|
oil fields of western North Dakota.
• "We smelled," he said. "Bad."
• Thousands of workers have descended on the region to seek their fortune in the oil fields, and housing construction and growth of brick-and-mortar businesses haven't kept up. The closest shower to Jensen was at a truck stop some 60 miles away. It was expensive, filthy and the wait was several hours long.
• That's when the idea for a mobile shower hit him harder than the reek of his own B.O.
• "There are a lot of necessities that aren't available out here," Jensen said. "Like a place to take a shower and brush your teeth."
• An armada of food trucks and other roving enterprises was already catering to oilfield workers. The teen believed others also would value a hot shower nearly as much as a hot meal.
• He pitched the idea to his parents back at their farm near Lake Preston in eastern South Dakota. His father and other relatives helped him convert a 53-foot semitrailer into a five-stall shower center with an office and laundry facilities.
• A 6,000-gallon semi tanker alongside the trailer provides fresh water and collects the greywater.
• Jensen paid for the renovation with $15,000 he earned in the past two years trapping muskrats, whose fur is sent to China to be fashioned into coats, slippers and earmuffs. Each pelt fetches about $10.
• "That's a pile of muskrats," Jenson said after the construction was done.
• The mobile venture, called Better Showers, rolled into an RV campground in the heart of the oil patch in June. A shower costs $10, with a half-price discount for resi (Continued on page 22)
|
|
