r/roadtrip • u/Brave-Durian9432 • 2h ago
Trip Planning What is the most stressful restroom situation you’ve had on a road trip?
Road trips can be amazing until nature calls.
What’s the most frustrating restroom related problem you’ve experienced on the road?
Examples:
Restroom unexpectedly closed
Couldn’t find one in time
Bad directions
Unsafe location
Extremely dirty facilities
How do you normally plan restroom stops?
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u/Ok_Helicopter3910 2h ago
Pre RV, my wife bought a protein shake from a convenience store and opened it and drank some and it sat in the car all day and got hot, she drank the rest of it and when we got to the next little-ass meth town, she had me pull over at the worlds sketchiest gas station. There was a tweaker in the bathroom that already had piss and shit on the floor and she said she puked and then shit in the worlds grossest toilet.
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u/Jadedslave124 23m ago
I’d rather puke then shit than shit then puke. But on the rare occasion I do them both at once, I shit in a toilet and hope there’s a receptical for vomit
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u/NopeU812many 6m ago
Wow, sounds awful. Hopefully no one was waiting after her assuming it was all her. I’m assuming it was your wife’s idea for the RV too. Haha.
3
u/chesapeakehills 2h ago
Hit a spring snowstorm driving from Denver to Santa Fe. They closed I-25 while we were on it and we had to turn around and drive back to wait for reopening. Stuck with no bathroom for a couple hours. People were just getting out of cars and doing their business in the snow.
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u/Formal-Tradition6792 48m ago
What about the ladies?
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u/turnipcafe 33m ago
They suffer as they always have. If you think you’re going to be road tripping anywhere and, whatever the reasons may be, toilets aren’t going to be easily available to you for long stretches—could be where you are in the country, the weather, your personal presentation where you can’t easily walk into a coffee shop, a bookstore, a restaurant, a grocery store etc. and use a bathroom without being questioned—you need to be prepared.
There are many devices women can use to stand up and pee, without completely pulling their pants off. I think they’re pretty common for women who are backpacking.
Wearing a skirt is useful because you can take off your underwear and squat without showing everything. I assume that’s why women have traditionally worn skirts.
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u/Darryl_Lict 1h ago
I took a bus from Belfast to Dublin. I was under the impression that international buses were required to have toilets. So I had a couple of beers while waiting for the bus. Somehow Ireland did not get the message.
I had to pee so bad that at a 30 second stop I told the bus driver that I was going to have to get off the bus to pee and I abandoned my backpack on the bus. Fortunately, the bus driver had some sympathy and waited 2 minutes for me.
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u/Gloomy_Transition350 1h ago
I have IBS. I travel with a Luggable Loo. Haven’t had to use it often but grateful when I do.
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u/Jadedslave124 24m ago
Sapp Bros in Kansas, i70 hays or salida, is pinned on my map of a good bathroom to go. Avoid any and all 7-11. I’d rather pee on the homeless guy behind the 7-11 than actually in the 7-11
1
u/DesertBlooms 1h ago
Stuck on the 15 going between Vegas and California somewhere before Baker and there was a lithium fire so we spent hours in the same spot.
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u/Automatic_Antelope92 1h ago
I walked into a restroom in Washington state and there was a fragrance dispenser pumping some chemical-floral scent into the stalls to the degree I had an asthma attack and had to go to the ER. It really sucked and messed up my trip.
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u/Electronic_Film_9904 47m ago
Not a road trip but I was driving a tractor trailer. I wasn't feeling great so I parked in a mall parking lot to rest. I woke up at 3 am and needed to go bad. Everything was closed so I had no choice but to drop my drawers and drop a number 2.
The cleaning guy from the grocery store happened to look out the window and his eyes were as wide as saucers I swear. I had to penguin walk to the other side of the truck to get a rag to wipe with.
So, I get on the road and continue on toward my destination. Well, apparently I wasn't done going. I piled the brakes on and in the process over heated them a bit getting stopped quick. I got out and went beside the truck.
I was feeling pretty terrible at this point. So I only ran along at about 80 KPH in case I had to stop again. I was glad that I had made that choice. I ended up stopping again and if course going beside the truck.
I was feeling so horrible when I reached my destination that I had considered calling our company and have them send a driver to drive the truck back. I had another go there on an actual toilet ( that was a treat ) and actually started feeling better. Afterward I was OK. I can just imagine people seeing my mess in that parking lot.
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u/seashmore 4m ago
For a long time, I could never find a bathroom open in central Iowa when I needed one. After seeing an "Iowa Welcome Center" sign, I figured they'd at least have open bathrooms in the middle of the night. Nope. Iowa only welcomes visitors from 9-5.
So I turned around to leave town and get back on the highway. At the edge of town, a deer stopped in the middle of the road and just stared me down. Like it knew my bladder was full. There were houses nearby and it was like 3 am, so I didn't want to honk my horn, but I was definitely screaming at it from inside my car.
The next town had a 24 hour gas station with a bathroom. I made sure to stop there every time I went through after that, as a token of appreciation.
Years later, also in central Iowa, I saw a sign for a park/rest area marking the divide between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. I needed to pee. While I hoped it would have a park bathroom, I knew better. (It flows to the east, as far as I could tell.)
The weirdest was a park a mile up a hill off a highway in central Nebraska. I got there about 2 am, took a snooze and a stroll up the horse trail. Watched the sun rise, heard two coyotes calling to each other in the distance. Dropped trou next to my van and got sand burrs in my underpants.
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u/dontspillthatbeer 1m ago
Orlando, FL near Disney, but still 4-5 miles away and traffic was not moving. Got very lucky when an exit did come up, but the only thing I could find was a Mormon church. Girlfriend at the time was having the emergency, so she very fearfully and hastily made her way inside to a lot of awkward looks. It beat peeing her pants by some small margin.
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u/FatahRuark 2h ago
I learned what the word Closed is in French driving in Quebec. I really needed to pee. Sign said "Rest Area 10km" with a sign under it that said "Ferme." Then I got to "Rest Area 5km" and I was really happy I was going to be able to pee in a few minutes. Then I got to the rest area and it had a gate that said "Ferme." That's when I learned how to say Closed in French.
(I ended up taking a wizz on the side of the road).