Meet Adam. He is (also) TodaysNiceStranger! I was innocently taking a photo of the Bicycle-Tours-of-Atlanta bike I use (named Foreward Warrior), leaning against the automated public toilet in Piedmont Park that I love so much that I’ve even included it as a stop on the Sustainability-in-Action Bike Tour, when he rode up, looking inquisitive. Mistake number one! He had just unknowingly fallen down my automated bathroom rabbit hole!
Turns out it wasn’t a mistake at all. Adam was scoping out the bathroom because he had a picnic date later that evening and had already run into trouble finding a decent bathroom with this same woman and wanted to solve that problem this time. So, I gave Adam my spiel, in he went to demonstrate for our viewing public (although I don’t show the cool things that happen inside), and then . . . we got curious.
“It automatically cleans between uses,” I told him.
Hmmm. What exactly happens, we wondered.
And thus we started rigging his cell phone and my GoPro camera so they could witness what goes on behind closed doors when no one is in there. What happened next was nothing short of hilarious, it did involve a small crowd, it teetered on the edge of illegality, and let’s just say we’ve learned a lot. I may even share some of it on the tour.
And now, not to leave you hanging, but Adam texted me late at night with an update. The date went great. Picture Brie and apples and appropriate other accoutrements on a beautiful grassy hillside under the stars in a park still open for yet another forty minutes, when, lo and behold, they both had to use the bathroom. Adam had this worked out, and was looking forward to the ease of meeting this need for his date.
And then . . . .
The bathroom was locked!
As Adam said in his text, “Epic fail.”
Damn.
Well, I now have Adam in my phone contacts as “Adam from the Toilet.” And I am reminded about how these sorts of things don’t happen when you’re in a car.
Traveling at the Speed of Bike 