Toiletries & Trees
It’s funny what you get used to. At the campground, half of the showers are in English and half are in Spanish. This means that it’s a coin toss as to whether “C” means cold or hot, and whether “H” means hot or cold.
The funny thing is, the half that are in Spanish are “Mexican-style.” This means that “C” is always first. The thing you have to be careful about, is the cold water isn’t always first; sometimes it’s the hot water first.
Also, while the campground is spotless and clean and wonderful, the toilets are “old and slow.” You’re supposed to flush them twice. No big deal. But I’m in the habit now.
So when I go to Borders, I do my business, then turn around and wait for the toilet to finish flushing so I can flush it a second time, often forgetting I don’t need to. And beside the toilet is a large, kitchen-sized trash can with lots and lots of neatly-folded, used toilet paper.
In Mexico, you mostly don’t flush the toilet paper. In Tucson, only some do.
On the way home, we drive the only interstate in the United states whose exits and markers are in kilometers. (There was a nationwide metric-system push, which eventually failed, when the interstate was completed.)
And let me tell you, it’s a writer’s dream. You can’t drive I-19 and not see story after story after story. Or bits which you inflate into story. More on that in another post.
Also on my way home, I pass orange and lemon trees. For someone who has lived in Ohio all her life, real live orange and lemon trees are absolutely stunning. All that rich green dotted with vivid color. So pretty!
See anything interesting lately? Or normal to you, but not-so-normal to us?
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Natasha Fondren is a writer traveling the U.S. in a camper with her four cats. She is currently enjoying the lizards and desert heat in Arizona.
Okay. I guess it just proves I should get out more. The concept of not flushing used toilet paper amazes me. Well, I have to keep reminding myself that with the Internet you’re in contact with places all over the world and some things you take for granted might be different. I can’t say I can think of anything that would be normal to me but not to you, but then how would I know?!!!
SO true! I remember having a conversation with a writer who was SO proud that she’d used Cleveland-area slang and called Coke, “pop.” I told her I hadn’t noticed; that the story seemed normal to me.
She didn’t get that. I think she was offended. But seriously, I was more surprised that her purported Cleveland-area readers NOTICED that she’d used their normal language.
I mean, how do you notice what is normal?
Great post!! I loved this and found it very fascinating!! And how cool that there is an interstate with the metric system on it! I never knew that but I love little bits of trivia like that. Would love to see pictures!
Isn’t that neat, Nadine? It’s weird, thinking in kilometers.
My camera broke.
I’m hoping to get a new one soon!
I’d love to have fruit trees in my yard. I think there’s something special in every area. There was a story in our paper about a Wis. family who was on the plane with the terrorist from Nicaragua. The family had adopted two Ethiopian children, ages 8 and 6, and were bringing them home. The mother preferred to talk about the children and said they were out of their minds with this snow. That got me, because we’ve been complaining about the snow, and to the kids it’s a wonder and beautiful. It’s all in the point of view.
They are SO lucky! Wow. I hope I can at least adopt.
Isn’t it, though? Being away from snow this year, I have mixed feelings. I miss it terribly, and I LOVE being snowed in. I don’t miss shoveling or bearing the cold, cold, cold while trying to get errands and stuff done.
used Toilet paper. Ok, I’m officially nauseated now.
LOL, Charles! I swear it’s not gross. It’s folded neatly, with no evidence of… being used. Shall we say.
I can’t get by the “neatly folded used toilet paper”. Who the heck is folding their used toilet paper? Everyone? Is there a terrible stench? I am totally intrigued.
LOL, Robin! No stench. And it’s folded in such a way as to obscure any ickiness. And the people folding it are people, I assume, accustomed to that habit.
LOL, I remember when my (now ex) Mexican in-laws first came to visit. I was totally freaked out to find all that toilet paper in the bathroom trash can. It took me a while to convince them the toilet wouldn’t be ruined if they flushed it.
As for the Coke-pop thing, it took me a while to get used to people saying “soda” in Wisconsin and Illinois. I grew up in Ohio where it was “pop.”
I forgot that you grew up in Ohio, Kate! Yeah, pop sounds normal to me!
LOL… that’s cute!
LOL… my “interesting sight” for the day is that my indoor thermometer reads 52 balmy degrees this morning–the heater apparently gasped its last breath last night. Joy!
Oh man! I had a cold night, too! It was in the low forties in my camper! I ran out of propane.
Speaking of “used toilet paper,” a friend of mine lives on the St. Lawrence Seaway (way up north). They have the same policy regarding toilet paper. But, they don’t have the “flush twice” mentality, which is really too bad. Instead they follow the slogan, “If it’s yellow let it mellow…” In a word, “ICK!”
Anyway, I haven’t seen anything interesting lately, but then again, I haven’t looked. Sometimes writers have to tune-in so that we don’t miss the weirdness.
Oh yuck! I remember I once had a little problem, and I stopped flushing during that because, well, I didn’t want to flush two times an hour. But I wouldn’t do that with other people around!
They do the same toilet paper thing in Greece. When I was there for two weeks it took me awhile to wrap my mind around that concept.
When I lived in Australia for a year, it was freaky getting used to 95 degree weather on Christmas day and chilly weather in August. That and driving on the opposite side of the street. The foot pedals of their cars were the same, but you try using a stick-shift left handed. Talk about a challenge.
Wow, Liz! That would be SO weird. I thought I’d have no problem driving on the other side of the road, but I never realized about the location of the stick-shift. That would be hard!
That’s so funny they do the toilet paper thing there. It’s taken me a month to get used to flushing it again — just in time to go home.
I understand. I keep flushing public toilets twice!