Mysterious, Horrible Smell

A couple of weeks ago, we were driving to Emilie and Doug's when Carrie noticed a strong odor in the car. Something like a mix of wet dog, burnt hair, and manure. We decided that it was Emilie and Doug's sleeping bags, which we were taking back to them after they'd been in our garage for a while. We debated whether to tell them or just put the sleeping bags in their garage before they could smell them. Here's a shot of the way over.

As we got in the car to leave their house about six hours later, we were instantly alerted that it was certainly NOT their sleeping bags. Doug and Ben (Emilie's brother) made the mistake of sticking their heads in the car to check it out only to end up dry-heaving for five minutes afterward. Apparently having the doors and windows shut for six hours gave it time to strengthen in pungency to an almost lethal level.

Some searching around in the car led me to an old water bottle in the backseat floorboard that had once held Carrie's protein shake mix - Cookies 'n' Cream powder plus cranberry juice. What it now held was a fermented draught of evil. I opened the lid to confirm that it was the culprit and it almost burned my eyes out.

We threw the bottle away, went home, and googled every home remedy we could find for odor removal. Charcoal was the winner, and I drove my car around for the next week with two baking pans full of charcoal briquettes. No dice. I finally got my car detailed, complete with carpet shampooing, and that took most of it out. The smell is lingering but getting better with each Febrezing.

Moral of story. Cookies 'n' Cream plus cranberry juice is the worst combination ever for a protein shake.