Bug Smacker

Sleeping with Truckers

Tim R. Enright

After the sun sets following a long full day of driving on the open road, there may come a time when the only choice you have is to find a spot to pull over and sleep with a trucker. Nothing personal about truckers but they wouldn’t be my first choice to sleep with. They don’t stick around very long and tend to be quite noisy when they leave. But then again it is free to sleep with them and you don’t need to make any reservations.

By far the most difficult part of spending the night between two truckers is the noise. Not just the coming and going at all hours of the night but the noise they make just sitting there. Some places post signs telling them to shut off their engines but I have found very few of them that are willing to do so. The worst of the bunch are the refrigerator guys. Those guys keep their motors revving up and down, up and down, up and down. And they do it all night long.

These days you can’t just sleep anywhere you want to. There are rules and local laws to govern this type of activity. Some of the safest places are the ones that the truckers know of. They have been doing this for a long time and generally know how to do it right.

Rest Areas are the most common places that come to mind. These are by no means the only place where you could end up sleeping with them. Other places include: Service Plazas, Mall Parking Lots, Department Stores and Municipal Parking Lots.

Some rest areas have segregated overnight parking for Truckers and RVers. These places are actually not bad places to stop at. The RV parking spots may even come with electricity hookups. We have found some places that provide you with restrooms and showers as well.

Other rest areas offer nothing more than a place to put your rig in park. Some even go as far as to discourage overnight parking of any kind. I have seen these warnings ignored and have often wondered if I would get my rig towed while I was in the back of my fifth wheel sleeping. That would be a real eye opener.

When you’re on a long road trip sometimes you just don’t know how far you can travel in a day. That makes it somewhat difficult to schedule places to park your rig for the night. It only makes sense that you need to pull into a place to get some rest for a while. Weather it is at a Wal-Mart, Mall or a Rest Area sometimes you have no other choice than to sleep with a trucker.

Article Courtesy of : www.BugSmacker.com : Copyright © 2010

Good Night Irene

Tim R. Enright

Sleeping while camping can be one of the greatest challenges of being away from home. The more time you spend in your RV, the more you will come to appreciate a good bed. From crawling into a sleeping bag under the stars to sliding under the sheets of king sized bed in a class A Motor Home, a good night’s sleep can sometimes be hard to get.

There are several levels of comfort in sleeping while camping. The most rustic sleeping arrangements start with laying out a sleeping bag either under the stars or in a tent. This can be somewhat upgraded to a folding cot or even an inflatable air mattress.

Next up the comfort scale will require a migration from a tent to an RV of some type. An RV will allow for a thicker foam mattress than a cot will have. Some come with an inner coil mattress. Newer designs may supply you with an inflatable lined mattress. The type of mattress will depend on the frame that supports it. The better ones will be found in main sleeping areas that have a permanent bed frame.

Guest sleeping arrangements tend to be less comfortable. These beds will usually double as sofas, chairs, tables or even walls. RV’s with bunk beds are extremely popular. They come in a variety of configurations. I have even seen some that more or less slide you into a drawer.

At the top of the sleeping comfort scale are the beds that are most like ones that you would find in a home. These units have upscale inner coils mattresses, foam mattresses or air mattresses. I have even heard of water beds (to go with the hot tub, of course).

If you are looking to upgrade your sleeping conditions, you will find many ways to do it. Some of them are: foam mattress covers, mattress pads, inflatable mattresses, replacement inner coil mattresses, to name a few.

When looking for a replacement or upgrade remember that the RV industry tends to size beds smaller than the bedding industry. For an example a RV queen size bed may be shorter than a regular queen size bed. This is more than often the case. A new mattress will most likely be quite a bit thicker than the one you are replacing. Make sure you have room for where the replacement is going. It would not be good to bring in your bed slide with your new mattress only to find it buckle against the wall on the other side.

Sometimes you can make small modifications to your RV to allow for a new bed. I actually removed the storage box below our bed to make room for a queen size mattress to fit below a shelf at the head of the bed. If need be you can purchase RV size beds at camping supply stores or have them special ordered from retail stores.

Whatever your situation there is always a way to improve it. After all we all need a good night’s ZZZZZZZZZZ.

Article Courtesy of : www.BugSmacker.com : Copyright © 2008