BlarneyHammer

Let's hear it!

Mine: I spent the night in an outhouse in Alaska.

imi

Good grief, I wouldn't know where to start I've been travelling, first hitch-hiking, then bicycle, since 1978. The first six years I was permanently on the road, and had just a sleeping bag and a sheet of plastic, and slept "anywhere".

One place that sticks out in my memory was a rainy autumn night hitch-hiking at a service place on the German Autobahn. I gave up, and the only place to "hide" was some bushes in the central dividing area of the autobahn.
In the morning there was a lot more traffic and it was a bit hairy crossing back!

Great thread idea OP
I'll search my memory for other weird places when I was with bicycle...

edit: If my memory is correct, that was the same night I was ID-checked at gunpoint by the Polizei. I think they understandably had a hard time telling the difference between hippies and RAF terrorists :/

Machka 

On tours, the places I've stayed have been pretty normal ... hotels, B&Bs, hostels, campgrounds, rest stops, grassy patches in behind roadhouses, an old house in the middle of renovations with a bit of a mystery surrounding the death of the woman who lived there, etc.

On randonnees, however, the places I've slept have been a little less ordinary ... church yards and doorways, middle of a nice warm sidewalk, just off to the side of a gravel road where the gravel was a little smoother, the ditch, picnic tables, etc.

10 Wheels

Two nights in different HomeLess Shelters.

One night on the floor of a U-Haul Truck.

GerryinHouston

We pitched our tent behind a stone wall in rural Greece once... It was a quiet night...

In the morning we found out that the wall enclosed the local cemetery!

staehpj1

Lots of weird places, but the one that comes to mind is right on the floor of the observation deck at the Marfa Mystery Lights viewing area. I wasn't carried off by aliens.

nun

Quite a few city parks, but the weirdest was a Warmshowers stay. The host was away for the night but said I could pitch a tent on his beach or use the guest house. When I got there I did a double take because the house was enormous, but looked derelict and the gardens were so overgrown.....It looked like Grey Gardens. I checked the address and there was no mistake.

Grey Gardens*(1975) - Rotten Tomatoes

I was going to set up my tent, but it started to rain so I went into the guest house which was full of cobwebs and really dirty. The rain got heavier so I put my mat and sleeping bag down on the floor. I wasn't going to trust the beds or couches. I slept for a bit and left around 5:00AM. The owner was definitely very generous, but I would have been embarrassed to have anyone stay given the filth.

AusTexMurf

Church pew in Texas and/or PA cemetery, here.

azza_333

on a 3x2m pontoon. I had to wade out to about nipple depth, while holding my panniers above my head. I wasnt the best idea as I couldnt sleep that well with all the rock in the waves, I was worried I would roll off and end up in the water during the middle of the night.

andrewclaus

A bucolic night in rural Kentucky, I laid down after dark just off the side of the road, the cool sound of a train horn in the distance. The horn got pretty loud, and I sat up with a start when I could see the headlight bearing down on me. I was actually feeling around for a rail, thinking I'd laid down right on the track, and I started rolling away in a panic. The track was a few feet away. It took a day or two before I could laugh about that one.

In rural Idaho, I camped in a field which turned out to be the after-dark place for a "hoot'n'shoot." Man, I let those guys know I was there real fast. We all had a real good time after that, though.

Even as a middle-aged guy with a credit card, sometimes I just can't get to a good place and end up under a bridge, in a cemetery, next to a scorpion or skunk nest, on top of an ant hill--I really should know better.

indyfabz

Nowhere that I would call weird, but while crossing the country with a small group we were offered to spend the night in the senior center in tiny Oxford Jct., IA to get out of the heat and humidity. It was a touching gesture. During the afternoon a reported for the area paper interviewed and photographed us and later sent us copies of the story. I am quoted in the story and still have it 17 years later.

In 2009 the GF and I slept in one of the camp kitchens at the towne campsite in Waterton Village, AB to escape the howling wind.

Squeezebox

I slept in an Irish cow pasture complete with cows. The 10 yr old boy who made the offer brought me a pint of warm milk in the morning. Do you ask why the milk was warm??

The Alaska privy has my vote.

axolotl

I slept in a wine tank on the coast of California. It was an enormous redwood wine tank purchased from a winery which converted to stainless steel tanks. It was disassembled and then reassembled on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in far northern California. There was electricity inside but no running water (there was an outhouse nearby). This belonged to a friend of a friend. The old wine tank is gone now.

The tank had been used for red wine and it was intoxicating just breathing inside the tank, but you got used to it after a while.

raybo

On a ride from San Francisco to Carson City, I'd made arrangements to spend the night at Kirkwood, a ski resort between Carson Pass and Carson Spur in the Sierras. Riding up the pass was one of the hardest days I've ever had on a bike and I was exhausted. I get to Kirkwood and call the number (the front desk closed at 6pm) leave a message and wait for a call back. One never comes. I wait and wait until it finally comes clear that no one is going to call me. Instead, I have to sleep on the rock floor of the resort's vestibule with no bag, pad or anything other than my biking clothes to lay on.

mantelclock

When bicycling home from college with my friend, the temperature dropped into the 20's somewhere in Pennsylvania, and we had no cold weather gear. We came upon a Boy Scout camp that was closed for the off season and found a barn that was used for recycling. There was a room filled floor to ceiling with shredded computer paper. We burrowed ourselves deep into the pile and we were warm as toast for the night.

motorapido

On a solo bicycle tour, I did not reach my planned camping area in time and night had fallen. I came upon an antique caboose on a railroad siding with very rusty rails and no sign of recent train traffic. I determined that the caboose was parked there on display, but in the dark, I did not see that it was in a children's park. I strung my hammock between two iron railings on the caboose, and as the night sky was clear and starry, I did not hang my tarp. It was hot. I slept in my underwear and no t-shirt. I awakened in the morning light to find a horrified suburban mom and her little urchans standing on the platform of the caboose, looking down upon me. She clucked her tongue, as if I were a hobo, vagrant, n'er-do-well, brigand or footpad. The kids thought it was terrific. When they left, I high-tailed it out of there quickly, figuring the cops were on their way.

