I said I’d knock out this post and I meant it   There’s a whole bunch of pictures, so I hope it’s not too long for everyone

Monday started with a trip up to Carrol Shelby’s place in the hopes of a meal in his diner.  Sadly, it’s been closed for a few months even though it’s still on the website and there’s still a billboard.  Happily, the museum and production facility is still open   Even starting early, I don’t think I have the time to label each picture so I’ll go in batches

Here we go

This is what you see when you walk into Carrol Shelby’s Las Vegas facility and look to the right.  I could easily go broke just from the speeding tickets   And yes, one of these days I will have a Cobra

Yep, that really is the very first Shelby Cobra   The paint is pretty nice, but if you get close you can see some places where some has chipped off and you can see the old colors below.  This car was on quite a few magazine covers and they’d paint it before each shoot so it would look like they had more than one at the time   While the paint looks pretty good, you’ll notice that the upholstery is in less than perfect condition.  The story goes that someone wanted to redo the seats and Carrol said that at least one part of the car was staying original.  Nobody who works there has even contemplated suggesting it since then

The good news is that while this car won’t ever see a public highway, you can still get a real Cobra from Shelby   They’ll sell you the car without the engine or transmission and another part of the company (really a second company) will sell you an engine and install it.  The car is then a “hot rod” and can be driven on the public roads.  I’ll be just like the cars from the 1960s, warts and all.  They’re not cheap, but they’re a whole lot less money than the original Cobras

The reason production of the Series One ended early was that even though they were very limited in production and even though they used off the shelf Oldsmobile engines, the EPA decided that they’d have to do the whole process of certifying the emissions all over again.  This was too costly to justify further production and the car is now a very limited collector’s piece that’s still incredibly fast.

You’re not very likely to see anything like this somewhere else

The Ford GT was and is a great car   I love the old styling brought out in the new car

No, this isn’t an original GT-40 but it’s tough to tell.  It’s a replica made by another manufacturer with Carrol Shelby’s approval.  A while back, Shelby put out a request to those who were making new versions of his cars.  He asked them to donate to his charity and in turn he’d let them continue building and give them an endorsement.  I can’t remember the maker of this replica, but it sure does look good

Here’s three cool Shelby Mustangs all in a row   The blue car is a GT 500 KR (King of the Road), but the red and yellow cars are Super Snakes   Yes, I want the 725 HP version

I saw the display over by the gift shop and couldn’t resist taking a picture – I love the “Snake Oil”

If you go down to the first Cobra when you walk in and turn to the left, this is what you’ll see.  Yep, a couple more Cobras and a couple of vintage GT Mustangs   Yeah, I could live with this collection in my garage

After we left Shelby, we headed on over to Nellis Air Force Base to visit the Thunderbirds’ hangar and a couple of the other sights.  My brother is retired Coast Guard, so it’s pretty easy for me to get on base when he’s in town.

This is one of the very cool items in the museum that you won’t see anywhere else.  You can’t buy real Thunderbirds patches – they’re controlled items.  As a Thunderbird, you wear these patches on your uniforms.  When you leave, they let you have one and only one which is mounted in a frame.  Seeing the whole history of Thunderbirds patches is a real treat for someone who’s into military aviation and history like I am

This is another rare item in the museum.  The Thunderbirds only flew six airshows in the F-105 Thunderchief because of structural failures which showed that strengthening would have been required and would have been too expensive.

This picture was donated to the Thunderbirds by Ralph “Hoot” Gibson and his wife.  Gibson was an Ace in Korea and lead the Thunderbirds.  That’s a scene I would dearly love to see in real life and I would be thrilled to have a painting like this one in my home

When they’re at an airshow, the Thunderbirds jets can be found here at their hangar.  The two jets closest are two seaters which are used for promotional flights and pilot evaluations when candidates for the team are being considered.

So where else did I want to go on my trip to Nellis?  Why, to the Threat Training Facility of course   I went inside to try to buy a couple of items in their gift shop, but it wasn’t there right now.  It’s one of those things that happens when you can’t call ahead.

I’ve been in here before, so I wasn’t heartbroken when I couldn’t stay.  Those are MiGs.  Soviet MiGs to be more accurate and the MiG-29 in the foreground was once operated by an elite unit guarding Moscow.  The MiG-23 in the background came from Iraq if I remember correctly.  A military ID to get on base is now all hat’s required to get into this once secret facility.

This MiG-17 is painted in North Korean colors, but I don’t know where it originally came from.  They don’t tell you much about where exactly they got this hardware, so it’s possible this jet was part of the squadron that operated out of Tonopah during Constant Peg.

While it may have been unthinkable during the Cold War, Nellis AFB is now home to many different former enemy aircraft and weapons systems which are all on public display.  Having grown up during the Cold War, there’s still a thrill every time I see one of these jets, especially up close

Mom and I headed back down to Bass Pro after we dropped my brother off at the hotel – he didn’t want to go get food for Ziva or go back to Bass Pro after a long day.

That’s a working fireplace in the entrance, even if it runs on gas which is much more practical all things considered.  You’ll often find people lounging in the entrance which is why the store put all the nice chairs and stuff in there.  I really like all the Christmas decorations, too

So there’s Monday in the books and I still have to put together Tuesday’s post.  With that in mind, I’d best get going

Have a great day, everyone