall! And it has the United
Artists cinema there. So we're going to
take that! Then I went back to the
Allstays and had a look. There's some
instructions there about where to park.
They want you to park by the garden center
in this one! Ahhh....Which will be good for the
WIFI hopefully! Which they do mention
having. And.... Secondly, I also read in the
comments that someone else had called
the operator and told them "Just go ahead
and park, there's no need to check in with us."
Alright guys! Here it is, our spot at a
Walmart in Albuquerque for the night!
We're calling it quits kind of early
today. Got some videos to edit and really
don't want to drive too much! And like
from here on know, we're going to
start heading northeast and we're really
going to slow things down.
So we kind of drove like mad through
California, Arizona just to get to this
point. And also this afternoon, we need to
decide which way do we want to go and
where do we want to go, now that we're
going to slow things down! So make sure
you hit that SUBSCRIBE button, so you can
follow our adventures and we'll see you tomorrow!
