Out and About

Local haunted car wash offers scares and suds

All of the actors throughout the ghoulish experience are employees of the car wash, adding to the familial feel.

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By
Lucy Tobias
, WRAL contributor
RALEIGH, N.C. — One of the things I’ve been surprised to learn since moving from NYC to Raleigh (and getting my first car at 32) is that car washes are amazing. While trying to find a spot to get my Jeep spruced up, I came across The Car Wash Lodge on Instagram. They had an offering that seemed too fun to be true: A Haunted Car Wash…dun dun dun!

To give you some context, I haven’t been in any form of a haunted house, haunted tours, haunted anything, since my Mom turned our basement into a haunted house in the third grade. Long story short, I ran out halfway screaming and crying and back onto the sidewalk of Third Avenue. It’s also a very strict rule in my apartment that my husband, Mark, is not allowed to jump out and scare me at all because of this past “trauma.” But, I’m 32 now, and a haunted car wash seemed fun and easy!

One of my favorite things off the bat about The Car Wash Lodge is that it’s a family-owned business, run by a husband and wife duo - neither of whom are lacking of, what I’ve come to know and love, as Southern charm. All of the actors throughout the ghoulish experience are employees of the car wash, adding to the familial feel. It’s pretty impressive, too, that this is only their second year putting this on, and they have created an entire experience from the moment you pull into the lot to your final buff on the way out.
As you pull up into the Haunted Car Wash, an American Horror Story (Roanoke Season) – inspired butcher swine gives you the stink eye as he’s trying to carve up human limbs in peace; the killer clown does a thorough job at prepping your car for the suds; but if you watch the video with this article (you won’t be disappointed I promise you), you can witness the moment we nearly turned around and bailed. I give you full permission to laugh.

The Car Wash Lodge has three locations (Morrisville, Cary and Garner), so make sure to navigate correctly to the Garner location, since this is the only one that is offering this Halloween fun. The final weekend is Oct. 29 (Friday) and Oct. 30 (Saturday) from 7 to 10 p.m.

Owner Janie Styers and her husband tried the haunted car wash at their Morrisville location last year, and said they are excited to launch this special, spooky event in Garner this year. The shop is a flex car wash, which means that they offer express washes, and have options for you to clean out the inside of your car yourself, or have their amazing team do it for you in their full service canopy.

The Car Wash Lodge is located at 4717 Hwy. 42 in west Garner.

Also please note - there were plenty of kiddos running around and having a blast. I am just a grade-A scaredy cat. Happy Halloween!

Lucy T is a millennial and native New Yorker who is new to the Raleigh area. Her passions in life are pugs, pinot and pizza. She is also the new Marketing Director at Artsplosure. She and her six year old pug, Dazey, will be exploring Raleigh with WRAL.com’s Out and About. Follow along with their adventures on Instagram as she discovers all Raleigh has to offer!

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