Dining, Drinking and Stealth Urban Overnighting?

[Abscate]

[mhoffperson]

I haven't read all the previous posts but if no one mentioned it I will often camp at the VW dealer or specialist (near the night drop entrance) on the pretense that I am having car problems and I'm waiting for the place to open in the morning.

[RollingDutchman]

I used to sleep regularly at our work parking lot next to Oregon State University. Wide open lot with some homeless people around sometimes. Easily seen from a decently busy road. Never had any problems. Also spent lots of nights in friends driveways with no issues.

Only time I ever had an issue was in a hotel parking lot in Vancouver, WA when I was helping out my son's 8th grade basketball team from Alaska and playing in a tournament. My choice was sleeping with several sweaty 14 year old boys in a small room or my van, pretty easy decision Cop woke me up at 2:00 am because of a call from the neighboring hotel! I told him my story and sent me back to bed
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Peter vT
1999 Eurovan
1999 Subaru Outback - ski car
2009 Prius - makes up for crappy van mileage
2013 Catrike tricycle for commuting

[IdahoDoug]

In college, I had a white Chevy Van with no windows and just two front seats for a company car one summer. The job was traveling all up and down the Eastern US coast picking up leftover seeds and shipping them back to the company. I slept in the van all summer, often in populated areas and only got hassled a couple times. I got pretty good at picking places. In the summer when school is out, college parking lots are empty, I often parked right in the middle of parking lots full of cars, and quiet side streets are also perfect as long as you dont arrive until after dark. So go and do stuff until late and then pull in quickly and shut down quickly. On streets, I'd get out, lock the door and walk away down the street because when a vehicle arrives at night it will get just one person's attention and they want to see something normal like that happen. Then you walk back about 15 minutes later, hop back in and go to sleep. I unscrewed all the door activated lightbulbs of course. And you can't go back to the same quiet street again, or that one person would see you and wonder.

Sometimes, I'd pick a place to have breakfast in the evening and pull into their parking lot and go to sleep. If roused, I could say I was waiting for them to open so I could have breakfast and then start my day.

One thing I never, ever did was lie. If you are roused by the police and you lie it will not go well. They are waaaay sharper than you think, especially because they just got out of a warm cruiser where they were sipping coffee and busily observing their surroundings and you just woke up. Best thing to do is man up and tell them what you are about. Be vague, and you will be asked to move along.

Perhaps you enjoyed a certain restaurant down the street in his town, and are hoping to eat breakfast somewhere else on the way out of town to your next tourist destination. Being a tourist is best. They have to watch out for vagrants, but tourists mean income for his community and a tourist has a reason for being there.

Anyhow, stealth camping is the best. Especially when you start the van after waking and are rolling down the street thinking "sweet, last night was free so my food for the day is paid for!!".
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1987 2WD Wolfsburg Vanagon Weekender "Mango", two fully locked 80 Series LandCruisers. 2017 Subaru Outback boxer. 1990 Audi 90 Quattro 20V with rear locking differential, 1990 burgundy parts Vanagon. 1984 Porsche 944, 1988 Toyota Supra 5 speed targa, 2002 BMW 325iX, 1982 Toyota Sunrader

[Abscate]

I got tired of paying $400 for 4 hours sleep in a hotel to catch the 0600 flight out of SFO, so now I just find a quiet street in Burlingame, kick the seat back and sleep to 0400, then hit the airport return.

I still get the per diem for the hotel - I can spend it on car parts.
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.ssS!

[Merian]

http://katu.com/news/local/police-man-tossed-explo...th-campers
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[Abscate]

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.ssS!

[levi]

Fear mongering.

Btw, don't go outside, there's killer bees out there.
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One of these days I'm gonna settle down,
but till I do I won't be hangin round.
Going down that long lonesome highway,
gonna see life my way

https://youtu.be/cSrL0BXsO40

[Merian]

http://www.wweek.com/news/courts/2017/01/23/man-wh...-nicer-rv/
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[vegpedlr]

I got rousted by the police in Simi Valley, north of LA in Jan. on my way to BBB. I did an all day MTB clinic across town, then drove to the campground I researched ahead of time but could not reserve in the off season. They locked the gates at dusk! We didn't finish the clinic until just after dark. I found a nearby pull out, got well out of the way, out of any sightline, only visible to the people driving that dead end road. After talking to me for awhile, the officer made a judgement that I wasn't a threat and let me stay with the warning that another neighborly complaint would mean I would have to move. In contrast, last summer I stayed for a week in a CO ski town for free. Within minutes of arriving, a local guy at the bar gave me a tour of town and detailed the best places to stealth. I ended up in the city lot right next to the sign that read, "No Overnight Parking." There was a cargo trailer and Toyota that never moved, so I parked in between and got to hang out and see Black Uhuru twice. I prefer real campgrounds since I travel with my bike. But in CO mtn towns, a Westy with a MTB is nothing special. Another time I stealth it behind a bike shop next to the shop's Bay and single cab.
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1985 Tintop 4 sp GW 2.3 “Connie”
2006 Mk V GTI 2.0 FSI “Penelope”

[jimf909]

[IdahoDoug]

Yeah, I wish the US were a bit more like Europe in that cruising around the world by vehicle is common enough that communities often have areas set aside for people doing so. I suppose we do too in the US, but unfortunately if they publicize it, they will always be full. So, it adds a little stress to touring like that sometimes - you don't always feel like you can relax if you've ever been rousted at 3am. When that happens, its pretty stressful because you are now trying to find somewhere in the dark, you're tired and you're stressed. Goes with the territory, I guess - which is why it feels so good when you've pulled it off and are leaving on a beautiful summer morning to continue exploring.

