We finally decided to take our first shower away from the comfort of family or friends' bathrooms. You could say we had been holding off - I guess a little nervous about how public it all seemed. But we were getting gross and in deep need of bathing, so we decided to take the plunge.
Orsuré and I had been planning on the fact that we won't be visiting family and friends all the time along our travels and we knew we'd need to figure out options on how to get clean. Our simple answer - Planet Fitness gym memberships. This is what we've been telling anyone who asks, even though we had yet to actually shower at any Planet Fitness gyms.
We purposefully decided to not build a shower into ShaVanda. We wanted to maximize our living space with other things. We did build our kitchen faucet to be able to swivel and extend out through our sliding door to "shower" outside, but this requires running water which we haven't yet finished setting up. And, if it's absolutely necessary to get clean inside ShaVanda, we could always wash up with some soap, water and a wash cloth, or even some wet wipes. But the best solution we could come up with for a real shower would be to use a more public shower. Options include the public showers at a Flying J travel center fuel stop, a campground, or even a gym.
The idea of public showers are kinda gross. Getting naked and clothed in front of strangers. Using showers you don't know the last time they've been clean. And, I don't even want to think about any fungi or other things growing that we could touch. For a germaphobe this is an absolute nightmare. But, we had to take the plunge - for our sanity as well as just to get clean.
Orsuré and I have been members of Planet Fitness since we lived in an apartment in Kent, WA, long before the idea of ShaVanda. Planet Fitness is a really affordable way to go to the gym and workout on your own or with an on-site trainer. It is an international company with gyms all across the USA, Canada, parts of the Caribbean, and elsewhere. As members you can go workout at any Planet Fitness gym and have access to its the entire facility - all of its fitness machines, its massage and tanning booths, its free WiFi internet, and its locker rooms. Back then the Planet Fitness gym was under a 1/2 mile from our apartment, so we would always return home to shower. But now our home doesn't have a shower, and we still need to get clean.
Since beginning vanlife full-time, living in ShaVanda, we have gone to workout a couple of times. Each time we had the luxury of using a shower at family and friends' places. Still avoiding the whole public shower thing. And now we are on our own. No family or friends nearby.
It is Monday (5 November 2018) and we're in Charleston, South Carolina. After days without bathing, 70s and 80s temps, high humidity, and thunder storms, we decided it was time. We made sure we had all that we needed to shower, including getting "shower sandals" to protect our feet from who knows what. Planet Fitness, here we come.
We go in and make the most of our time there. We both get a really good workout in. We were doing some abdominal work. This is what we do when were are just finishing up. And ... the power goes out.
We watch the electricity sputter, attempting to come back on, and then no lights. Luckily we were by some windows, and there was some light coming in from that allowing us to see. We decided to continue, finish up the last part of our workout, and hopefully by then the power will come back on so that we could shower. It had been downpouring and thundering, so maybe the wind, rain or lightning had struck a power cable. Fingers-crossed the power will come back on and soon.
As soon as I turned over to do abdominal-plank exercises, I feel Orsuré tap me on my shoulder. I had headphones in so I couldn't hear much. I took out my headphones and he said they were telling everyone to go. And just as he told me, a female trainer came walking up saying that since there was no electricity everybody had to leave. Orsuré and I then make our way to the pitch-black locker rooms to get our stuff, luckily we had our phones to act as flashlights. All the while I was crossing my fingers, holding out hope the power would come back on. It didn't.
When leaving the gym we were followed out by a woman, all happy and excited that she had gotten a full workout in before the power outage. We shared we had been hoping to shower, and she went on to say something like, 'I guess you'll have to shower at home.' We remained positive, agreed with her, and kept it moving. We didn't get into the fact that we were traveling, our home is a self-built campervan that didn't have a shower, and that it had been days since our last shower.
Where to shower now? ... Our, should we just push on in our travels? ... We leave, even sweattier and smellier than before. 'Nice going, Thomas,' I think to myself. 'It was you who suggested we go workout and then go take a shower. Now you're even worse than before.'
Orsuré quickly looked up the location and directions of the next nearby Planet Fitness. Luckily there was one within a 20-minute drive away. Yay! We're still going to go shower!
As we pulled out onto the main road we see what happened to the power. The electricity pole was destroyed, almost completely tipped over. At its base was a huge break in the pole and a totalled car which must have ran into it, causing ther pole to break and the power outage. Hopefully everyone involved survived. The power was out for what seemed like the next mile and cops were at every intersection directing traffic in the onslaught of rain. ... We get to the next Planet Fitness and are excited to find they still had power. Time for the locker room showers! ...
We get changed, get things ready, and make our way to the showers. Up until this point we hadn't ever taken a good look at the showers in the locker rooms. We find individual, private showers, walled off from each other, each with two sets of curtains in the front. The inner-most protects our privacy and keeps water from getting out, and the second curtain creates a little dry room/area to hang up our towels. This is what we were scarred of?
The showers were great! They were like any other shower, except for the fact that hundreds of people regularly use them. We had our shower sandals on, our own soaps and towels - we were good! We both were in much better spirits afterwards, let alone looking and smelling much better. This was definitely the right choice. We are now even more happy with our Planet Fitness memberships.
We get back in ShaVanda, figure out how to hang up our towels, have a little lunch, and begin our way out of Charleston. We're feeling good. Next stop, Hilton Head, South Carolina.