Living on the road means giving up certain taken-for-granted amenities. One of which I will be sharing about is bathing. The revolution of running water brought luxury to people never fathomed of before. Nowadays living in a modern home, all you have to do to get clean is go to your shower or bath, turn a faucet, warm or cool depending on your liking, watch the tub fill up (add bubbles :)) or simply hop into the inviting clean water and then scrub your body to a desired cleanliness. Hop out once clean and refreshed then dry off with a towel and get on with your day. Am I right? It is very convenient and easy if you own a home with a bathroom area. However, living out of an Astro van the convenience of finding acceptable running water creates quite the dilemma.
For those who have never experienced such a time, I am going to share our experience so you can relive it with us. On the first morning in Elko we awoke to snow. Not a time to use our gallon jug to rinse off. Reason being, outside the temperature was below 32 degrees and there was snow was falling. We did happen to find a Gold's Gym in town and clean up/ work out there. Being a member of Gold's Gym, I had the privilege to use many of the facilities located nationwide. It came in handy many times and I only had my bag stolen once (towel, shampoo, 2 pairs of clothes, underwear, soap, contact case and solution, van keys, and who knows what else... Very, very sad day. Curse San Francisco's Gold.) Day two brought us, I can't remember. Now I'm not going to go through every day and tell you where and how we bathed, that's just creepy. I'll just skip to the outrageous and strange places. Let you imagination run wild. :)
What would you say to a person who bathed in the rain? Seriously. I wouldn't know what to say. I mean unless it was like 45 degrees outside wind blowing and right on the California coast, I'd call em' crazy. Well, call Sheldon and I crazy. We were in Mendicino County, California sleeping in an empty field on the coast when we awoke that morning to coastal rain and fog. The rain is somewhat of a downer on trips because you can't really do a lot of things outside without getting wet. Unless of course that is your go al, to get wet, and on this morning it was. I woke up undressed and faced the cold wind and rain for a morning wake up rain-shower, literally. I bathed in the rain. Got wet enough to put shampoo in my hair and clean my pits and body then rinse off. It started the day off like a cold bucket of water on the face, but my, oh my, was it invigorating. Strangely enough it let me know I was still alive and had feelings. I hopped back into the van rock-tits and all to Sheldon awaiting me with a dry towel. Sheldon took his turn and we hit the road. Just like that, nature's shower.
Another strange place was a hose faucet on the side of a gas station. Somewhere in a city in California we stopped at a gas station to fill up and noticed a low-key faucet. It was faced somewhat away from the road, no security cameras were watching it, and it was coming directly from the building. So, we figured it was clean and prepared for an insta-shower. I led the way, walked nonchalantly up to the faucet, towel and shampoo in hand, took off my shirt, ran my head under the water, crouched down trying to get the rest of my body, hurriedly scrubbed shampoo in my hair and rinsed it out, then walked back to the van and dried off. It took me t-minus one minute. Sheldon was impressed and when it was his turn watching him was hilarious. Knowing I did the same thing moments before made it even funnier. You have to keep in mind that we were in a busy part of the city with an on-off highway ramp directly south of the gas station. Keeping low-key was the goal.
How about this one... Waking up in Eugene one morning it was lightly raining when we came across this nice community center. In the back of this place was a steaming jewel, meaning a hot tub. Yes a hot tub. We did do what you're thinking. We parked the van, made sure the coast was clear, hopped the gate to the pool/hot tub area, hopped in the hot tub, whipped out the shampoo, scrubbed down, hopped out back over the fence back into the van, and dried off inside. It took me seriously about 1.657 minutes. When I hopped out of the hot tub Sheldon was all confused seeing me rush out. He was like, " What are you doing? Aren't we going to sit in here and enjoy the hot tub?". He was thinking we were going to hang out in this communities hot tub and shoot the breeze for a bit. That would have been cool and all, but inviting ourselves into this hot tub, bathing in it and deciding to stick around and talk, I don't think would have been kosher with the landlords. Especially the bathing part... It wasn't too bubbly. ;)
On the beach in San Francisco we came across a shower. It was right on the beach and looked inviting. Truth was it wasn't heated. And grossly enough, after hanging out there for a moment and after my shower of course, I noticed it was the popular place for all of the beach-goer's to wash off their dogs. (Pauses...) Ya... So... It really wasn't too bad.
One of the coolest places we got clean was just outside of Port Orford. It was a dainty little place known as the Elk River. Yes a river. We pulled up to the riverside and unloaded towels, shampoo, and all. We made our way into the snow-fed river and proceed to clean ourselves with a dunking technique. Because the water was basically freezing, lying down in the river and playing about was not ideal. We would dunk, scrub, prepare mentally and physically for the next dunk then rinse off as fast as possible while underwater. Then shoot out of the water screaming for mercy. I'm hoping the river was relatively clean, it looked that way. We didn't contract giardia so I think we picked a clean river. Only dilemma was when bathing I hung my towel from a tree brach overhanging in the river and it fell off mid-dunk completely ruining my warm, dry off I was eagerly awaiting.
One of the coolest places we got clean was just outside of Port Orford. It was a dainty little place known as the Elk River. Yes a river. We pulled up to the riverside and unloaded towels, shampoo, and all. We made our way into the snow-fed river and proceed to clean ourselves with a dunking technique. Because the water was basically freezing, lying down in the river and playing about was not ideal. We would dunk, scrub, prepare mentally and physically for the next dunk then rinse off as fast as possible while underwater. Then shoot out of the water screaming for mercy. I'm hoping the river was relatively clean, it looked that way. We didn't contract giardia so I think we picked a clean river. Only dilemma was when bathing I hung my towel from a tree brach overhanging in the river and it fell off mid-dunk completely ruining my warm, dry off I was eagerly awaiting.
We were allowed the luxury of warm running water about half the time on our trip. First opportunity came at Fort Bragg while working at Pacific Star Winery. The owner offered to us her bungalow on the oceanfront. What a refresher it was to have warm water, electricity, and even a bed. This stop definitely was a morale booster. We also received the luxury of a shower from our cousin Holly in Arcata, CA. Her victorian home was offered to us for cleansing purposes. Again, another morale booster. Thanks again Holly! More warm running water from family came in Salem, OR. Our aunt and uncle there provided beds, food and the highly prized warm water. We will forever be grateful for their welcoming arms in Salem. Thanks a million Clark and Vicki, and Family!!
Our final grace of warm water came in Portland when our dear friends, Chad and Amanda, let us stay the night in their studio apartment and shower before our long 900-mile drive home. Geez, what would we have done without friends and family? Been really stinky and gross the whole trip I suppose. But seriously, the kindness of our friends and family helped make our trip amazing. All I can say is thank you to all, and if you ever need a place to bathe feel free to use my shower or I can refer you to the nearest hot tub. :)
The times we spent searching for places to shower will never be forgotten. We laughed, we learned and we became clean. The truth of the matter is having the luxury of warm, running water available at any time is a blessing. Many people across the world do not have this privilege. I learned humility and am now grateful for the liberty I have now.
Sheldon Showering in the Rain
Mendicino County, California
Note: All of the above stories of places used are true and accurate. Nothing has been added or exaggerated in any matter. Promise. It's real, and funny at that.
