Well, I managed to survive!
This was a huge challenge for me. The MegaMax got me up there and got me home without having to change during the drive. But I had to fake needing to go at rest stops to avoid suspicion. At one stop I went into a stall until the others had left and came out and just washed my hands. At another where there was just a single bathroom, so I just washed my hands and came out again.
The flush toilet at the island turned out to be an outhouse with a flush toilet in it. But there was no front to the outhouse and thus no door. It faced away from the cabin towards the lake. For a continent person, this is no a big deal. But removing the MegaMax or changing pull-ups, made this a frightening experience. I was an early riser, so most of my business happened before the others got up in the morning. Upon arrival, I made it known that I needed to take a dump and managed to get the privacy needed to remove the soggy MegaMax and into my regular pull-up. Nerve wracking minutes!
The remainder of the time up there, I was scheming about how to get my MegaMax on before the trip
home. But history showed that I was the only early riser, so I got up early, used the toilet a couple of times and then taped on the MegaMax. No boats went by. The only problem was that we were not leaving until noon, so I avoided drinking fluids until we were almost home. Even so, it was a soggier trip home than the trip up.
Because my diet was thrown off with oily BBQ'd steaks and sausages etc, I ended up with diarrhea issues in the night. My balance is not that good and I had trouble in the night navigating the uneven ground to get to the outhouse. I also kept tripping over roots. On two nights I diarrhea leaked somewhat into the diaper getting to the outhouse, which was unpleasant. I had to throw some toilet paper in there until I could change in the morning.
The freezer bags for storing the used diaper worked ok. I worked real hard to avoid having accidents in the pull-ups because that would add to the number of used diapers I had to store. By the last day, even though I put the freezer bags inside a kitchen catcher bag, I could start to smell it.
I didn't do any swimming like the others but I was ok with that. I did walk in the water a few times. Overall, I very much enjoyed my time there.
There were many lessons learned:
- Ask more questions about the facilities before you go (don't assume)
- Watch your diet (especially oily foods)
- Don't skip your regular protection (I was temped to because any bush or tree would do). But don't forget about diarrhea.
- Leave extra room in your bag for the stored used diapers
- Develop backup plans
- Bring a little extra meds+protection (we ended up staying one more day)
The island had a wooded area, so I was prepared to go out there if necessary to put the MegaMax on. That is a last resort in my books because leaning against a tree will likely result in bark falling into your diaper. That would make it a very uncomfortable trip home!