Lowe's Home Improvement - Fayetteville, West Virginia

We were very wet and emotionally spent by the time we pulled into the Lowes parking lot in Fayetteville, West Virginia. We had to flee the rising flood waters near Gauley Bridge as we pulled Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, through the mountains during a downpour and hail storm while avoiding washouts and debris on the road.

Members of our WBCCI Region Three
Caravan to the International Rally
in gathering in the Lowes Store parking lot
in Fayetteville, WV

We needed a high and dry location and the Lowes store had a parking lot big enough to fit the 15 Airstream trailers making up our Region Three Caravan to the WBCCI International Rally.

The store manager understood that we were weather refugees with nowhere else to go and welcomed us to camp there for the night. We were joined by another camper who was also trying to find higher ground to get out of the flooding.

Dry camping is very different from camping with power and water hookups. Rosie's batteries were charged and we had enough fresh water in our tanks to get by for the night.

Our group gathering in the Lowes parking lot

We replaced the halogen lights in Rosie several years ago with LED lights. That greatly reduced the power draw on our batteries and allowed us to freely use Rosie's overhead lights. The old halogen lights were well known for their ability to both generate heat and to use up your trailer's batteries.
You also worry about charging your cell phones while dry camping. We have a 12-volt charger and were able to use Rosie's batteries to keep our cell phones charged.

WBCCI Region Three President Matt Hackney making sure
everyone is safe

Rosie among the other Airstream trailers

More Airstream trailers from our caravan

Becky and Suzy (our Yorkie) in the Lowes parking lot

It must have been a sight to see 15 Airstream trailers huddled together in the Lowes parking lot. We were all very grateful to be there and to have evacuated the New River Campground within minutes of the dam spillways being opened and flooding the park.

Rosie is very quiet when boon docking. We missed the normal noises we are used to hearing while camping. We did learn that we need to make sure we have a full fresh water tank because you never know if you will end up in Lowe's parking lot for the night.