Carroll Shelby Museum

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The Museum: This museum is all about Carroll Shelby. Carroll Shelby is recognized as one of the automotive industry’s greatest legends. Early in Shelby’s career, his accomplishments as a race car driver included breaking land speed records at Bonneville in 1954 for Austin Healey and winning the 24-hour Le Mans in 1959, as well as dozens of other driving races. His performance cars, the Shelby Cobra and Shelby Mustangs made Carroll Shelby a household name. While the desert tourist Mecca has long been home to Shelby American and the Carroll Shelby Museum, both entities have recently moved to a new expanded home in the Shelby Heritage Center, located adjacent to Interstate 15 and just a few blocks from Las Vegas Boulevard. The museum consists of a 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility where the Cobras and the new Series 1 are being constructed. You will also find a showroom filled with 35 years’ worth of Shelby performance cars, many worth upwards of 1 million dollars. The museum is open Monday thru Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm and offers free tours of the museum and production facility daily at 10:30am.

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The Tour: Nearly 30 people lined up for the 10:30 tour. Led by the guide in pictures (Figs 02 & 03) was outstanding. As he took us around the showroom floor, his knowledge of the entire collection and the history of Carroll Shelby and the production of Shelby's models and engines over the years was amazing. Many of his descriptions were filled with his years of experiences and personal stories. From the early Cobra's (Fig. 04) through the various iterations of limited models (Figs. 05 & 06) to one time productions (Fig. 07), nothing was left out. From Carroll's Cobras, Series 1 and Ford Shelby Mustangs to his involvement in the Viper and Shelby Ford GT (Fig. 08), he was alwayd pushing the performance envelope. His performance philosophy is as relevant today as it was in 1962 when he founded his company, and his legacy will live on for many more years to come.  (notes con't below)

                         

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Notes Continued: As we roamed the floor he opened hoods and provided the details about many of the cars' engines, displacement, horsepower, etc. (Fig. 09). We took in the details of as many as we could (Figs. 10, 11 & 12). After touring the showroom, he took us to the workshop in the back of the building where they are currently building and modifying or restoring new and older vehicles. It was amazing how big this shop was. It was also so clean you could eat off the floor. As they also sell many of the cars in the showroom, they also customize them for personal buyers. I was surprised that this guided tour lasted nearly one and a half hours, and how much we both enjoyed it. I thanked Ron Ziance for setting up this tour.

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Floyd Lamb Park - Trip Notes for 02/12/2018

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This page last updated on 02/18/2018

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Directions: Floyd Lamb Park is located at the north end of town at 9200 Tule Springs Rd, Las Vegas. From the Stratosphere Casino head northeast on Las Vegas Blvd about 3 miles and turn left onto US-93/95 north. Bearing left, stay on 95 north towards Ely/Reno. Travel about 15 miles and take the Durango Drive exit, exit 93. Turn right onto N. Durango Dr. Go about 1.5 miles and turn right onto Brent Lane. Brent Lane becomes Tule Springs Road and takes you to the entrance of the park. Distance from the point of origin is about 20 miles and takes about 30 minutes.

Description: Floyd Lamb is a pleasant and pretty place to throw out a picnic blanket or reel in a rainbow trout. In a city filled with palms and desert landscape, the park's grass lawns, 4 stocked ponds, hundreds of cottonwood trees, picnic areas, barbecues, scenic paths and volleyball and horseshoe facilities on 2,040 acres, it looks a little out of place in the Mojave metropolis of Las Vegas (Fig. 01). The grounds are filled with hundreds of ducks and geese (Fig. 02), dozens of beautiful peacocks, and more than two dozen Pygmy Rabbits (Brachylagus idahoensis). Those with a Nevada fishing license can fish in any of the park's ponds but are limited to three fish per person. Visitors can also explore Tule Springs Ranch, one of the best examples of Pleistocene paleontologic sites in western North America. Tule Springs was visited by large prehistoric mammals in an era when the southern Nevada area was much cooler and wetter. Fossil remains of extinct mammoths, bison, horses, camels, giant sloths and other animals have been found in Tule Springs.

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In later years Tule Springs served as a watering hole for Indians and prospectors who traveled across Nevada. In 1916, John Herbert (Bert) Nay was the first non-Indian to file for water rights. As he acquired more property at Tule Springs, he built a blacksmith shop and a storage room. The property remained vacant until prospector Jacob Goumond purchased the land. He took advantage of Nevada's changing divorce laws and set up a dude ranch for prospective divorcees. Tule Springs also was a self-supporting ranch. One hundred acres was set aside for alfalfa and cattle; other animals were raised and sold, as well as several vegetable varieties. Its many functional wooded buildings still exist. Goumond's granddaughter inherited the ranch when he died in 1954. She sold it to a group of businessmen who formed the Tule Springs Investment Company. They leased out the ranch until the city of Las Vegas bought it in 1964. It was converted into a city park and renamed in honor of state Sen. Floyd Lamb.

