We left Lockport about 6:00pm, heading toward the Finger Lakes region. We knew we would be boondocking for the night on our way toward Keuka Lake. We were looking at churches along the way, but ended up staying the night at a Super Walmart.
We couldn’t very well open the slide for the kids to sleep in their bunks, so we made do. Mike and Data slept in our bed, Storybird slept in the hallway, and I attempted to sleep on two chairs pushed together.
It wasn’t a very good night of sleep. We’ll be looking for non-Walmart type places for future boondocking.
Phil L. writes:
Quick question: After looking at your 5th wheel’s pics and videos, it doesn’t appear obvious that the bunks can’t be accessed when the slide is in. I presume the slide blocks the door. Is this correct? Not being able to use the bunks while “turtled” seems like a big disadvantage. Any possibility of a modification that would allow bunk access?
Thanks for the blog - I’m enjoying following your adventure!
Boyink writes:
No, unfortunately the slide has to go out half-way in order to allow the kids into their bunks. Some of the newer models have outer doors into the bunks that would enable this better.
For us this made for a puzzle because it was also raining (and cold). I’m not sure the slide seals when half-way out, and I didn’t want to have to dry the roof off before pulling it in in the morning.
So - Data and I slept in the front bed, Storybird slept in the upper hallway, and MsBoyink took the small loveseat. It wasn’t a great night.
We’ll be looking for a church lot next time, and hope it’s not raining so I can let the slide out enough to get the kids into their own beds.
Larry writes:
Just curious,
When people boondock at our local Wal-Mart, if they have a slide out, it out. Did this W-M not allow you to put out the slide? In fact, I don’t ever remember any W-M where the folks with slides didn’t have them out.
I pass our W-M on the way to work in the morning, and last week there must have been a group of 3 traveling together. They even parked their trailers in a circle, had the awnings and slides out, like they were planning on spending a few days there. Course, they were gone that evening when I went home… :)
Boyink writes:
It wasn’t that we couldn’t put the slide out, I just didn’t want to. It was raining, and when you go to bring the slide in after being in the rain you have to mop up the roof of it otherwise it has water laying on it. That water can then run off inside the trailer, making a mess. I don’t have a ladder with me, so far I’ve been able to do this by parking the truck next to the trailer and standing on the bed side, or dragging the next site’s picnic table over and putting a stool on it. At the WalMart I had nothing to work with…
We want to get an awning put on over the slide, which would resolve this issue as well as adding some extra protection from rain, prevent leaves / acornn / twigs / bird doo from getting on the slide roof.
Jim O'Briant writes:
When you “blacktop boondock” at a big box store, truck stop or other business location, it will sometimes be possible to park parallel to a curb so that your slide out will extend over the curb. This way it’s not blocking a traffic lane or pedestrian walkway (and won’t get run into by a careless driver). Of course, this depends on the layout of the parking lot, and also depends on where the store tells you to park when you obtain permission from the store.
On our recent trip we were out for 33 nights, and we spent 14 of those nights in free Overnight RV Parking locations. We were able to extend our bedroom slide on 12 of those 14 nights; the only two exceptions were a Flying J in New Mexico and streetside parking in a small town in Kansas.
As far as slides in the rain are concerned, a “slide topper” will alleviate all, or nearly all the water that comes in when you retract the slide. But the rubber gasket on top of the slide should do the same thing. Remember, too, that when you add a slide topper, you’ll need to check before retracting the slide to be sure that there are no leaves, twigs, branches or other debris under the slide topper.