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I have a confession to make, and it might just result in the powers that be pulling my fulltimer card, but here goes: We've never actually camped in a Walmart parking lot. I know, I know. It's shocking, but hear me out. When scouting for campgrounds near Athens the morning we left Atlanta, there were two state parks, one 30 minutes west and one 30 minutes east of town, and one private campground about 20 minutes south. Then, there was a Walmart about 7 minutes from downtown. When we're visiting a town, we like to be as close as possible to minimize car time for the kids on non-drive days, but for some reason, just haven't done the Walmart thing, so I called the private CG first. They had one site which they said *might* fit a 25' trailer but then decided they didn't think we'd fit (which in my experience means it's probably about 40' long and they don't know what they're talking about). A call to the western state park found that it was full, but the eastern said it had one site available, but we needed to call Reserve America. I got on the RA web site and confirmed that there was in fact one site available for Fri but not Sat. Oh well, we needed something for the night so I tried to book it. Nope, 2 night minimum stay required for weekends. So I called the 800 number where I heard the same thing. Well, I'd gladly book two nights if two were available! (I had to say this about 5 times.) Finally, we stumbled on a loophole that we've actually used a few times lately; If there are no other sites available, you can reserve the ADA accessible site. So we got it for two nights. Of course, when we arrived, they didn't really care what kind of site we'd booked and told us to pick any open site. Oh, so Walmart. Well, they're cheap, ubiquitous and probably a welcome relief after a long drive, but for now, our streak is intact. Oh and you can't exactly argue with where a little persistence landed us! #watsonmillbridgestatepark #watsonmillbridge #georgia #childhoodunplugged
I have a confession to make, and it might just result in the powers that be pulling my fulltimer card, but here goes: We've never actually camped in a Walmart parking lot. I know, I know. It's shocking, but hear me out. When scouting for campgrounds near Athens the morning we left Atlanta, there were two state parks, one 30 minutes west and one 30 minutes east of town, and one private campground about 20 minutes south. Then, there was a Walmart about 7 minutes from downtown. When we're visiting a town, we like to be as close as possible to minimize car time for the kids on non-drive days, but for some reason, just haven't done the Walmart thing, so I called the private CG first. They had one site which they said *might* fit a 25' trailer but then decided they didn't think we'd fit (which in my experience means it's probably about 40' long and they don't know what they're talking about). A call to the western state park found that it was full, but the eastern said it had one site available, but we needed to call Reserve America. I got on the RA web site and confirmed that there was in fact one site available for Fri but not Sat. Oh well, we needed something for the night so I tried to book it. Nope, 2 night minimum stay required for weekends. So I called the 800 number where I heard the same thing. Well, I'd gladly book two nights if two were available! (I had to say this about 5 times.) Finally, we stumbled on a loophole that we've actually used a few times lately; If there are no other sites available, you can reserve the ADA accessible site. So we got it for two nights. Of course, when we arrived, they didn't really care what kind of site we'd booked and told us to pick any open site. Oh, so Walmart. Well, they're cheap, ubiquitous and probably a welcome relief after a long drive, but for now, our streak is intact. Oh and you can't exactly argue with where a little persistence landed us! #watsonmillbridgestatepark #watsonmillbridge #georgia #childhoodunplugged
