After piling ourselves and Humphrey into the car, we set off at 4pm on Friday for a good 9-10 hour drive to Virginia. We were pleasantly surprised when Humph decided to snooze after only 2 hours, rather than stare at us with the *please don’t be taking me back to the pound* eyes that we often get from him in the car.
Most of the drive was entertaining and comfortable. But early on we actually stopped at a fill-up station that could have easily broken world records for most revolting bathroom EVER. With each stop one of us would fill up the car and the other would walk the dog. This meant that our bathroom needs would not be met until the end of the pit-stop. On this particular stop I walked Humph even longer while Dan filled the tires with air. By the time he was done, I was doing a little girl pee-dance because I couldn’t wait one minute longer. Dan pointed to where the washroom was and I knew it wasn’t going to be good.
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First off, at a truck-type stop, if there is only one washroom for both men and women, it might be a good idea not to even open the door. But I was desperate. So I opened it and almost fainted from the stench that poured out. The urinal and toilet were right beside each other, both were clogged, there was no toilet paper to be seen and it looked as though it hadn’t seen a cleaning product since 1992.
I felt so girly, but I couldn’t do it. I explained it to Dan and he chuckled and shook his head. So, I dared him to go in. At first he refused but then realized he needed to wash his hands after having filled the tires. He opened the door, stood there, moved in and held the door open with his foot while he rinsed off his hands. He made sure to touch as little as possible. He saw first hand that I was right, and didn’t question my bathroom standards again.
Then he told me that they were making and serving food inside the store. I gagged a little.
My advice to anyone heading down south…if you ever find yourself on Route 37 and you see a French’s Sunoco gas station…wait. You’ll run into many more washroom/gas/coffee opportunities soon enough. You can thank me later.
