The Home Depot — St Johns

Should you find yourself passing through southern Jacksonville on either I95 or Highway 295, you’ll find a possible empty space at the Home Depot parking lot in St. Johns just off the 9B South exit. The over-the-top orange home fixer-upper store not only has everything for your home improvement needs, but if you are able to catch some vacant pavement here to call home for the night, you’ll also benefit from being surrounded by a ton of shopping, dining and entertainment options. Here, you can find the tools to fix your onboard toilet, get your nails done AND sip down an ice cold martini all while chomping on some amazing Korean double-fried chicken wings!

As for the parking lot, I wouldn’t say that this is the largest Home Depot parking area, but you should be able to find a handful of empty large spaces as far away from the storefront as possible on the east side of the parking lot, where there’s bound to be less parked traffic. The good news here is that even if they are jammed up, Home Depot is part of a much larger retail park here, so you could easily drive further and park over by the Walmart or one of the other empty parking areas in front of other retailers.

Tired of trying to configure what might be next for dinner from the depths of your onboard mini-fridge? Well, you’ve hit the dining lottery – from Island Wing Company, Tropical Smoothie Café, Jana Steakhouse, Dunkin' Donuts and Wendy’s to Keke’s Breakfast Café, Burger Barn and two of my favorites: Mellow Mushroom Pizza and Bonchon. There’s even a Cinemark movie theater over here should you be wanting a nice big screen distraction. From a shopping standpoint, you’ll find a Walmart, Dollar Tree and Publix for your groceries as well as Ulta Beauty for her, Petco for the furry friends as well as a number of gas stations and even auto shops in case you need to change your oil or have something looked at.

If you’d like to grab a slice of nature while here, head due east to the beaches in Ponte Vedra where you’ll encounter one of the best kept secrets here in NE Florida and will find shark teeth treasure heaven. If you come towing watercraft, you’ll want to head due west to take advantage of the most amazing St. Johns River, where you can access Camp Chowenwaw Park for some easy trail hiking and splendid kayaking.

While scoring criteria may vary from one person to the next, here are the 5 most important criteria that informed my rating of this overnight location: convenience (EZ on- and off-access), safety & security, quality (of facilities), peace & quiet and amenities (either on-site or nearby). Here’s how I ranked this particular overnight spot:

Convenience: 3 

Safety & Security: 4 

Quality: 3 

Peace & Quiet: 3 

Amenities: 4 

Overall, I scored this location a 3. 

Happy Overnighting!