I think that finding free camping outside when you are in some shit nothing town is probably the most important skill to have, which is easy with satellite maps. Once you get the hang of it you realize that every town has at least one site where you can definitely get away with pitching a tent for one night. I think I have camped this way about 80 times and have never even been asked what I'm doing. That said, state and national park campgrounds are a great deal and you sometimes meet other tourers there, so they're good for a day when you want to take it easy for a morning. I sometimes get a kick out of zooming in on nowhere, USA and looking for spots.
And some advice for anyone doing this for the first time and feels compelled to pay to camp - never stay at a KOA, consider them an absolute last resort. There is no bigger waste of money and RV culture is extremely cursed.
I did it this way back in 2007 when I didn't even have a smartphone, you can develop an eye for it at the ground level as well. I camped 8 nights without paying once and never had an issue. The only time I had to resort to help was in suburban Cleveland area, it got dark and it was too built up to stealth camp anywhere, so I ended up stopping at the fire station and they let me camp in their yard. They are there all night anyway so they are usually fine with it.
The weirdest spot was in another suburban area, I camped behind a row of shrubs next to a cellphone tower installation haha. Wasn't the best setup but places like that usually don't get any traffic until business hours, so as long as you're in late and out early, you're fine.
Were you heading east through Cleveland and did some rando try to give you directions to a spot in Shaker Lakes metro park that involved jumping a guardrail near a bridge? If so, that was me; sorry I didn't offer up a couch at my place; my roommates wouldn't have been cool with it.
Hah, honestly I have no idea, but that does sound like something that could have happened. It's funny how memory fades and we are only left with snippets as we get older.
Counterpoint on RV centered "campgrounds": they have sweet amenities like a grill, a pool, laundry, and often a building with some air conditioning and some books previous guests have left behind.
Not an every night kind of thing, and you're unlikely to find much in the way of grass to put a tent on, but I stayed at one with another guy who was bike touring and we get like kings for the night.
When you're digging holes in the national forest to shit in, it doesn't take much!
I have fond memories of the KOA in Klamath Falls from two bike tours that went through Crater Lake. Last time I was there we had just finished a section of the trip that included a 90 mile stretch with no stores or even a lot of water for that matter. There were hot showers, washing machines, a camp store that sells beer. The camping spots were pretty nice, too.
And there was much rejoicing.
> Counterpoint on RV centered "campgrounds": they have sweet amenities like a grill, a pool, laundry, and often a building with some air conditioning and some books previous guests have left behind.
... and showers.
Hot showers too! And 1-800 phone numbers. In my motorcycle touring days, at 3pm or so I'd figure out where I would be at 7-8pm, lookup the nearest KOA in the KOA directory booklet, and call the 1-800 to make a reservation. Often when I arrived, they were turning away unhappy would-be campers as all spots were already taken.
These days the trick when motocamping in the east is to look up the KOA location, and then check the rate at the local campsite across the street or down the road.
Out west of course you usually have free options.
I’ve camped thousands of nights in nearly 70 countries this way.
What's a KOA?
Kampgrounds of America https://koa.com/