Urban Park Up Series: Krispy Kreme
As my name, The Urban Motorhome, suggests, I park in some unconventional places. I’ve parked in some random places in my time, including supermarkets and fast food chain car parks.
I always film my experiences so I can take my viewers along for the ride, showing everyone how I find urban park ups and what I look out for.
In this edition of my urban park up series, I attempted to park in Krispy Kreme!
If You’re New Around Here, Welcome
If you are new to the website and this is the first post you've come across, welcome!
My name is Darren and I've been living in my motorhome in the UK, full-time, for over 6 years. I very rarely go on sites, I just find park ups as and where I can.
The twist is I like to park where most wouldn’t dare! Nothing phases me, I will literally try anywhere. As I mentioned above, I film my life, park ups and all, and post the videos on my YouTube channel.
Come And Find An Urban Park Up With Me
After the success of my Dunkin’ Donuts park up, Krispy Kreme had been on my list for a while and I finally did it! The video is below, so you can come along with me as I attempt to do an overnight stop in Krispy Kreme.
I also do a ‘reccy’ beforehand so I can get a back up stop in the bag, just in case my Krispy Kreme park up doesn't go to plan.
(If you want to read the full Transcript, it’s below, underneath the video)
‘They've got so many donuts in there, mmm! Which I know, I know, that's right because it's a donut shop. Um, a donut shop with no donuts is not a donut shop. Oh, there's freaking thousands!
What's up guys? Welcome back to another video: Krispy Kreme. Yes. This has been a long time coming this video, a long time coming!
First things first, the beard is outta control. I'm booked in a couple of days time, so we just gotta deal. We've gotta deal with it.
I'm gonna leave here now. I'm gonna come back to try and sleep here tonight. Um, and yeah, we're just gonna go for a little quick drive, find a few streets, a few park ups, do what I normally do.
If this is the first video you've seen of mine. Well, I'm Darren. I'm The Urban Motorhome, hence the name. I've been full-time [in my motorhome] coming up five years now in the motorhome. And uh, 99.9% of it is all parked up in urban areas.
[Referring to noise in the back of the motorhome] I think my apples are moving back there. Um, so yeah, if that's something you like the sound of, then stay tuned and consider subscribing to the channel.
If we get kicked out of Krispy Kreme tonight, then I want somewhere else to go. But by the look of this place, there's massive shops everywhere. I mean, there's a Tescos and a Next and an M&S food hall there that looks like.. is that Asda? Or something like that.
This isn't how I would find a park up, not in the slightest. I've done many of these videos now and these are just to illustrate what I would do to show, these are just to illustrate how I find park ups for you. A way to get into my head so you, you know, you could see why I would park here and why I wouldn't park there.
I wanna go left down here, because it looks like there's a housing estate there. Now these houses look rather new. It could be within the last 20 years. Um, when I say new, when they're like that, you don't really find big, big streets and places to park, but we'll give it a go.
Pretty sure I’d stick out like a sore thumb out there but, there's gotta be some place to park. Here we go. Now, unless this is residential parking only, which I haven't seen signs for yet, right where this blue car is, I'd park there. Well that's a bus stop, so I'd park where the blue car is. I’d park where the Merc is, any of these, yeah, it's not too uneven.
Oh, here we go, look at these little laybys. I'd park in these all day long, that's easy. So if we get kicked out of Krispy Kreme, we're coming here. Mate, that's not hard at all.
That's what she said!
And these right on this side, I’d park in any of them. Yep. And it's got speed humps around this not gonna be a high speed area I don't think.
I haven't seen any signs to say “residents only permits” or anything like that. So all along this left hand side where all these cars are and these little laybys, I'd park there, It's got a lot of trees [though].
How long that shop's open..? If that's 24 hours, I might not park where that Merc is, but I wasn't expecting this to be fair.
I was expecting like a real new estate kind of, you know, packed in, no parking kind of thing.
There's a school right there. Now it is the weekend, so my rules on schools would be a bit relaxed, but if it was during the week, there's no way in hell I'd be near a school. Too busy, too many parking restrictions, too many, uh, too much noise.
Yeah, it's just not really fun. To be fair, I haven't done one of these videos for a while and I've done Dunkin Donuts, which I'll link to up here, and that was a great success. Now, the Krispy Kream that I've found doesn't have restrictions and it has got a drive-thru, which I believe I should be able to get in.
