One of the drawbacks of my truck camper is its teeny tiny bathroom. Not only is it very small, but the entire bathroom doubles as a shower stall.

The bathroom in my truck camper is teeny tiny.

It’s a bit of a pain in the neck to take a shower. I have to take everything I don’t want to get wet out of the bathroom — towels, make up, face cream, hairbrush, bathroom mat — or stow it inside the medicine cabinet or under sink storage area. Then I strip down and get inside the room, close the door, and close the shower curtain over the door. I get the water the temperature I want in the sink and then lift a little lever to redirect the water into the showerhead.

Often, I’m off the grid with no connection to a water source so I need to conserve water — my rig only holds 30 gallons of fresh water — and minimize the amount of water that goes into my gray water waste tank — which also holds only 30 gallons. That means wetting down, turning off the water, soaping up, turning on the water, rinsing off, etc. It’s especially troublesome when I need to wash my hair because I need an extra cycle for washing, rinsing, putting in conditioner, and rinsing the conditioner out. But I’m good at it and only use 2-3 gallons to shower.

It might sound absolutely awful, but it isn’t. The water is good and hot and I’ve never run out of hot water — because I’m usually conserving water. The bathroom/shower stall gets nice and warm during the shower. It really isn’t a big deal. But it isn’t anywhere near as nice as a regular shower.

This week, I worked at the big RV show in Quartzsite. I was parked in the campground and had a water and electric hook up with free RV dumping three times during my nine day stay. So conserving water was not an issue. But my next-door neighbor in the RV show, who was living in his van during the show, raved about the shower facility at the local Pilot truck stop. He even showed me pictures. Since it had been about two weeks since I had a shower in a regular bathroom, the pictures looked very inviting. And since it was time to wash my hair, I thought it might be a good time to try it out for myself.

Keep in mind that I have never showered at a truck stop before. In fact, I’ve only used a public pay shower about a half dozen times. But this was different. It was private and it looked clean.

So at 6:30 AM on Saturday morning I stepped up to the cashier at the Pilot truck stop and asked for a shower. He took $12 of my money and gave me a receipt with a guest number and PIN number on it. He told me that when my number called was called I would be directed to the shower that was mine.

I think the worst part of the entire experience was waiting at a small dining table in the waiting area. There were only four other people in there and two of them looked homeless and were sound asleep, sitting upright in their chairs. One of them actually might have been dead — he didn’t look natural at all.

After about five minutes, my number was called on the intercom, directing me to shower number two. I walked down a short hall and found the correct door. There was a pin pad on the outside and I managed to get it working on the second try.

The door to my shower.

Inside, it looked just like the pictures Patrick had shown me. There was a toilet, a bathroom counter with the sink, and a very large shower stall. Everything was very clean. There was a towel, washcloth, and bathmat. Inside the shower stall was soap, but I had brought my own.

There was a private toilet inside the little room.

Everything was very clean, including the bathroom linens.

Unlimited hot water with good water pressure and plenty of room to move around? Sign me up!

I turned the knob for the deadbolt and got right down to business. I gave my hair the best washing it had had since the beginning of the month when I stayed at a friend’s house. Then, after scrubbing myself thoroughly with the scrubby I had brought along, I stood under the hot water for five solid minutes. It felt great.

Finally, I shut off the water and stepped out onto the bathmat. I took my time telling off and getting dressed. Although the bathroom had been a little cool when I stepped into it, I was nice and warm from the shower.

I left the towels in a pile on the floor, gather together my belongings, and went outside. I stopped only to thank the cashier for having such a nice, clean showers.

Is this something I would do all the time? No. The shower in my camper really isn’t that bad. But I do admit that it was nice to get that good, long, hot shower with plenty of room to move around.

Best of all, I didn’t have to wipe the entire bathroom dry when I was done.