I will share what may or may not be much of a secret with my fellow vanagon community.
Please if it IS a secret keep it under your pop top.

While I was living out of my car several decades ago while looking for a job in Southern California.
I slept in my 4wd international scout at the beach parking lot for a couple nights, that turned out to be a big mistake.
Major freaks walking around. Next tried a quiet residential area but you tend to stick out allot.
I was using my gym membership early AMs to shower clean up and get a workout in many of which were near large hotels.

I found I could slip into a nice hotel parking lot and not really be noticed for a night.
No freaks, no cops, nobody telling me I cant park here, it was what I ended up using for the remainder of the trip.

Obviously you may not want to pop your roof while doing this.  

Cheers,

Doug

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Lee Kouns 
  To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM 
  Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 4:14 PM
  Subject: Re: Camping at Wally Marts

  My wife and I have stayed at many Wal Marts on our travels around the
  West. We always ask the manager if sleeping overnight in our van is OK.
  On those rare occasions it was not allowed, a local law prohibited
  sleeping in vehicles when the parking lot was not owned by Wal Mart.
  Usually we find this type of law in places that get lots of
  tourists--such as beach cities. In those situations there are usually
  signs to let you know.  Sometimes we have called the store in advance to
  see if an overnight stay is allowed.
  We think that it is very nice of Wal Mart to allow the stays.  We always
  park in the areas they suggest and leave our area at least as clean as
  we found it.
  Lee Kouns