Life's a Journey, Not a Destination: Feeling like royalty!

Living in Scottsdale, a relatively affluent area filled with BMWs, Escalades, Mercedes, Lexuses, etc., the joke remains that there are no inexpensive car washes here because there are no inexpensive cars. (Apparently they haven't caught onto our aged Ford and Chrystler rattletraps or else we'd have been kicked out by now!) I found, however, THE place to go for a great-value wash, a mere five minutes from the condo: Danny's Family Car Wash at the Shell station. (Not sure why it's a "family" wash--it's not like Danny is sticking rags in his kids' hands to wipe off that Arizona dust.) While one could order up a fancy $12.99 or even $19.99 full-service handwash, vacuum, dashboard dusting, and "complimentary" air freshener--in five different scent options--Danny's also has an "express" machine-wash option for a mere $5.00.

I pull into the line of cars waiting for one of the various carwashing varieties and am approached by a worker who immediately notices my Wisconsin license plate, proudly informing me that he is originally from Lake Geneva. As he takes my order, I see a sign that says, "Gas: $3.30 per gallon with any car wash." ($3.30?! In WI, I was paying at least $3.79 most of the time!) Not only is the gas cheaper, but he even pumps it for me, in a good ol' days, small town, "Andy Griffith" kind of way. :-) I am then instructed to leave my car with them so they can drive it through a series of sudsy machines while I enter the cool relief of the air conditioned building to pay for the service. After being informed of their 72-hour "raincheck" guarantee, the cashier tells me to wait about five minutes in the cushioned-seat lounge, complete with flat screen TVs and a large, colorful fish tank.

On the other end, the car comes out and two people with rags dry off my freshly-gleaming Escape from top to bottom. Just when I think they are finished, another person comes through and Windexes all six windows! THEN, they drive it forward to a hanging nozzle that squirts pressurized air to blow out the dust from the window crevices. I've never received so much attention at a "cheap" car wash before. I felt like a princess! I left behind a tip and decided that I was pretty darn satisfied with the wash that, in the end, cost only $7.00. (With a full tank of gas, $45.00 total for the visit...)

Random observation #5: This is more of a lesson than an observation this time. :-) While the experience above was intended to be a quick wash to get rid of the dirt splatters from my Escape's cross-country journey, I had taken our Sebring convertible--which we bought two years ago and left out here--for some full-service attention when we first arrived. Many of you may remember the giant dust storm in Phoenix this past July. If you haven't seen its movie-like entrance, you MUST check out this brief video: Dust storm video - AMAZING! (You'll have to press play and then wait about 10 seconds for it to buffer/load.) So, the technical name for a dust storm is a "haboob." (Yeah, I know--make your jokes, guys!) Haboobs only occur in Arizona and the Middle East. That's your lesson. Anyway, when Mom and I arrived in August, we had not yet seen its effects on our household, and I had the task of cleaning up some pretty significant baked-on dust. I will leave you with some pics to show you what this unusually significant storm did to our car and a table on our patio.