Well, I did it. Harry, Chalupa and I took the first solo trip (aka just me + dog) out into the wild. And it. was. awesome.

I played in a volleyball tournament this weekend and decided to drive down early so that I could sleep in (sort of) and not be stressed in the morning about making it in time for the first match. After scoping out the gym, the safest place to sleep was actually good old WalMart — the parking lot is well lit, there’s security, and the store itself is open 24 hours for any/all bathroom breaks, emergency shopping needs (like how I spilled beer all over my only sweatpants and needed to get new ones), etc.

So, here’s my first impression of Wally World Camping in southern Washington:

1. Not surprisingly, there’s a lot of campers/RVs in the lot. I’ll be honest, I didn’t make any effort to meet anyone since as soon as I got there, I locked all the doors and covered my windows, but it was nice to see that so many other people felt safe here too.
2. Maybe an overcorrection from when I got robbed/nerves about being a solo lady sleeping in a Walmart parking lot, but I bought some bear mace the day of. Didn’t need to use it but I felt safer having it near by.
3. Parking directly under the street light made me feel safer — and seemed to work. Sure, there’s campers in the Walmart lot, but like any parking lot, there’s a lot of other activity happening as well. Including high school kids drinking, people meeting up, late night shoppers at 24 hour stores, etc. Point being, doesn’t hurt to park somewhere that discourages break ins, and the light wasn’t an issue for sleeping once I sealed the windows with my Reflectix.

4. This slideshow requires JavaScript.

   eflectix coverings.

Overall, good experience and I’m sure I’ll camp like that again!