Parking in Portland

[86Scotty]

Originally Posted by BrianW

When we had our SMB in Portland during a XC road trip I had the oil changed at the Firestone shop downtown. Parked the van there for free all day while we toured around and got our oil changed as a bonus!

I agree with Brian's thinking. It's definitely a great outside-the-box idea I've thought of but not done yet. Actually any maintenance you need done, schedule it at a place close to where you want to tour in a city. Easy free parking, maybe for 2-3 days. Any shop loves the guy who drops off a vehicle and says "take your time".

[BrianW]

Did it in Santa Fe, too, which has a good bus system that we rode downtown. Beats trying to park an EB SMB with three bikes hanging off the back!

[RichPDX]

How about the long term parking lot at the airport?
You can take light rail to downtown in about 20 minutes.

The Overland Van Project and Benchmark Vehicles are upfitters that have shops right in Portland. They might know a place.

There's a number of Ford dealers. aybe one would let you park in their lot.

[renegadeoverland]

I really appreciate everyone's input and ideas. Definitely more than a few good ones to think about for the next trip. As that implies the wife decided it was better to stay home this time around so we wont be driving as I was thinking we would. This will be super helpful though for the next time.

Cheers :-)

[Kirk B]

If you decide to go later, hit me up by PM. I live on the SE side of Portland and have room in my driveway for your rig. Safe neighborhood.

As a side note, I would prefer to just sleep in my van. I've stayed at hotels before with my van or Jeep parked outside and didn't sleep a wink! I would have slept much, much better in MY bed in MY van and then I would not have worried about security. In Portland the homeless are now called "campers" by the media. So there are "car campers" all over the city and Police do nothing to enforce the laws unless you are stupid enough to park in a residential area right in front of someone's house. Even the "no overnight parking" signs around here are meaningless to the car campers.