I once triple parked (3rd row from the curb) in Manhattan's upper eastside at about midnight. When I parked, there were about 10 cars in each block like I was - I've never seen anything like it. In the morning, I woke up and most of the cars were gone from the 2nd lane and there were cars driving by on BOTH sides of me as I frantically jumped in the driver's seat to get going. Wild. Nobody seemed to care - this was in 1983 or so and traffic and parking were legendary.
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1987 2WD Wolfsburg Vanagon Weekender "Mango", two fully locked 80 Series LandCruisers. 2017 Subaru Outback boxer. 1990 Audi 90 Quattro 20V with rear locking differential, 1990 burgundy parts Vanagon. 1984 Porsche 944, 1988 Toyota Supra 5 speed targa, 2002 BMW 325iX, 1982 Toyota Sunrader

[calfredson]

After living part-time in my van in Vancouver, BC for about two years, I only have one pertinent story to tell. About 6 months ago I was parked on a side street in a mixed residential/light industrial area in East Vancouver. At about 3am one night I got woken up by someone pounding on my window. When I opened the door, there was a police officer standing there. Curtly and to the point, he said that there had been reports of a few break-ins earlier in the night and had I seen or heard anything unusual? I said no, but I'm a fairly deep sleeper. He handed me his card and told me to call him if I saw or heard anything and left me to go back to sleep.

[Merian]

[pinetreeporsche]

[pinetreeporsche]

[vwwestyman]

I explicitly planned to sleep in my Bus in the parking lot after drinking at a wedding. Luckily the location was at an out-of-town location where nothing else was going on so that part was easy.

I had the Bus prepped with some Gatorade, orange juice, and Diet Pepsi for the next morning, a change of clothes, tylenol, all that. Also a couple empty Gatorade bottles, because, you know...

I believe I had the bed/curtains set up ahead of time. If not, then at least everything was ready and easily set up. Worked great!

I remember not feeling like setting up the front curtain, so instead I just tucked a blanket up in the corners of the pop top and it's handle and that worked great. No poles or anything else needed. Just stuffing the blanket up in the corners.

My kids have slept in the Bus in the driveway a few times and I did it once because we had stuff set up outside for a garage sale, but I don't think I've ever slept in a vehicle in the city before. Have laid the seat back on a ranch off-ramp (therefore very rarely used) in the middle of nowhere in Idaho somewhere once. Another time I parked between two semis in a rest area in my old Cabriolet. One guy was surprised to pull partially in during the night, judging by how he was parked behind me!

Scratch that. After returning from a kids camp I run, the staff went out to eat and I had a couple beers. I wasn't really drunk, but was too tipsy to drive. "Buzzed driving is drunk driving." So I did sleep a few hours on the back seat. That time I didn't even fold it out, I just grabbed a pillow and slept on it in "couch mode." Nobody bothered me that time
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[raoul mitgong]

My cousin's friend was drunk and decided to sleep in the bed of his pickup truck (with a cap) in downtown Fort Collins. He had his keys in his pocket. He was arrested for a DUI. He could be modifying his story to make himself look better, don't know.
Anyway, I was told that the law states (in CO anyway) that you can be arrested if the you and the keys are inside the vehicle. The bed of the pickup truck counted.

I now keep my keys outside the vehicle if stealthing. I figure that even if that isn't the law, an officer hassling me would see that I was not planning on driving anytime soon.

-d
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84 Westy with a 2.1 (Groover)
86 Tintop Syncro (Crow)
86 Tintop Syncro to Westy project (Tom Servo)
91 Westy (Only the top 12 inches of this van (a burn victim))

[jwallis]

[vwwestyman]

Ha ha, forgot about this thread.

Over Memorial Day weekend, on the way to visit family, I decided to overnight at a very small state park. I, stupidly, assumed that I could find a spot for the night but everything was full from what I could tell when I got there.

I ended up setting up camp in the marina parking lot because it was after hours and I'd be gone pretty early in the morning.

So I drank a few beers and went to sleep. Around midnight, a ranger banged on the door and woke me up, freaking out both the dog and I.

He said, "you can't sleep here! There's one spot on the other side of the lake, I'll lead you over there."

I explained I'd had some beer and asked if he wanted me to drive over there.

He declined, telling me not to do it again. I agreed and went back to bed.
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing