A Pesty in the Westy Revisited

Remember the Pesty in the Westy? Well, for a couple of weeks Mike had been complaining of a smell in the van. Suspects included his shoes (which indeed carry a foul odor) and the rug (which had been wet more than once and maybe hadn´t dried out completely).

He kept asking if I could smell it while we were driving but I really couldn’t. He’d take his shoes off and huck them in back while driving and on several occasions he threatened to throw the rug out. This seemed a dramatic step when I thought we could just find a sunny spot and dry it out but good.

Then one night I leaned over the front driver’s seat and my stomach turned. This was the smell of rotting flesh. We moved things and searched for that errant piece of raw chicken that might have missed the trash bag but found nothing.

A day later when we were having the oil changed, Mike went on the hunt for the smell. Down the drain? No…..but in that area….and then, “Whoa, smell this” as he put his nose towards a knock-out in the door jam that opens to an empty space in the body of the van. (No thanks, I’ll believe you).

The knock-out matches one on the passenger side that serves as a passive vent, but on the driver’s side it is a dead-end cubby hole.

The guys changing the oil found the activity of flushing out the ‘raton’ more interesting than a standard oil change and everyone got in the act.

Luckily there is a small rubber stopper at the bottom of the chamber and with much effort they were able to flush out what was left of the Pesty in the Westy. First came fur and then came well-decayed flesh. With a solid application of Sani-Pine and an oil change, they sent us on our way.

We think this may be the same rodent we picked up in Utah and he’s been slowly decaying ever since. The process was hastened when we spent several days in some really wet highlands followed by some really dry beach time. And, thus, we hope, ends the Pesty in the Westy “tail”.