Faithful blog reader Stacy has gently taken me to task for ignoring Kansas yet again, and rightly so. We habitually treat the plains states as things to simply “get through” rather than the subtly interesting places they really are.

Sure there aren’t a lot of high-profile attractions here. But the points of interest, such as grassy prairies and the wildlife, history, geology and scenic beauty that go with them, are still well worth investigating. Attractions like this take effort to fully appreciate, a willingness to learn, and a bit of imagination.

We have all those things, but we lack one other essential component: time. We are working against the impending winter. There are so many places we want to see before the mountain passes become impassable (to us, at least, towing a 30-foot, 7500# trailer) that we must advance west rather rapidly. It must seem strange to have full-timers complaining that there’s not enough time, but it’s true. There’s never enough time. This is a big country.

Guess where we are tonight. Yes, another anonymous roadside stop, somewhere in Kansas along I-70. It doesn’t matter where, since all Wal-Marts are pretty much the same. We decided to crash here for the night and then proceed in the morning to a state park recommended by our good friend Joe.

We thought we’d be stealth camping, following our usual procedure. We keep the curtains shut to make it less obvious we are in the camper. We stay hitched, of course, and don’t put anything outside to reveal that we are doing more than parking for a few hours (not even the entry step). We do some shopping in the store to show our appreciation. We also checked in the store to make sure it was OK to be here.

But not everyone follows these rules. Some folks think Wal-Mart is a campground instead of just a parking spot.

These folks are enjoying a lovely warm evening in their lounge chairs, not far from us. Subtle? Not hardly. They’re one step from putting out a hibachi, it looks like. I hate to see people being too obvious, because it encourages local campground owners and residents to clamor for a ban on overnight parking. Pretty soon we’ll all be forced into campgrounds every night by town ordinances. It’s already the case in dozens of cities we’ve visited across the country. It would be a shame to lose the option to just park somewhere for one night (with permission), but that’s the way things are headed, especially in a few high-impact areas where RV’ers have abused the privilege.

Parking overnight is a lot different from camping — if you do it right. It’s about a quick overnight stay, not spreading out. It’s a convenient way to stop without going through the hassle and expense of finding a campground. Nobody likes to pay $30 for parking space, which is pretty much what a campground amounts to when you arrive at dusk and leave in the morning.

I also am particularly annoyed by some campgrounds that ask for a whole personal dossier (names of all parties, vehicle and trailer descriptions, license numbers, ages, location of identifying body marks etc). I remember one which asked for all of that (except the body marks) plus more. The check-in took about 15 minutes, the stay cost $30+, parking in the site was a nightmare, they dumped a pile of paper on us about the rules & regulations, and that was all for a stay of less than 9 hours. We didn’t even hook up to the utilities or unhitch the truck.

Tomorrow we’ll find the state park and stretch out a bit. We have a free day to enjoy since we are ahead of schedule on the driving. From what I’ve been told, I’ll be glad to pay for that campsite, and after two days of heavy driving it will make a good break.