Well, I did not make it to Birmingham….

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I did not make it to Birmingham today and needed to spend the night at a Days Inn in Tallahassee Florida.  I started going through the information that I collected and realized that I got too much crap.  I will be going through all my pictures of the ICA meeting and posting them soon (along with posting pictures and descriptions of products that I talked to vendors about).  I also stopped at some car washes in Orlando and on the way to Tallahassee and plan to post those pictures soon.

I guess the hotel was in a bad part of town (last picture), maybe that is why it was the cheapest in town?

The long drive home…..

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I picked up a flier from a Florida rest area and realized that I needed to “Slow Down!” to protect black bears.  Did you know that 160 bears were killed in 2007? 

I was very tired after the party and still did not get over the drive to Orlando.  So I took a break at Petro and noticed a common site, an out of order Rowe changer. 

While visiting the Rowe booth at the ICA meeting, I noticed that all but one of the Rowe changers had Mars bill acceptor.  Which is weird because the Rowe acceptor seems to have problems all the time.  Did Rowe even figure this out?

MEI credit card bill system

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Credit card systems have been popular lately and the MEI system is really nice.  They are selling retro kits for some Rowe changers (of course they do not sell one for my BC-200) the system just replaces the transporter and nothing else.

The CC system runs around $750 per setup (attaches onto a MEI bill acceptor not included) $165 for the credit card face plate (which is metal not plastic).  It is a cellular CC system (which cost $10 a month) and cost 5% for an average ticket less the $10 and 2 3/4% of average above $10.

You could put one CC bill acceptor in you dual changer and then vend tokens.  (Like the bi-metal tokens from TokensDirect.)  The only problem with the system is that each system needs all the parts and can not share.  So if you wanted to install one in every bay then you have to purchase everything over again for each bay.  Also $10 a month per system/bay.

I also checked out the Wash Verify CC system which it nice and can be installed in any environment and not even on a meter box.  Also you can repair individual pieces on the cc swipe, but the server it Windows XP and uses an Internet connection.

ICA Meeting

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I just figured out yesterday that I am going to go to the ICA show this year.  Just a little last minute but I should be there.  Just look for the guy with the pet rat.  If you are not going, I am hopefully going to do some live photos of the show and some live blogging (moblogging for the cool kids) on the floor and seminars.  The ICA show is always fun but it is going to be in Orlando this year, which means really bad drivers.  I hope I can also find a couple of washes around town to photo.

Captain Cook car wash pressure washing machine- double Item number: 270213125165

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Check out the Captain Cook Cleaning System on ebay.  I do not remember hearing anything about Cook Machinery Co. Inc., Dallas, Texas at the ICA show.  But I have not gone to the ICA in a while.  This equipment has an interesting design, but with the pictures provided it is hard to judge.  So if you can not afford the iwash system why not purchase the Captain Cook system?