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02/12/2018 Trip Notes: Even though I have visited this park more than a half dozen times, this is the first time I've come for a 'picnic' in the winter. Today, Jim Herring, Blake Smith Connie and myself decided to have a picnic in the park. It was sunny and near 70, but the winds made it feel colder. The picture in (Fig. 03) above, show where we picnicked. Looking out across the lake is the view we enjoyed while we ate (Fig. 04). The lake was filled with nearly a hundred American Coots (Fig. 04). To read more ... American Coot - (Fulica americana). After lunch I started throwing out some bread. They swam in from everywhere and starting fighting each other like they hadn't eaten for months. Their efforts to grab the bread created a very loud trashing sound. I titled the picture in (Fig. 05) "Free for All".  Jim, Blake and I then took a walk around the park while Connie sat in the sun at the picnic area reading her book. (Notes con't below)

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(Fig. 05) Title: Free for All

Notes Continued: As we walked we circled two of the main lakes. As usual here we encountered a variety of geese and ducks including Greylag Geese (Fig. 06), Canada Geese (Fig. 07), Snow Geese and more, many "hunkered down" due to the winds (Fig. 08). Even the winter views of the trees, void of any leaves made for some nice pictures (Figs. 09 & 10). At the far end of our walk we encountered more than two dozen peacocks (Figs. 11 & 12), most nestled in the shrubs and small trees. (Notes con't below)

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Notes Continued: Finally we came upon the area where the rabbits habitat. These are Pygmy Rabbits (Brachylagus idahoensis) (Fig. 13). The small rabbits have short ears and a snub nose. The pygmy rabbit is believed to be one of only two Leporids (a family of mammals that include rabbits and hares), in Northern America that digs its own burrows. There main habitat is Northern Nevada and Utah up into Montana. To read more ... Pygmy Rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis). The first time I encountered these on a visit two years ago there were only about four of them. Today we counted nearly 15 (Fig 14). We then made back to Connie and our picnic area for the ride home (Figs. 15 & 16).

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Ethel M Botanical Christmas Cactus Garden

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This page last updated on 12/24/2017

Last night Jim Herring, his daughter, Connie and I drove over to Boulder City to see the home of The winner of 2016's Great Christmas Light Fight.  After going here we went to the Ethel M's Cholocate Factory to see its decorated botanical cactus garden. Even thou I have done this more than once in the past several years, I think they had more lights than I have ever seen here before. I took all these pictures with my Samsung Galaxy 8 phone and was amazed at how well they came out.

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Morning Walk at the Clark County Wetlands Preserve

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This page last updated on 08/07/2017

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An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. 

Henry David Thoreau

General Description : The Clark County Wetlands Park is the largest park in the Clark County, Nevada park system. Only a few miles from our house, the park is located on the east side of the Las Vegas valley and runs from the various water treatment plants near the natural beginning of the Las Vegas Wash to where the wash flows under Lake Las Vegas and later into Lake Mead. The park includes 2,900 acres of water, trails, and trees along the Las Vegas Wash.  The 210 acre Nature Preserve (Fig. 02 below) is a map showing the preserves two miles of concrete and graveled secondary walking trails. 
                                             

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Our Morning Walk:  On 08/05, Blake Smith and I got up bright and early and around around 5:30 am we headed over to the Clark County Wetlands Preserve. The 'red' circle  bottom center of (Fig. 02) at the north end of the parking lot is where we started. Even though it was partially overcast after a night of rain, I captured the picture in (Fig. 01 above) as the sun was rising shortly after our start. Even though we have both been to this preserve several times before, I forgot to bring my map and we ended up getting 'lost' among the maze of paths and trails. Even though Our original goal was to hike to the Weir Bridge and falls in the upper right corner of the map, we ended up weaving around the mostly dirt trails in the western side of the preserve, and never made it to the bridge.

Along the way we circled three different ponds (Fig. 03). As is usual here, we must have spotted more than a dozen rabbits (Fig. 04) along side the trails. One of the small ponds had a little waterfall at one end (Fig. 05). We could hear occasional birds, but couldn't get any shots. Near one pond we spotted a Dusky Moorhen tending her young chick (Fig. 06). Clickhere to read about this waterfowl ... Dusky Moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa). On the side of the largest pond, there was a small bench that provided us with a good spot to rest and drink some water. It was amazing how much we were sweating. Even though the temperature was only in the upper 70's, due to the previous nights' rain the humidity was more than 40%, high for Las Vegas. The picture in (Fig. 08) was taken from in front of the bench. Figure 08 is the third pond we found. Even though I didn't take many pictures on this visit, we both enjoyed the walk and the conversation. We both agreed that we wanted to to it again soon. After walking more than 2.2 miles, we drove to the Cracked Egg on Green Valley Pkwy for breakfast on our way home.
                                             

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I challenge you to walk where you have not yet walked before - there is a whole world right outside your window. You feel the silence as if it were a great fresh wind blowing away the clouds of life. The silence is tremulous. You can walk yourself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness, imagined or real. You’d be a fool to miss it.

Click here for pictures and info from previous visits ...
Clark County Wetlands Park & Nature Preserve.