Something that everyone talks about when living on the road is showers.
Everyone seems obsessed with replicating as close to a home based shower as possible. Some travelers stay in full service campgrounds with showers (expensive). Others get gym memberships and go to towns to shower (traffic). Some use public recreational facilities (yuck). Some have big RVs with full shower setups (costly and requires tanks, hookups, dump stations etc.). Many people use trucks stops ($10 per shower).
At home in Florida, I’d shower once or twice a day. It was convenient, fast and simple. Plus, with Florida’s heat and humidity, I needed it.
In the West it’s different. I sweat a lot less. Even when I do sweat, it dries almost instantaneously. Many experienced travelers say they need to shower just once a week. My first week I dd this because I was in rest stops every night. This week, I showered twice because I had the water, the time and the privacy. It was nice to shower, but somewhat surprisingly, I didn’t’t feel really dirty.
I am constantly covered in dust, dirt and sand. It’s everywhere so I just have to get used to it.
But as for stink, grubbiness or greasiness – I haven’t even come close.
Here’s my setup.
The cost was $32 from Amazon.
I can shower anytime I want as long as I have water, some privacy and it’s not too cold.
I researched various options: hand held battery operated showers, gravity shower bags and the “Road Shower System” ($700!) before landing on this portable pump spray shower from Reliance.
Basically, its a 2 gallon garden weed sprayer. It has a kitchen sink sprayer end. You manually pump it up to pressurize it.
(I was going to MacGyver one of these following instructions from YouTube but the cost for parts was ~ $25 so I decided to buy the finished product. It was a good decision.)
Since I’m in the desert, I fill it up, put it in the sun and wait a few hours until it warms up.
I wet down, lather up and then rinse off. It takes me less than 5 minutes. It’s been warm and sunny and nobody is around, so I shower behind my rig in the late morning or early afternoon. I use ~1.5 gallons of water. I wear my Crocs to keep my feet out of the dirt and mud.
So far, it’s worked perfectly.
When I’m in a more populated spot, I’ll setup my one man shower tent enclosure. Right now it’s so windy, this enclosure would blow away immediately.
In the winter, I’ll need to boil some water and use the tent to shield me from the cold.
I imagine I’ll use campground showers when they are available, as long as they are not disgusting. If it’s really cold or when the occasion suits me, I might use a truck stop or a hotel shower too.
But overall, my shower setup has been remarkably simple and effective.
I was thinking that the cost to remodel my old bathroom would have been well over $10,000. Today, I’ve got everything I need for less than $50 and bit of inconvenience.
If you’re on the road, give it a shot and see if it works for you.