Our local NBC affiliate has recently changed it's 10:30-11PM "after the news syndicated show" on Sunday evenings from a "Buck so and so, world game hunter" to a show called NASCAR Angels, a really sappy show hosted by Rusty Wallace where Goodyear/Gemini and others do "extreme makeovers" on poor and downtrodden folks' vehicles. I wouldn't normally watch, but having fallen asleep during the news(excessive campaign ads I guess), it was on as I awakened. This particular episode was about an older gal in Huntington Beach CA named Mary that taught inner city kids how to surf. Her surfer van? An old clapped out blue aircooled Vanagon. We hear her story(somewhat compelling) and then we see her old rusty Vanagon and all the surfboards she piles into the van( I've had 16 kayaks in and on my Vanagon before, so she didn't show me anything new). The NASCAR "crew" is going to fix up her old Vanagon in which she has named it "miracle" for multiple reasons. Man is this old van a heap!! Some guy named Skip or Jeff from Pop Top Heaven, has graciously offered to come up with a better "builder" van, a late model water boxer. The shop puts new brakes, muffler, all new coolant hoses, Goodyear tires(likely without the R sidewalls), new Ronal alloys, replaced the cracked glass bumpers, new stereo, nav system(wonder how long that will stay in the car parked along the SoCal beaches!) and several other improvements. the roof rack was right out of a plumber's wholesale catalogue, not Thule or Yakima go figure!. While the Vanagon is getting the once over, she gets to ride in a NASCAR track car with some babe. Not sure how that tied into the surfer story, but we got to see a lot of company logos for free while doing it. In addition to the van, Body Glove gave her a bunch of new wetsuits for the kids and some surf shop donated a bunch of new training boards. I think someone else handed her a big check too. A Ryan Seacrest wannabe was doing all the talking and Mary was obviously touched by all of this, as was the crowd. I just hope she doesn't have heads leaking in the next couple of months!! DM&FS
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