The Nitty-Gritty of Life on the Road

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Life on the Road

After leaving our home in Virginia six months ago, we lived in our 4Runner full time. We have spent weeks at a time in the desert without the modern comforts of a home. Several people have inquired how we take care of everyday necessities without the usual conveniences. This post will address the non-glamorous nitty-gritty of life on the road.

The Bathroom Situation

First and foremost in most people’s minds is the bathroom situation. We all have to answer the call of nature, which can get tricky when you are on the road or out in the middle of nowhere. While on the road, we use the rest areas and the facilities when we gas up. If we happen to be in a campground, we use the bathhouse facilities.

Those options are not available when we’re in the middle of public lands, far from anything. Before our first camping excursion together at Imagine Festival, Chris purchased a potty chair and tent. The potty chair is collapsible, without a full seat. It is unnecessary to get the job done, but it makes things a lot easier and more comfortable. When we are far from civilization, we dig a deep hole and put the chair over it. We refill the hole before we move on, and all is good. Notice that I said a deep hole. You don’t want animals coming behind you to dig anything up. Also, make sure not to dig the hole anywhere near the water to prevent contamination.

Other places we have stayed are primitive but not necessarily away from it all. In this case, we use the potty tent. We can go inside and take care of business but still have our privacy. Many people have different styles of portable toilets, composting toilets, five-gallon buckets, etc. We do not have room for anything so fancy in our truck. Instead, we use camping potty bags. They have a ziplock style close and are heavy-duty enough to not worry about leaks. These bags can be disposed of in the trash just like a diaper.

Our original potty tent became the victim of one of the many windstorms we endured while out west. We have since replaced it with a more substantial version. The new one has a frame that we can use to hang the shower bag. It doesn’t fold down as flat as the original, but it is small enough to fit nicely under our bed with the tent.

The bags are not cheap, so we prefer not to use them for our liquid waste. For Chris, it’s easy as guys can hit the bushes. For me, not so much. As a child, I had a traumatic experience answering nature’s call in the woods. Long story short, I was not skilled and I ended up with wet britches. That experience has haunted me most of my life. It has only been in the last few years since we started regularly camping and hiking that I have been able to bring myself (out of necessity) to relieve myself outdoors.

To make things easier on me, Chris found a funnel designed for female outdoor adventures. The device has been a lifesaver for me.
It took a little getting used to at first. I found myself unable to fully empty my bladder while standing up, so having to go more often. With some practice, I got the hang of it, and it works like a charm. Paired with a half-gallon Gatorade jug, I can go almost anywhere completely undetected and with no mishaps.

Bathing in the Wild

Another dilemma while on the road is bathing. We purchased a solar shower bag. The problem we had in the desert was there was nowhere to hang it. There were no trees, so we ended up hanging it on the truck door. One downside to the bag is it takes a while to heat up in the sun, so a morning shower is out of the question unless you don’t mind a cold one. Also, while you can effectively shower, it is not the same as a regular shower. I don’t think I would attempt to wash my hair with it, as the water would never penetrate my thick mane. We have found that baby wipes effectively keep those “hot” spots clean in between actual showers.

While the solar bag did not give us the results we wanted for showering, it has come in handy for sink duty. While in camp, we leave it on the truck’s hood or hang it from a tree branch when available. It serves wonderfully for hand and dishwashing. I have a pseudo sink set up using a two-gallon bucket. We have become experts at conserving water and can effectively clean our dishes with a minimal amount.

Cooking Outdoors

When we left Colorado, we did not have room to bring our camp stove. We settled for cooking with our one-burner. It breaks down to not need much space for storage. We are not cooking big gourmet meals while we are on the road. Instead, we choose simple, one-pot dishes most of the time. As far as cookware goes, we have our cast iron cook set and an aluminum saucepot. We can cook everything we eat in this combination. The cast iron even serves as an oven when needed. When the weather is terrible, or we don’t want to cook, we always have a stash of sandwiches ready to go.

Powering Electronics

While we travel, we do not have a great need for electricity, but we need some to keep the laptop and phones going. If we are driving, it is easy to keep everything charged. We have USB cords to plug the phones in and an inverter in the back to charge the laptop. It gets trickier when we stay in place for a couple of weeks. We prefer not to run the truck only to charge electronics. Our myCharge does an excellent job keeping our phones charged overnight or while watching downloaded shows. We have that plugged in while we drive as well.

We also have a small solar charger, given to us by a good friend. We had it packed away in our camping gear, but typically staying in campgrounds with power, we had never used it. That changed in the desert. We put it on the windshield to collect the sun all day. The charger was terrific with the bright desert sun, although it wasn’t as effective on the few cloudy days we saw.

Those chargers work well for charging our phones, but the laptop needs an actual plug. Since our Black & Decker power station is no longer reliable, we looked into other options. There are several good options available, but they are not cheap. We decided to wait on this purchase.

A week later, I received an email from a publicist for an EcoFlow River power station. I jumped at the chance to test one out. It is a great device, giving us several total charges for the laptop and the phones. It charges quickly in a wall outlet but also has a dc charger for in the truck. We bought a solar panel as well to take advantage of the sun when we are primitive camping.

With the basics of cooking, cleaning, power, and nature covered, we have been able to live a comfortable, simple life while exploring the great natural resources our beautiful country has to offer. It’s a good life.