The closest city to this rest area along I-5 is actually Firebaugh. The full name of this place is the "John Erreca Safety Roadside Rest Area", named after a former Director of Public Works who also served without pay as mayor of the city of Los Banos for 17 years. What? A hard-working public official not in it for the money? You won't find many of those today!
There are two separate rest areas here on opposite sides of the highway - it was probably cheaper to do that than build an overpass! This review is for the one on the southbound side; the one on the northbound side is probably identical.
The brick and wood buildings are showing their age, but the restrooms are still relatively clean, and there are double restrooms (two for men, two for women)! You'll also find covered picnic tables, a pet area, water fountains, payphones (there are probably only a handful left in California, three of which are here), and vending machines including two that have gourmet coffee. Classy!
There are separate parking lots for cars and for bigrigs, and they both accommodate a lot of vehicles, so this place should be able to handle even holiday traffic decently. Which is necessary, since I-5 gets bad during the holidays, and all those people stuck on the road need somewhere to use the bathroom!
Double restrooms: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/safety-roadside-rest-area-merced-county?select=6jk1HhL73Zy8XVnpdnnd5w#HYrVaK6i9HttZ0PiWgeICg
Covered picnic table: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/safety-roadside-rest-area-merced-county?select=6jk1HhL73Zy8XVnpdnnd5w#y0TcV9kaoyEmPLTXL0cYYA
Pet area: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/safety-roadside-rest-area-merced-county?select=6jk1HhL73Zy8XVnpdnnd5w#brM9JunNuYIkdL9RHoOBug
Ice cream vending machine: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/safety-roadside-rest-area-merced-county?select=6jk1HhL73Zy8XVnpdnnd5w#Y-emz0HiWNzwEf0y6c4OHg
One of the coffee vending machines: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/safety-roadside-rest-area-merced-county?select=6jk1HhL73Zy8XVnpdnnd5w#Z4X4STZqQrNyPmI36PcxjA read more