Flying J stations

[John From Detroit]

Well, I visited a flying J for the first time yesterday (Will have to visit twice next year, the only reason for waiting a year is that I do not often go that way) and all I can say is I hope they put in a few more stations along my route

The first thing I noticed is that they acknowledge RV's do, in fact, exist, they had special islands for RV's, the pumps had all flavors (Diesel or gas) and there were DUMP stations at the islands as well (This could be handy... I'd just dumped on the way out of the park I was at so did not need that service, however one of the other travelers at anothe risland was draining his tanks as I fueled up)

And the prices... Lowest for some distance.  I'm used to cheap gas (By area standards) here in Detroit as the area I travel has some of the lowest price gas in S.E. Michigan... Flying J was in the range I'm used to.  Other stations in the area were much higher

The only complaints I had were these

1: Parking lot could have been layed out a little bit better, though it was easy to get the rig into and out of the island, it could have been easier.

2: The attached eatery was a Wendy's... I'd have prefered to sit down and get waited upon like I do at TA centers

Of course I drove right past the TA to feed the beast (Motor home) at the Flying J (TA charged way more for gas)

Forget where we stopped for dinner...... Oh yes, Cracker Barrell, 

Cracker Barrell had a brag thing on the tables that said "RVers welcome, most of our sites have lots of parking (I know the one in Jackson does) but the one we stopped at did not really have RV friendly parking... We ended up parking along the outside edge of the lot and taking up a whole lot of parking spaces  I mean, the damon is over 37 foot and the lumin and hitch adds over 20 more feet so we are looking at about sixty feet of rig or about six parking spaces if we park crosswise

 

[Ned]

Nearly all FJs have RV islands.  Some are easier to access than others, but they generally do as good a job as possible with the space they have.  The newer stores are laid out a bit better than the older ones.  Many of the FJs have Country Market restaurants, sit down service that's really fast (it is a truck stop, after all) and the food is good and reasonable priced.  We often combine filling up with breakfast at FJ.

If the RV islands are too busy at FJ, we go to the truck islands, unless they're backed up.

Be sure to get the RV Frequent Fueler card, gives you the cash price with credit card, plus $.01/gal. discount on fuel and discount on propane ($.05/gal?).

The only problem we have with Cracker Barrel is the RV sites are too short for a large motorhome with toad.  We end up taking 2 sites to park.  Oh, it's not uncommon to find cars parked in the RV/bus sites too.  Usually people too lazy to walk an extra 20' to the door.

 

[John From Detroit]

As an FMCA member I have the Flying-J RV card so I used it

And when parking the RIG for lunch or dinner, I normally try to park far from the restaurant and hike as a courtisy to those in cars, I mean this thing fully tricked out with Damon Intruder, blue-ox tow bar and Lumina takes up 3 parking spaces and an isle (The Damon takes up two car slots, the Lumina will extend across the isle into the next parking row) so I try to be as out of the way as possible

The cracker barrell I was at I park along the outside of the lot across about half a dozen parking spaces. 

Nobody complained though (Which is why I park "OUT"

I do admit, when your rig is over 12 foot tall and 30 feet long And that does not count the towed) it's easy to find in most lots

One place I go on Tuesday Mornings does not have a large enough lot... But their next door neighbor, a major department store, is out of business... I've about 10 achers of concerte to park on with nobody to complain or disturb me and it's only about 2 steps from the restaurant's regular parking lot

 

[Jeff]

John;

We just traveled Seattle-Chicago on nothing but Flying J fuel. Best part is that you can download their diesel prices and know where to stop.

 

[John From Detroit]

As it happens my next trip is to chicago in 2 hops (Wed: Detroit to Kalamazoo,  THU (afternoon On to Chicago w/the toad, returning to MH parked in K-zoo)  Fri back to Detroit.

Concert, Vandercook College,  Daughter is doing her best to become a "Master" (Well Master of Arts, Music Education or Performance)
and has a concert on the 21st

 

[BernerGran]

Hi John,

We're in Albuquerque and frequent I-40 to Arizona as our dog breeder is over there. When we have our 34 ft. RV with us, as it is about a six hour drive, we need to dump on the way home. There is a dump station at a Giant station around the corner from us, but whoever put it in clearly wasn't an RVer. Difficult to negotiate.

So......we usually stop at the Flying J just west of Albuquerque to dump. It is convenient to home - adds about 20 minutes to our trip, but it is done. We use them whereever we are for gas/diesel. And we like them quite well. And when we just have the van with us, we tend to stop for lunch at them.

So, glad you discovered them.

BernerGran
(on account of we raise and show Bernese Mountain Dogs, and I am a gran, as well!)