January 12, 2014

by Cathy Liu in

Shower situation is a common question among our friends at home as well as new acquaintances we meet on the road.  Before we launched, Steve and Kunal said that on the previous rally, as long as everyone stinks, nobody would notice and nobody would care. The first 3000 miles of our journey was in the US, where shower had been available almost everyday. Since we left the Reali’s family, we slept inside the ambulance in Tucson for 2 nights then again in the ambulance at the Mexican border control, the fourth night, we checked in to a motel named Faraon in Hermosillo with hot water and shower facility. At this point, I have many bloody stretch marks on my limbs because I have been itchy all over. Somehow, Martha magically maintained her long silky hair to be neat and pretty. Steve has not changed his underwear for more than a week, well, with the exception of his socks, I put them in the laundry 4 days ago. Mike, Stephen Alexis, and Ken are not often under my detailed examination, so they all appeared normal.

Everyone showered and put on clean lingerie except for Steve. I tried to pursue him in many ways, I offered to be extra nice, I offered to make his instant noodles, I threatened him that I’ll be very mean if he doesn’t comply, I cursed and even told him to sleep with Stephen Alexis, but all my efforts were fruitlessly… Steve simply twiddled his extremely stinky toes towards me to chase me away…

Last night, after my super comfortable hot shower, I layered on soy honey and milk whipped body butter, then slept in the same bed as this guy who dogmatically refused to change his clothes or take shower. The next morning, I forgot about being mean, I made him coffee. As I filtered boiling water through the coffee beans, I noticed a funny non-coffee smell. The water vapor ran through my fingers and palm and aroused this mixture of Steve’s unbearable odor and my lotion. I wasn’t despaired when we found out some paperwork would take 12 weeks long, I wasn’t down when the ambulance was broken for days, but at that moment, I felt so defeated. I’m gonna plan a revenge, our journey is still long, I have plenty of time to think.