You’ll be able to access this Road Ranger under 1 minute after exiting I39 on Exit 72 heading west towards the Home of the Sweetcorn Festival, Mendota. This fueling depot is open 24/7/365 and if you’re driving an RV or hauling a 5th Wheel, you’ll find decent overnight accommodations here to the rear of the property on its southernmost flank, just beyond where the big rigs fuel up here.
Apart from the non-stop swooshing of highway traffic barreling up or down I39, this particular location is otherwise quite low key, safe& secure and easily accessible. The actual parking pad is nice and level, although this is not terribly difficult to achieve in Illinois, and is gravel in some areas, while concrete in others. Back here behind the Road Ranger, there isn’t much light at night, but given that you are sitting right next to the rows of corn here in these boondocks, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
While there’s not a ton of amenities around these parts, there is an embedded Subway at this location and the mart you’ll find inside this Road Ranger offers up quite a spread of chilled beverages, snacks, treats and just about anything you might want to gnosh on while traveling. Right next door is a McD’s and across the street is a combo Taco Bell/ KFC joint, but if you want anything more substantial, you’ll have to cross the street to Cindy’s where you’ll find typical diner food or head into town to Ziggie’s for a famed double-breaded fried cheeseburger. As for supplies, once in town, there’s a Sullivan’s grocery store alongside an Ace Hardware as well as a CVS nearby, but anything more than this, you’ll need to keep heading further south to Peru.
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).
Convenience: 5
Safety & Security: 5
Quality: 3
Peace & Quiet: 4
Amenities: 2
Overall, I scored this location a 4
Happy Overnighting!
Overnight Parking
