Tuesday 11 November 2008

Riverboat.... or Car Wash? You decide.

Driving along Route 1 through St Augustine, it's quite a surprise to see an old fashioned steamboat by the side of the road.
It's nowhere near it's natural habitat, muddy river water, unless you count the 6' deep, 8' wide moat that surrounds it.
But is it a real steamboat that somehow lost it's way?


Or could it be....


... a CAR WASH????

Showboat Car Wash was built in 2005 and offers a full wash service, washing about 13,000 cars a month. You drive over a bridge to enter and leave the carwash. There are chimneys and staircases and flags and it looks just like the real thing.
Mark Twain, eat your heart out.
Apparently, the car wash guys wear shirts embroidered with a ship's steering wheel. I wonder if they wear Captain's hats too.

We didn't get a wash, but we did fill up at the gas station next door.
Oh well, next time.
First two pics stolen borrowed from here. Third pic taken by Moi as we drove by.

14 comments:

  1. Well, whatever will they expend their efforts on next? We have a new $3 car wash, that when it was being built looked like a fast food restaurant. It has some kind of catchy name that escapes me at the moment.

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  2. that's the kind of car wash kids beg their parents to go through--or people want to photgraph and blog about. I would seriously expect some good catfish and hushpuppies from a place that looked like that.

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  3. That's excellent! I bet the owners do at least twice as much business as they would if they had just built a conventional car wash.

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  4. That is marketing at its finest. I can see how it would be a real money-maker.

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  5. That's cool. I want one of those :) BTW, my Dad is on the other coast, so I doubt hat he'll make the trip to St. Augustine. Pity.

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  6. No WAY! You know how there have been times when we've had parallel things happening in our opposite sides of the continent? Or country in this case? Not more than a mile from my house is a Delta Queen Car Wash, check it out:
    http://www.classiccarwash.com/stores/deltaqueen.html
    It's where I always go to get my car washed.
    How funny is that?

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  7. Mad: WOW that's amazing! It looks almost the same, how wild is that??
    The only difference is that we didn't get out vehicle washed and you did!!

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  8. What will they think of next? (I'll bet they do good business.)

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  9. Caught up with all your posts now. Having a great holiday I see.

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  10. What a great restaurant that banked riverboat would make!

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  11. hmmm...maybe the man who owns the carwashonasteamer was the father of the kid who drove his truck into the water....maybe that's why the kid looked so calm!!!

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  12. Well I never. It must cost a fortune to keep the outside all spick and span!

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All comments welcome.... unless your name is Anonymous..