So we might have to, uh, give it a go!
Now, all these parking [spots], they're right outside people's houses and they're in their houses. I wouldn't really do any of that. Let’s have a look down here. This is, again, these little laybys, I'd park there. Even though these are new streets, that are still being built by the looks of it, this is really just still being built so it's not the area I would really choose.
Now, another little, these little laybys are great. I'd park in these all day long. I have no idea where I am right now. They are a maze and, uh, trying to get out of them, I don't even know if Google Maps will get me out. I dunno if I'm gonna be able to find my way out, but round there, there's no parking round there.
People are probably thinking, what is he doing down there? He took a wrong turn. So this is what I was expecting from that other estate. These kind of, you know, dead end, kind of no-go streets where there's nowhere for you to park at all. Not any chance of parking. It's, you know, they've all got little driveways and that's pretty much it. There's no on street parking cause they just use, they maximize the use of the land with houses, basically.
Um, which you can understand, it’s a money world driven isn't it. But again, little layby here on the, on the right. Yeah, I'd stay there, like the van is on the left. Dunno what the estate's like though. I mean, it's still being built. It looked quite a family orientated estate. Lots of kids' stuff in the gardens, looks quite nice and clean. No real litter so I wouldn't say it's a bad place.
Again, you only, you're making quick observations. You've gotta make them observations. Do you feel safe and secure? And do you feel comfortable? That's really kind of the main thing, isn't it?
If you feel comfortable, then great, crack on. If you don't then don't stay there, go somewhere else. Don't ever put yourself in that position, you always want to feel comfortable.
Even where these cars are here, that's not double yellows. They’ve ended, so I'd park there where that Focus is. It's quite close to the main road, but it doesn't bother me. The noise won't, won't get me.
As you can see, it's really not that hard to find urban parks. I mean, a lot of people just tell me and you know, say to me, “oh I dunno how you do it”, “You've proper got guts”, you know, “you park in some balls-y places” and Yeah, I mean, I do. I mean, I've got the cctv so I can see what's going on outside. I park polite, I park legal. They're the main things.
I very rarely drink, so I can always move. If I'm parking somewhere new, so like for tonight, then I'd always have one or two places in my mind that I could run to if something happens, if I don't feel safe, if there's a bit of noise outside, if there's, if someone knocks, which again, I've never had a knock in the four and a half years I've been doing this. I must be doing something right!
Take your time. Don't worry, don't panic. You know, if you can't find anywhere, then pull over. Get on Google Street View, have a little look around on there and you will find somewhere.
It's getting dark now cuz of the time of year. It's only, it's only just turned four o'clock, but it's uh, yeah, the light's fading fast, so I'm not really gonna stay out that much longer.
Looking around, I think we've got the idea of where I could stay if needed. I haven't even looked at an industrial area. That's one of the main places I would go. I would type in industrial state [into google maps] if I really had to find somewhere. I'd type in industrial state, head towards that, and I'd find somewhere straight away. No problems.
There's lots of speed humps, so I know there's not gonna be major speeding down here, which means, you know, if you're parking on the side of the road, you’re, you know, you're not a hundred percent safe, but you're semi safe.
Now I'd park here because that's at the side of the house and you know I love the side of houses because they can't see you really. So I would definitely park there.
Let's head back to Krispy Kreme and then try and find somewhere, let's try and get some donuts through the drive through! It's gotta be done ain’t it. That's gotta be done! We'll have a little drive around the car park of Krispy Kreme to see if it says anything about restrictions.
Krispy Kremes! Oh yes, looks like a big one as well. It’s like a distribution one so they’ve got the whole conveyor belt in there, which I'll get some footage of.
Now I can't drive into KFC cuz there's a height barrier. I can't drive further down. Hang on, hang on. Yeah, no. I can spin round here, basically but I can't get any further cuz of the height restrictions, but there doesn't seem to be parking restrictions. I can't see any signs in here.
That one got a height barrier as well? Yeah, that one has. So the only one we can really go in is here. So this one seems to be looking alright to me.
Let's try and go through the drive-thru. Let's get us a couple of, uh, a couple of donuts. Let’s hope theres no height barriers.
