We Give Harvest Host a Chance
And discover a new world of travel possibilities
In Mission: Wanderlust, I write and podcast about our family’s travel adventures and the things that we have learned along the way.
The decision to camp on Galveston Island for our spring break was not insignificant. The kids and I had just nine days of spring break overlap and Galveston Island State Park is 1050 miles from our house. Ever since we bought our first camper back in 2013, that distance had been grounds for two and a half days of travel, at best. And we had to fit in two nights in St. Louis so that I would have a day to rest before running the half-marathon.
We needed a tight strategy if we were going to attempt over 1000 miles of travel down to Texas in two days. It was time to officially give Harvest Host a chance.
Harvest Host, and their partner Boondockers Welcome, offer thousands of camping spots around the country. For around $100 for a year, you get access to a whole network of museums, parks, stores, wineries, churches, etc. that allow you to stay in their parking lots for free. Some of the places ask that you buy something in their store, but the purchased item is still significantly cheaper than setting up camp at a private campground.
We were introduced to the concept when we traveled with Jeff’s sister and parents during our disastrous 2021 summer vacation. They were spending two months on the road together with planned stops at Harvest Hosts on nights when they would only be staying for one night. They loved it and spoke highly of the experience, telling us all the fun places they visited and different things they tried as a result.
So when we started planning our 2022 vacation, we looked for a few Harvest Host places we could stop at on our way to scheduled longer stops on the east coast. Nothing was going to work for our way out, and the single place we found on the way back ended up not working for us because we discovered we were too long for the space they had available and we blew out a tire in Maryland, putting us way behind schedule.
But this time we had nine days of travel and three nights when we would need a single night stay. Jeff was determined to make it work and started finding places to reserve for our way down to Texas.
Richards Farm Restaurant in Casey, Illinois
Our first stop was in Casey, Illinois, just a couple of hours down the road. We wanted to get a head start on Friday night in an effort to force us to get on the road earlier than we usually do. Jeff found the Richards Farm Restaurant on the outskirts of the small town. We looked at the menu and the pictures and decided to give it a go.
We started our spring break in cold rain that followed us across the state line. By the time we pulled into the gravel parking lot, we were dodging puddles and bundling up against the chill. After checking in with the hostess stand, we found a place to park behind the restaurant, set up the generator, put out the slide outs, and then headed into the restaurant to dry off and enjoy a delicious meal.
After dinner we headed out in the cold rain to explore Casey, a small town with a list of “Biggest” items throughout. With dusk quickly approaching, we were able to see the world’s largest teeter totter, wind chime, pitchfork, rocking chair, mailbox, and golf driver. We gave up on finding the wooden shoes in the dark and finally headed back to our dry camper, where we turned on the furnace and hoped that the generator would get us through the night.
It quit in the middle of the night, but Jeff got up before dawn and restarted it with propane (our generator runs on both) and we had just enough power to make our morning coffee, close everything up, and get back on the road.
Despite the rain, it really was a lovely first experience with Harvest Host. The spot was ideal and easy to get into and the food at the restaurant was good. Add in a tourist trap for photo enthusiasts, and it’s worth a stop if you are going through.
Below is the video of our stay in Casey.
Oakgrove Church in Austin, Arkansas
The next leg of our trip took us into Arkansas. Six years in Texas introduced us to a lot of reasons to both love and dislike different things about the Natural State. Planned trips to places like Hot Springs and Cane Creek showed us the beauty of the state. But driving across the state is no small feat. It may not be near the size of Texas, but there are long stretches of nothing, which is what we discovered as we headed to our next stop.
We drove across the flat farmland of Eastern Arkansas and arrived at Oakgrove Church in the late afternoon. Once again, we parked in the small church’s parking lot, set up the generator, and settled in for the night. I made dinner, we attempted to make s’mores over our portable gas firepit, and then we decided to risk our refueled generator by watching a movie as the sun set outside.
We turned the generator off right before going to bed and enjoyed the cool breeze coming through the windows. I proudly turned the generator on by myself the next morning, brewing coffee and toasting bagels before we got another early start to head toward Houston and Galveston, the kids eager to get to their waiting friends. It was yet another perfect one-night stop and we were more than willing to get out of the parking lot before it filled up with worshipers for that morning’s service.
Diamond Park Speedway in Nashville, Arkansas
When we left Galveston Island State Park, we had over 800 miles before we would be in St. Louis for the half-marathon. We needed a halfway point in a state where there were few Harvest Host options 400 miles into our trip home.
Jeff found a spot that technically fit the bill, although it took us several miles off of the interstate and through the backroads of central Arkansas to get there. We finally arrived at the empty Speedway on a Thursday night, the only visitors to a stadium parking lot which is usually packed on the weekends. We walked the dogs on the red dirt roads, ran the gas out of the generator so that we wouldn’t have to transport it with gasoline, hooked up the propane so we could finish a movie (thanks to our very efficient T-Mobile hotspot), and ate our dinner while the wind blew in weather changes.
It really was a great place to stop and if we hadn’t been pressed for time to get to St. Louis, we would have been tempted to stop at the nearby Crater of Diamonds State Park to try our hands at diamond hunting. However, the weather was turning, and we needed to get on the road. And it’s a good thing we did. We missed the massive tornado that hit Little Rock by a few hours, but that didn’t mean it was an easy drive. Jeff spent the majority of the day fighting the wind in order for us to safely arrive in St. Louis right before the final storm blew in there.
Overall, we enjoyed our Harvest Host experience. It simplified our stops, forcing us to be completely self-contained. We got onto the road much earlier than we normally do because there was so little work to do every morning. And we proved that maybe we are capable of boondocking on occasion. Now we have to decide if we can do it again as we head down to Florida this summer.
I’ll be sure to let you know.
For another Substacker’s experience with Harvest Hosting, see the post below.
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I think Casey, IL. May now have the biggest rocking chair? Is that what I see. The biggest used to be down 44 in MO but I heard IL now had a bigger one. I hope to hear more about the Marathon in St Louis since I live there and have done 3 half marathons with the most recent being the Rock-n-Roll.