Alot of the walmarts are not letting drivers take there breaks on there lots anymore...... To many drivers abusing what we have I guess from what I was told by there security at one. Throwing trash out and stuff, I have never had a problem parking to shop. But I know the one in Charleston SC will not let you take your break there.

Some of the stores are turning trucks away due to abuse of the facilities, but more often than not, it's town ordinances that are preventing stores from letting us stay. I usually make it a point to stop and make contact with Walmart or Target store managers that let me park for the night, and have been told that by more than one.

What about closed scale house's?

They must have a lot of problems on the eastern seaboard because they openly welcome trucks to park over night here in the northwest!

Yes so you will first in line for a level 1 .

That's because Texas has some of the most poorly constructed rest areas out of any state. :( They have a few good ones, but most of them don't even have angled parking for trucks (and no, I'm not talking about picnic areas). It's the only state I know of where you may actually need to parallel park into a hole (i just leave if that happens myself).

Some states like Kentucky have "Commercial Vehicle Rest Areas" behind the scale houses. I myself have never stayed in one because of the proximity to Mr. DOT man and his inspection bay. At least if he wants to knock on my door in a regular rest area, he's working outside and probably a little less likely to hassle me that much.... but that was just my feeling :wink:

As far as Texas' rest areas :shock: I'm firmly convinced this wonderful state spent all the money making absurdly high overpasses instead of fixing the roads and god forbid, updating the rest areas....

Yeah. Like the pickle parks in the Wichita Falls area. A few years ago,some kids used hammers,and I dunno what,and broke up the sinks,toilets,and painted on the walls of the brick outhouses in the pickle parks. Well,the State fixed them. Happened again,shortly after that,so they just tore down the bathrooms. It's the ones on 287,south of Henrietta,also on 287,west of Iowa Park.

You're from Dallas. Surely you're familiar with many of our 13'6" overpasses. And, yeah, the rest areas are a joke. Only once have I spent the night at a Texas rest area. It was along I-35 somewhere near San Antonio. I got up before dawn and there was a line of trucks double-parked to the line I was in. I wound up having to drive across the grass to get back onto the freeway. Another thing I hate is our on and off-ramps. You're driving along 70mph, get to your exit, then have to slam on the brakes in a span of about 200' with your trailer still in the granny lane, trying to slow to 20mph to make the dog-leg onto the service road. Or just the opposite: running about 55 on the service road, then having to slow for the dog-leg onto the freeway and merging into 70mph traffic doing around 25mph! :roll:

Oh, I park at truckstops, and on rare occasions, at the customer's location. Mostly truckstops. No one bothers me. Hot coffee only steps away. I can idle all I want. And the rumble of the engines lulls me to dreamland. Wouldn't have it any other way.