Krispy Kreme, it's not a bad life, is it? Finish work, come to Krispy Kreme.
Operator: ‘Hi. Welcome to Crispy Cream. What can I get for you?
Me: ‘Hello? Yeah, can I just have a, uh, a Nutella donut? Uh, and a coffee. And a coffee? Yeah. Can I have a cappuccino, please.
Op: ‘Cappuccino?’
Me: ‘Oh, can I make it the black forest hot chocolate?’
Op: ‘Black forest hot chocolate instead of the cappuccino?
Me: ‘Yeah’
Op: ‘Yeah, of course. That everything?’
Me: ‘That's it thanks’
Op: ‘If you’d like to drive down’
Me: ‘Thank you’
Me to camera: ‘Black forest hot chocolate… and a donut!
[At next window] Me: ‘Hello mate’
Next operator: ‘That's gonna be £3.75’
Me: ‘Thank you very much’
Op: ‘do you need the receipt?’
Me: ‘Nah that's alright thanks’
Op: ‘[There's your] donut, your drink will just be a minute’
Op: ‘Thank you’
Me to camera: ‘Donut! … [and a] black forest hot chocolate. Naughty!
[Opens bag] Ooh Nutella, I'm not easily pleased at all am I? They've got so many donuts in there, mmm! Which I know, I know, that's right because it's a donut shop. Um, a donut shop with no donuts is not a donut shop. Oh, there's freaking thousands!
I've been pretty good there. One donut, just one.
Operator: ‘There you go’
Me: ‘Thank you very much. Thank you’
Right, I’ve gotta put it [my drink] somewhere…cup holder?
Right now I wanna park up over there in the corner away from the entrance cuz the cars were swinging in a bit. [They’re] a bit feisty.
[Drinking hot chocolate] Holy damn. Oh, that's something else. Holy, that's a bit naughty that is.
It is quite a busy area here. It's quite a lot of people walking around.
I don't want to draw major attention to myself if I, you know, if I can help it. But, um, there's obviously Krispy Kreme, there's me, there's a lot of vans down there. Which they're all the Krispy Kreme vans, where they do deliveries, I assume. Late and early hours in the morning and tonight. So, um, I've parked up here so you can see I'm really close.
I'm kind of in the tree at the moment. If I walk over towards KFC and I'll show you where I am. I'm actually quite happy how much this camera's picking up because it is quite dark right now. Even though it's only half four. I'm not sticking out too much, but I could be, I could be a bit tucked in a bit more, you know what I mean?
When that Beamer moves, I might go in front and then I'm dead outside Krispy Kreme. And then I won't be in anyone's way, but people are just like driving past, seeing me vlogging right now and they're like, what is he doing? So I'm gonna jump in the motorhome, sort a few things out because I've been at work for six days.
I've got so much that needs tidying up in there. I think I've got a video chat tonight with John, Mandy, Jon and Tash. I think they're out in Slovakia at the moment or Slovenia or somewhere. So I'm gonna catch up with them and yeah, go from there. And then I'm probably gonna have to eat at some point tonight.
Time is… 10 past 10. Had a nice chat with John & Mandy and Jon & Tash for about two, two and a half hours. Yeah, a nice, nice catch up. Um, I've had a pretty boring dinner, I just had eggs on toast. I wasn’t even gonna bother filming that!
But yeah, still at Krispy Kreme. It's quite a, you know, coming and goings, it's not too excessive noise wise, but, um, apparently it is meant to be 24 hours, but I think along with Covid and this and that, their hours is not back to 24 hours yet.
So, um, shop shuts at 10, so that shut, you know, 10 minutes ago, and I believe the drive-thru shuts at 11 soo that's got another 45, 50 minutes left. Once things start dying down, I'll probably jump out, show you around of where I'm gonna stay for the night and yeah, then get some sleep.
Midnight and uh, yeah, everything seems to be shut up. The inside of the shop seems to be alive and kicking because they're getting ready to fill the vans with donuts. So you can see there, inside is all full of donuts, all being stacked into their cages. Ready to go into those [vans].
There's me parked up. It's pretty good really. Fingers crossed I have no problems here tonight. Yeah, I’ll stay here and then, uh, maybe grab a coffee in the morning. But yeah I'm gonna jump back in cuz it's a bit freezing out here. So yeah, jump in and get my head down.
