Pressure Wash

Interesting title, right? You think I'm going to write about the rain all winter and how it brings mold and how we need to pressure wash the pavers in our driveway and the path to our front door. Well, you're wrong. I mean all of that is true, but it's not the point of my post.

I have been traveling a lot lately. Two work trips and a weekend away with my family, all inside a two week period. Whew. I'm exhausted! But anyway, one of the most important things to me when I travel, one of the things I stress the most about while I'm en route to a hotel I've never been to before, is the shower. Yep, that's right. Don't care about the travel time, the pillows, leaving my home, or the bed (okay, maybe I care about those things a little). The single most important thing to me when I am away from home, is the shower. More specifically, I care about the water pressure. Follow me here for a minute...

Have you ever really needed a shower? I mean you're sweaty and you feel grimy and you need a good hot shower and a shampoo, only to pull back that curtain, turn the handle and find the magnificent shower head with 50 water holes can only manage to push water through nine of them? This is my worst nightmare, and it's recurring. I'm amazed at the fixtures some hotels install in their bathrooms to impress the guests. Fancy shapes, large round shower heads that resemble the center of a giant sunflower, multiple heads and detachable sprayer thingies. They build you up with such high hopes and impressive design, and half the time it's a complete let down.

Have you seen my hair? How in the world am I supposed to soak a full head of thick curly hair all the way to the scalp with a drip? And dare I even mention what happens once I lather up my shampoo. It can take me a half hour just to rinse out the soap. With such a horrible shampoo the conditioner becomes that much more important, but getting that to rinse out is even worse. I am destined at that point to have a bad hair day- if I can even make it out of the shower before lunch time.

Much to my delight, all three of my recent trips were nightmare-free. The first was my dad's house and they have great water pressure- better than what we have in our own home. Score one point for me. 

The second trip was to the Hyatt Grand Cypress in Orlando, where I traveled for work. That one was a bit challenging- a full shower head and one of those spray thingies. I would have bet I was going to get the Chinese water torture drip, because usually more than one head or spout results in divided and diminished water pressure. At the Hyatt, not so! I got some pounding. I'm talking pressure washing out the eye sand, and the overnight crusty allergy nostrils (sorry) and the hair. Oh, the hair. I was able to saturate my hair, drenched it as though I had plunged into a pool. And man, that shampoo rinsed out in record time. I wanted to take the experience home with me. Score another point for me!

When I arrived in the Sheraton in Tallahassee for the last of my three trips, the odds of a trifecta were near impossible. I packed my bags and prepared for bad hair days. Rain was in the forecast anyway and I resolved to be disappointed. The first night I didn't shower. But I did of course use the bathroom, which meant using the sink. Ugh. It was a light stream through individual holes. Turned all the way on it took way too long to rinse the soap. That's it. Tomorrow's shower would suck. Not so! The giant round sunflower head rained high pressure water down over me, again pressure washing my overnight funk and saturating my wild mane. Success, once again. Score three for me.

There's nothing like a good pressure wash