DearMissMermaid said:
It was before 11am (yes that is morning, before noon.) Much to my surprise, the Flying J was FULL of campers who had their slides out, their steps out, several even had tables and chairs outside. I was amused to watch a couple sit outside eating their lunch while viewing the interstate. A few had blocked some of the RV parking spaces by putting their slides out, preventing me or others from parking in those RV spots. Others had taken up multiple car spaces to cram in their RV's and toads.
I was ashamed to be an RV-er and embarrassed I had pulled over at all.
I would have been ashamed too, with the behavior you described.
It sound like a shanty town, complete with Cousin Eddie dumping the grey and black tanks into the storm drain.
There is a WalMart in Fort Pierce, Fl., which fills up with Canadians mostly, but other RVers as well, who spend the night in the WalMart parking lot, which has a security patrol, because it's not in the nicest part of town, and then spend their day at Pepper Park Beach north parking lot, about 7 miles away. The County doesn't allow overnight parking in the beach parking lots, but they are allowed to stay there all day, then retire to the WalMart parking lot at night.
They spend the winter doing this, day after day, week after week, month after month, to avoid paying the campground fees. I always wondered where they dump their tanks, but maybe I don't really don't want to know, after all.
The County I live in (Brevard), is attempting to stop camping on the side of the 528 Hwy on the shore of the Intercoastal Waterway, between the Kennedy Space Center Causeway, and the Cape Canaveral AFS launch facility, and near Port Canaveral, which also has a very reasonably priced County campground at Jetty Park, in the Port, because they have observed the campers dumping their RV holding tanks into the Intercoastal Waterway at night.
It only takes a few to ruin it for everyone!