[The Next Morning]
Good morning from krispy kreme car park! [I had a] Brilliant night's sleep, no problems whatsoever. Yeah, really simple video this is. A little drive around, show you where I would and wouldn't park up, which was pretty easy. Found loads of spots with that.
[Here] There was a few boy racers whizzing up and down, um, on the main road for a little bit. But no, it was quite a simple night. I didn't really hear the [donut] vans, um, when they're loading and that to get all the donuts out and across the country, I suppose.
So I didn't really hear any of that. Um, but you know, I'm used to sleeping out and about and wasn't at my head.
My hair and beard is a mess! I can't wait until, until Thursday when I can get this all trimmed and sorted. Then I’ll look my handsome, dashing self again.
I sent a message to a subscriber, Chris, because he told me about this place, which was brilliant. Cheers Chris! Really appreciate that. And I said I'd give him a shout when I'm coming up. Yeah, I think I'm gonna go for breakfast in a bit [with him]. So, yeah, why not? Think a cheeky little buffet breakfast, I think, is on the cards.
Let’s have a look shall we? No problems. I thought I'd go there [a different parking spot] in the end rather than there, because I was sticking out a bit too much. That was gonna be my original spot. But again, they swing in, [so] you're sticking out far too much. Decided against that. I've put a hat on, tame my hair.
By the way, forgot to mention, this is the brand new, now available online in my shop, merch. Look at it all embroidered. I think you'll agree, looks rather sexy, looks banging! So yeah, T-shirt's just £14.99 and beanies are £9 99. So go grab them in the shop now. [I’ve] Been waiting for ages to say that, ages.
Look at this lovely breakfast. There's Chris. Nice one! Chris is the one who found the spot and mentioned the Krispy Kreme over there. So yeah, cheers for that, Chris, appreciate it.
[Outside Krispy Kreme] We'll, uh, we'll go in and have a look, I'll show you around. You need to come to a proper Krispy Kreme shop. You get 'em outta Tesco's, Yeah, they're alright. But this is where it's at.
[Inside Krispy Kreme] They're kneading them there. Then they go along and they start frying, and they go all the way along. How cool is that! One thing as well, when you come to these places, they give you, like, a real massive discount. Like you get a dozen glazed for, like a tenner. It's amazing.
[Asking employee] What's the deal when the lights on then?’
[Employe answers] ‘So between 7 and 10PM every evening, you get hot, glazed donuts come off the line and you serve them. So we can serve them..’
Me: ‘between 7 and 10’
Employee: ‘Between 7 and 10PM yeah. And then if you make any purchase, you can get a free sample as well.’
Me: ‘Oh, nice one. So when the light is on between 7 and 10, they're fresh off the line and if you make a purchase, you get one free as well. Brilliant! How good is that?’
[Employee handing over 2 boxes]: ‘15 donuts’
Me: ‘Brilliant mate.
[Leaving store] Yeah a dozen for my friend. I've got a couple for myself. And yeah, just talking to the guy, who's really friendly, and he was saying like when they make donuts for, like the Monday, they do about 20,000 donuts a day. But when they're making 'em for Friday and Saturday and for the weekend, they make up to 50,000 donuts in there.
It's a freaking, freaking incredible. 50,000, mad! But yeah, he was a right legend that guy. Brilliant he was.
And thats parking up at Krispy Kreme. I've done Dunkin Donuts, I've done Krispy Kreme. Krispy Kreme, you are clearly the winners. You have the best donuts. I'm sorry Dunkin Donuts, but you can't beat the original OG, which is Krispy Kreme. You are flipping amazing. I love your donuts, I love your coffee. The, uh, the black forest coffee you've done and your, uh, milkshakes.
You definitely need to come down here. This is Krispy Kreme in Peterborough. There's loads of parking, there's loads of places to eat food and everything. See 'em all being made, and if the light's on, remember 7 until 10pm, there's hot ones coming off the line.
And if you make any purchase, you get one free! Dunkin Donuts don’t do that!
Let me know where you want me to park up next. I've done Dunkin Donuts, I've done Krispy Kreme, We've done supermarkets. Let me know in the comments below where you wanna see me park up next and we'll see if we can do it. Have a great week, bye!'
End of transcription.