Where's The Soap?

One of my many pet peeves when traveling is encountering a hotel with liquid soap dispensers in the shower. Excuse me, I meant to say "bath gel."

I understand why more hotels have adopted this practice. It's cheaper to refill the dispensers every week or so than to start out each guest with a new bar of soap that may only be used for a day before it has to be thrown away.

I don't have a problem using soft soap at the sink -- a couple of pumps and I have enough to clean my hands -- but in the shower, with a body as large as mine, I've gotta hit that thing more than a dozen times to get enough volume of "bath gel." Plus, there's something more satisfying about rubbing a bar of soap against the body and lathering up.

Perhaps I'll have to start traveling with my own bar of soap, as my daughter does. She's a vegan and -- I didn't know this until she informed me -- most commercial soaps (and "bath gels") contain at least one ingredient made from animal products. So she carries her own cruelty-free bar and forgoes whatever the hotel/motel/hostel offers.

That will also keep me from smelling like whatever combination of ingredients the "bath gel" producer has chosen for their product. Apparently, to be in that business, you only have to choose two random scents and combine them. Among those I've encountered on recent trips: lemongrass sage, cucumber melon, black raspberry vanilla, and oatmeal peppercorn.

It could be worse. I could be showering with pumpkin spice bath gel.