"An Ode to Practicality in the Face of the Icky"
Summer is upon us: time of camping and festivals. I know you may not feel comfortable talking about this or even thinking about it, but it's something we all face when out at our favorite festival, road-tripping across the country, or trekking our favorite countryside. That's right: toilets. This dread topic is perhaps the most annoying and deromanticizing aspect of travel. Figuring out how you're going to *ahem* "relieve yourself" in those off-the-beaten-path excursions can kill the wanderlust mood like no other, but mastering this pragmatic process puts you in the upper echelons of "pro" travelers and makes your vacation time a breeze. So how do I do this? The TravelJohn™.
Oh, yes. It's time to "Review & Recommend."
First, story time (you can page down to "Pros & Cons" if you're in a hurry): I pee a lot in the night. Actually, I pee a lot all the time, because I have what I liken to the bladder of a toddler at a movie theater. This seems to be a common issue on my mom's side of the family. Back when I actually was a young child, I learned that road-tripping also meant bringing an empty jug along....just in case. This also applied to things such as camping, hiking/backpacking, and moving (which we did a lot).
Disturbing as some may find it, the "pee jug" was one of the best things about those times. Learning about something so fundamental as where and when I can stop to go to the bathroom, made me much better at planning ahead for trips, even a particularly hellish commute. I got good at things like checking the map for the next rest stop, planning drinks accordingly, avoiding peak drive times, and how to spy a good gas station toilet from the highway.
As such, I moved into adulthood without a general need for the pee jug, and it was retired.
That is until I started going to Burning Man.
