We then drove over to Las Vegas, Nevada.  We went down on the "strip" after dark and watched some fountains and two free shows.  If you have been paying attention, you will have noticed that we have mostly by-passed large or busy cities.  Las Vegas is not really our sort of place.  However, we did see a candy factory (Ethel M. Chocolates) and a manufacturer of vitamin tablets (The National Vitamin Company).  We also did see a lot of Air Force jets practicing take-offs and landings.  Wow!  They were really roaring right over our heads.

However, my favorite activity in Las Vegas was Carrol Shelby International.  Carrol built the first Cobra race car in 1962 and they have raced world-wide since then.  They are also a popular, but limited, street vehicle.  Shelby continues to produce a wide variety of models, including the orignal 289 model and the 427 muscle car.  He also has a new version called the Series 1 and also has the newly released Shelby GT-H.  The GT-H is a version of a Mustang and they are building 500 for the Hertz rental company!  (You too can rent a Cobra!)  We toured a small museum with about a dozen cars and then went through their manufacturing plant.  The Cobra has always been my favorite car and this was a special event for me.  While in the "museum" our guide pointed out a 1966 Mustang/Cobra which belonged to a client and had just been re-built.  (You can see this one in the photos below.)  Just as we were finishing up out in the assembly plant, we heard a very hot car go by out back in the parking lot.  VERY HOT!  Through an open garage door we heard it turn around and come back.  All I saw was a white flash and heard a deep roar.  Then, it turned around again and came back into the shop.  This was the client's car I just mentioned and has a 302 engine with 550 HP.  Oh my!  If you want to see their web page, you can go to   http://www.shelbyamerican.com/

One of the great things about touring manufacturing plants, etc. is that most are free and many give away free samples.  (Shelby did not!)

We left Las Vegas and drove west all the way across California to Oxnard.  We spent two nights at Point Mugu (Big Sycamore Canyon) State Park.  Oxnard and Ventura have a neat harbor and beach area and we spent time just looking around there.  While driving down the coast highway, we saw a helicopter hovering near a mountain.  It was practicing emergency rescues.  We saw it lower a crew member down to the ground and then take them back up.  Then, the helicopter moved off and returned and did it again.

Then we drove north up to Pismo Beach.  We had been here in our first week of the trip (in January) and the weather had been beautiful, if a bit cool.  Now, the weather turned foggy and cool with just a bit of mist coming down.  Jackie's aunt and uncle live here and we wanted to stop and share our trip with them (they do not have Internet).  Regretfully, we found that her aunt was having medical problems and was in a nursing home.  We did get to visit with both of them, though.

Well, we are now really heading home.  From Pismo Beach to Keizer is only about 820 miles.  It feels like we are already home!  Seriously, it has been a long trip (this is day #104) and we are ready to come home.  We are eager to see friends and family, get back to the chores around the house, get ready for RFKC, and get back to lodge meetings.  Besides... you are having better weather in Salem than we are here!  That was not part of the deal! 

Also, the cost of gas is getting hard to deal with.  It is about 70 cents more per gallon than when we left!  Ouch!

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