Where do you stop to let your dog out on road trips?

I recently posted on traveling with my dog before I actually took my dog on a trip. Now that we're back, I wanted to know if anyone has any recommendations on where to take pit stops for the dogs? I stopped at a few rest stops, which had designated pet areas, but those were usually to close to the roads. I also stopped at a few fast food chains and gas stations that had pretty big yards in the front or on the sides of the buildings. Of course I picked up after my pup when it was appropriate. Any other suggestions?

 

Usually, I don't travel with Homer because he is scared of being in the car, but if I have to drive with him, we just stop near forests or fields. In my country nature is everywhere. If we are in the city, we stop near bigger parks. If you clean up after your dog, I think you can stop almost everywhere.

 

They just put those fenced in pet stations on the Ohio turnpikes about 10 years ago. I had never seen those before, that's such a great idea.

The only time we took one of our dogs on a major road trip was when I went off to college. Our coonhound, who was only a couple years old at the time, went along for the 4 hour drive (8 hours round trip). It's been a while, but if I recall, we would just take her behind the building whenever we were stopping at gas stations along the way. We kind of did it discreetly though. There were also some rest stops along the way, which had some grassy fields nearby we would walk her over to.