You are traveling with your RV and you won't make it to your destination. It's getting late and all you want to do is get some sleep before you hit the road tomorrow morning. And you really don't want to spend $30, $40 or even more in a campground for amenities that you don't want or need. The RV community is very familiar with Walmart's policy of welcoming RV's overnight except at locations where local management doesn't allow it or where local ordinances ban it. But did you know that there are other establishments that will also welcome the RV community for overnight parking?
Cracker Barrel is one of those businesses that values the RV community. In addition to providing dedicated extra long spaces for us to park our RV's in if we want to stop and dine, they also allow overnight parking in those spaces at many of their locations across the country.
On our recent Christmas trip to Florida, we stayed at 3 different Cracker Barrel locations; London, Kentucky; Lake Park, Georgia and Athens, Tennessee. This was our first time parking overnight at Cracker Barrel but it definitely won't be our last. We found that all three of these locations were so welcoming to us and provided us a safe and comfortable place to not only get sleep but also a place to refuel our bodies with home cooked food.
Here are some tips to help you with your overnight stay at a Cracker Barrel:
1) Ask For Permission: whether you call ahead or ask when you arrive, it is always important to ask for permission to park overnight. If you will be arriving after the restaurant it closed, you can call to ask ahead of time. When we call we just ask, "do you allow overnight RV parking for 1 night?" We have found the employees to welcoming and helpful.
2) Be A Good Neighbor: remember that you are a guest which means you want to be respectful of the business and their customers. Make sure you leave your area as clean or cleaner than you found it. And if you have pets like us, make sure you clean up after them. We found that all three restaurants we stayed at had trash cans outside so we could dispose of it properly. If for some reason you want to park in spaces other than the RV spaces, make sure you check with management to make sure it's ok.
3) It's Overnight Parking; Not Camping: staying at Cracker Barrel is not camping. It's a place to overnight park to get sleep. We do put down our rear stabilizer and our tongue jack to stabilize our NuCamp T@B 400 but that is it. There is no need to put out the awning, lawn chairs, etc. Also, it's for 1 night only and then you need to be moving on down the road.
4) Show Your Appreciation: since they allow us to overnight park for free, we feel it's important to solicit them. Whether its having dinner or breakfast, it's our way of thanking them for their generosity of allowing us to spend the night. And we always make a point to let the employees know that we are appreciative of them welcoming us.
5) Order Ahead With The App: because we don't like leaving Truman and Bess alone in the T@B 400 when traveling, we ordered our food to go and ate in the trailer. If you download the free Cracker Barrel App, you can place your to go order from your trailer and then just walk in to pick it up!
Have you overnighted at a Cracker Barrel before? Let us know about your experiences in the comments section.