We recently visited St. Augustine, FL. Founded in 1567, it is the oldest continually occupied city in the United States and is replete with a fascinating history and a plethora of sites and museums worth visiting. This post, however, is not about one of those places, but rather about a non-historical landmark one might notice while driving into town — the riverboat car wash.
Yes, while driving down Ponce de Leon Blvd, not long before turning down King Street to go to downtown St Augustine, there is what appears to be a full-sized riverboat alongside the road. It is in fact not a riverboat but Sporty’s Riverboat Car Wash. Cars drive up a stern “gangway” to enter the automated car wash, which is surrounded by a “moat” for runoff. The clean cars drive out the bow.
Sporty’s Riverboat Car Wash was built in 2005 and was inspired by a riverboat car wash in California. Yes, there are at least two riverboat car washes.
Photo: weirdca.com
While Sporty’s is more or less a generic riverboat, the Delta Queen Car Wash in Campbell, California, which dates to the 1960s, is an homage to the historic riverboat Delta Queen, (which may soon be returning to service.) In addition to being a car wash which looks like a riverboat, the Delta Queen Car Wash also features a gift shop, a coffee shop and restaurant food, and has a koi pond on its property, because, of course, it does. It is in California, after all.
please stop calling St Augustine the oldest continuously occupied city in the United States, it is not, by a long shot. Continuing to tell that hollow fact belittles all the Native civilizations from whom the land was stolen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoma_Pueblo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taos_Pueblo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oraibi,_Arizona
You are right. It is the oldest community occupied by Europeans.