do it yourself car wash

There are so many do it yourself car washes out here.  In my NY past, I went to the kind of car wash you either drove your car through, or got out and they put the car through the wash for a smart washing - based on what level car wash.  Sure, there are a few of those kinds of car washes out here...but they are harder to find.  The manual car washes seem to be on like every other block.

After the really snowy February, my car was a disaster, so a wash has been on my to-do list for weeks.  Then when things finally quieted down, the weather became 50-65 degrees and EVERYONE wanted a car wash so both the drive through and the manual ones had really long lines.  Ugh.

I attempted a wash-your-own car wash.  The sign said only $2.  I didn't know for how long.  I was number 3 in line so I was trying to watch the people in front of me to see what they did.  I should have gotten out and just asked the person who looked like he knew exactly what he was doing. The person in front of me washed his car for like 8 minutes.

When it was my turn, I pulled up, grabbed some quarters and read the sign.  Yeah, still confused.  So I just put quarters in, the water started and I gave it a quick hard wash.  Then I quickly grabbed the soap brush and did a super fast scrub because my water still had time.  Then I ran back over to the water stick and sprayed the car from the top down.  And I ran out of time.  I threw in another quarter got 25 seconds, and finished the back of the car.

For $2.25 I have a much cleaner car.  But it wasn't dirt free, which is fine. No doubt it is going to get dirty when it rains or snows next week.

This is an area I need to experiement more, or find someone whose done this before and explain what all the options meant and how to best utilize the water time vs soap scrubbing.

I like that I get to have different experiences out here.  That something 'normal' back home is a different 'normal' here.  For me to feel like I am here...I need to do these 'normal' local things.