How to get around backpack stigma

[hartage]

the only time i've ever payed for a shower was at a marina on lopez island when i was a kid. i'd never even seen a pay shower before that and the only ones i've seen sence have been in truck stops. in canada pay showers are pretty uncommon. and if you happen into a truck stop smelling like a sack of sweaty assholes one of the trucks will usually offer you one if you make small talk. but ya like IBRRHOBO said there's a million different ways to get free showers you don't need to pay for them. and if you've a seasonal traveler rivers are warm in the summer so just carry a bar of soap around with you. good luck man and safe travels!

Yeah, I just took my first stream shower last week at slab city. It was interesting.. it's stream water but you walk into a concrete pit so the stream water is pouring about face level kind of like a shower. I guess all you do need is a flowing stream you can get into and it's all good. I can totally see someone giving me crap about polluting the stream if they see my bar of soap.

 

[hartage]

Best way to avoid backpack stigma... get off the west coast.
Just kidding. There is no way to avoid backpack stigma, you can only have fun with it.
This thread reminds me of a funny story though. Last winter in some bum fuck town in oklahoma the cops actually let us shower in the station, fed us and then kicked us down $5, all just because we asked if there was a shelter so we could go take showers to try to make hitching go quicker (they didn't even joke about arresting us!). Thats oklahoma for you I guess, mad money, mad free food and hotels, but no one will give you a fucking ride.

I had a similar experience in Oklahoma city. Was sitting on a curb at night when a cop pulls up asking how I was doing. I told him the truth, bored and wanting to go to a book store or something. He said hop in. He gave me a lift to barns n' noble. After they close I was back on the curb and the SAME cop drives up asks me again how I'm doing. I told him I'm good, looking for a bus or a way to get back. Hop in. He gives me a ride back. No crap, no flack, just a cool cop. Oklahoma city PD at least has ONE decent human in there. (maybe more)

 

[bote]

don't worry about a little soap in the water at the Slabs: between Tommy Flinstone burning tires every other weekend and 60 years of bombing the range...

 

[Diagaro]

I'm a noob to the whole traveling thing. Having some life issues due to a head-on collision and traveling caught my eye as something I'd like to do. So here I am learning how to go about it. Besides, Yreka is a really small town. That rv park was the only place in town I was told, for showers. Haven't traveled yet but figure I can learn enough by the time I heal up.

Get job.
Live in doors.
Be cattle.
MOOOO!!!

 

[ChikhaiBardo]

Showers??? Hell just wait till you smell bad enough some will offer you one and normally a place to sleep.. College girls always seem to love to go slummin and want to give a dirty kid a bath... And stigma hmmm I guess if they want to judge me I am prolly judging them too... And I am normally louder than they are at that point..

My method exactly... I was at about 4 months without a shower and had pretty girls from CU in Boulder all over me. I finally bathed when one of them offered to shower with me to help me get clean

 

[Meester Bomba]

yea some truck driver that gave me a ride in ohio gave me some money for a shower at the truck stop he dropped me off at. apparently the baby wipes werent doing their job.