Rob_E

Weirdest place I ever slept was a campground. Well, sort of a campground. Someone had a little pond behind their house, and they used to use it as a campground. No facilities. Just a pond with a ten foot buffer of weeds before you hit the tree line. I contacted them, even though I couldn't find any evidence that they were still operating, because they were the perfect distance for a stop that day. I said, "I don't care if you're not actually up and running or if nothing is mowed. I just need two trees to hang my hammock in so I can sleep for the night." They said, "Sure. Come on by." But they weren't sure about the hammock trees. They had trees. They just weren't sure I'd be able to hang from them. I assure them that it wouldn't be a problem.

It was a problem. Outside of the tree-free buffer around the pond was a very tightly packed, forested swamp. So dense that I didn't think I'd find two trees far enough apart and so wet that I didn't want to try. Fortunately there was a good amount of debris in the area since the disused campsite seemed to have become home to anything they didn't want in the house and didn't feel like hauling to the dump (including a fridge that I used as a bear box for my food). One saw horse, set up on one picnic table, gave me the height I needed on one end, and the other end tied into the tree line, giving me the sketchiest hanging job I have ever attempted. The wind was awful. The mosquitoes were awful. And I spent most of the night convinced that one more gust was going to send my contraption, and me, to the ground. I was also trying to strain my ears to try and determine which was the sounds of trees whipping around in the wind, and which sounds might belong to the bear that they said sometimes makes an appearance at the end of the pond.

As soon as there was the a hint of daylight, I got up, so that I could pack and be done with waiting to fall and listening for hypothetical bears. It quickly became clear that the bear was a) not hypothetical, b) rather larger than what I was imagining, and c) not the timid, skittish, woodland creature I was expecting. In fact, he was rather curious, probably about my hammock-hanging job. Climbing on top of the picnic table to make myself as large as possible, I spoke in a low, soft voice explaining to the bear I had enjoyed his visit, but it was time to move along. This was my first, and so far only, encounter with a bear, but I had read a good amount in preparation for camping in bear country. Not enough, I guess, because the bear seemed to interpret my actions as to mean, "Come on over and check out my awesome hanging job. 50 mph winds and still standing!" He started moving in my direction, so I clapped my hands together and yelled, considerably less calmly than before, "Go!" This did not induce the scampering into the woods that I was hoping for. But he did seem to get the message that wasn't welcome, and he wandered back into the woods.

This was not only the weirdest place I've slept to date and the sketchiest hanging job I've done to date. It's also the fastest I've ever broken camp. Two hours later and twenty miles down the road, I gave my hosts a call and said that I appreciated the offer, but I would not be stopping by the house for a cup of coffee because I had decided to get an early start, what with the giant bear and all, and didn't want to wake them.



Low light and shaking hands made for a very poor bear photo, but he's there as a dark blob under the corner of the flag.

mdilthey

We stealth camped in Fort Knox. No, not that Fort Knox, the other one, in Maine.

Ty0604

I was homeless for awhile as a teenager so I sometimes have a hard time remembering if a certain place was while on tour or during that stretch but I remember sleeping inside of a tire at an elementary school playground once. They had these giant tractor tires for the kids to climb on etc. Can't say it was too comfortable but it was dry. Easy to cover.

Biketouringhobo

Awesome and I am Homeless by Choice in Southern California for me it was Sleeping on the Streets of Downtown San Diego, CA with a Homeless young guy 18yrs old in the Summer of 2016

Ty0604

Summer of 2016? So you're homeless by choice in the future too? Love that area. My mom was originally from El Cajon/Santee and our family plot is there in downtown at a place called Mt. Hope.

Unfortunately we were homeless in a town of 3000 people where everyone knows you're homeless. It's a little different than the city. Especially Portland where the US Bank CEO dresses just as bad as Homeless Bill.

Biketouringhobo

i am Still Homeless by Choice in North County in Vista/Oceanside, CA in San Diego County and sometimes i do Stealth Camping near Pacific Beach, CA traval by a Surly LHT 26in 52cm 2008 and i am Surviving on
SSI and SSDI for Bipolar 2 and ADHD and my 18yrs old friend in 2010 had very bad ADHD and we had depart our separate ways and i was trying to show him how to Survive in San Diego, CA and taken him to the free meal centers to eat

i camp solo now and i now have a new Homeless friend 24yrs old living with ADHD but he is not camping with me

boomhauer

Floor of the Post Office. Doors are never locked. Don't let the fluorecent lights bother you. Probably a federal offence.

Squeezebox

A few years ago I went to the local 4 sq. mile city park. I changed into bicycle shorts under a skirt. Somebody complained. So the police came and I spent the night in the tank overnight with a bunch of scary men while I was wearing a skirt.

mantelclock

Your credibility has fallen to a new low. If you're just trying to be funny, you should refrain from overt racism.