There's no doubt you can see plenty of Nova's, Camaro's, Mustangs and Chevelle's on the Hot Rod Power Tour, but you might not see another one of these . . .

We were deciding which vehicle to take on the Power Tour, and several ideas came to mind. And while it would sure be nice to ride in the air-conditioned comfort of our '09 Challenger, listening to Satellite radio, that's not what the Power Tour is really about. Our next thought was to take the '71 Road Runner, but we just did get that car on the road and would hate to take a chance on being the ones on the side of the road or holding anyone up if we would have a problem, or holding up progress with 4.10 gears. Next, the '69 Newport convertible was our choice, and seemed to be a viable candidate until we realized 2 cylinders were oil-fouling the spark plugs, which would kill our already miserable mileage.

Then it occured to us: Take the van, man. I mean this groovy ride is made for road trips with its custom interior featuring wood paneling, a fold down couch-bed, and swivel bucket seats. The shag carpet smells a little like Casey Anthony's trunk, but the air-conditioning doesn't work so we'll have to keep the windows down anyway. So for the past week, we've been repairing all the problems with our 33 year old California custom show van with a little help from Inline Performance Specialists. 

Other than the routine repairs, we installed a cd player, footprint gas pedal, fixed the antanae, and put some home stereo speakers in the back. We don't have a gas gauge, but we're headed to Cocoa anyway for the kickoff party tomorrow with some of our local Mopar friends. The 360 won't get any better mileage than a big-block, but at least we can haul all of our luggage, extra parts, tools, lawn chairs, and various other items, still having room to hang our collection of suede leisure suits in the back.

If the van's a rockin' . . . don't bother knockin'! 

Hope to see you there