We all pays our money and takes our choices. We prefer to stay at campgrounds, even if it does seem illogical or irrational to others.
We just try to find a nice place for the doggies to run around. The worse campground we saw for doggies was the KOA in Calgary. It wouldn't be all that bad if they didn't have a fence all the way around it. We couldn't find anything in that area and wasted hours looking and gave up. So we went north to Red Deer and found a very nice rest area to boondock in that area that the doggies really enjoyed.
Here at the very crowded & loud Devon RV Park, at least there's the Saskatchewan River right next to it where the doggies can run around off leash.
And there's wireless internet here that covers the entire rather large park. But my signal strength says "low". But it still works perfectly, just as if I didn't know.
We've never stayed at a Wal*Mart, but we have seen many rest areas that we prefer to campgrounds. Many up here have hiking trails (or sometimes unused dirt roads) starting at the rest area. Finding a place the doggies like is what's most important.
This RV park has wireless, so I don't have to use my expensive roaming 3G. But no TV cable here. I can live without that. Tommy has his Chinese DVD's to watch. I guess I can practice my Cantonese. But I think I should learn English better first.

What does a Wal*Mart have to offer? Even without the doggies, I don't think we would stay there unless there was nothing else for a hundred miles or so (unlikely). We would take a shady rest stop (and there are many up here) any day over any Wal-Mart.
We didn't see much of Calgary, but we will spend a few days here in the Edmonton area and visit the famous mall and all that. We already got a rented car. They came to pick us up to get the car after the RV was hooked up. Very convenient.
BTW, coming into Canada, they only wanted to see our passports and ask a bunch of questions. Questions such as where we work or worked, if we have criminal records, ever had a DUI (both are a "no") own guns (we own many guns) and if any have EVER been inside this RV (no.)
Then the boarder guard asked, as usual, how Tom & I know each other (I was driving at the time, so they are asking me).
I made it easy for him. I said "we're a gay couple that's been together for 35 years".
And then he (the border guard) just said "oh, okay" and let us go. All of this only took a few minutes.
But I know on the way back into the USA, the RV will get searched as usual and will take a good hour or so. The USA is a lot harder to return to than Canada is to get into. At least for two guys in a RV. And that was true even before 9-11-01. At least for us. We have yet to come back to the USA without a search of the RV and our records checked.
But at least we know what to expect, as we have been up in Canada many time before. Just not this part (Alberta). But we may enter the USA via Vancover. We are planning on going through Jasper National Park and from there all the way to Vancouver.
BTW, if you want good Hong Kong style food, do NOT go to Hong Kong. Go to the Vancouver area. Seems all the good cooks from Hong Kong went to Vancouver. We're going to Vancouver just for the Dim Sum.

Devon RV Park, Devon, AB (near SW Edmonton)