There is a hidden little gem within Las Vegas that I doubt any visitor really knows about.  It’s the Springs Preserve.  The Preserve is essentially where the water was located in Las Vegas.  I doubt there is really any water there now – most of the water comes from somewhere else these days.

It is basically a nature preserve.  Not really what someone outside of the desert would consider a nature preserve – there are no marshy areas like out east, there are no groves of trees like you might find in the middle of the country.  It’s just like outside of Las Vegas… desert.  There is a collection of sculptures throughout the grounds.  I saw several of them around the entrance and near the main buildings.  There could be more on the trails.  Most of them are made out of everyday object – there is one of a meter maid that is made from… a parking meter.  There are also three animals sitting side by side that are made of bicycles – tiny bicycles, in fact.

There are trails – one is a couple miles around.  You can walk it or, if you prefer, you can rent a bicycle and ride it.  I didn’t explore that part of the area.  I did however, visit two museums that reside in the Springs Preserve – the Nevada State Museum and the Origen Museum.  Yes, it’s spelled that way – according to their website, it is a combination of original and generations.

The Nevada State Museum is relatively small.  There are two large rooms with displays.  One room is a rotating exhibit – currently it has photos of Las Vegas by a photographer who specialized in HDR photography.  I honestly can’t say I’m real fond of HDR.  I’m guessing that is because people go way overboard on it.  These pictures aren’t overkill, but I still prefer shots that are more natural.  Having some adjustments in colors is one thing, but making it completely unrealistic… I don’t care for.

The other room is the real museum exhibit.  They have it arranged by time – starting in prehistoric and finishing in the glitz that is Las Vegas.  Several stuffed animals are on display as well as several fossils.  Along with the prehistoric exhibits, they spend a good amount of time on minerals that are located in Nevada – gold, silver, copper, etc.  I imagine some of the items are quite valuable – not because of their age, but because of their content.  I never knew there were some minerals in Nevada that glowed underneath a dark light.  They also have some scorpions mounted next to them so you can see how they glow, too.  (Although I’ve never seen a scorpion in the time I’ve been in Vegas, I’ve been tempted to go out in the desert at night with a dark light to see if I can find any.  I’ve heard they are quite bright under the light.)  From that point, you enter the exhibits on the people of Las Vegas, starting with the Native Americans.

They don’t spend a lot of time on the Native Americans.  There is one video that plays to describe how they lived.  But the exhibit immediately goes to when pioneers first started coming to the area.  I’m sure most people know it, but gambling was not the reason Las Vegas came into being (in fact, Nevada was at one time as Mormon as Utah).  The origin of Las Vegas was that it was simply a train stop on the way to California.  Not until the early 1900s did gambling come to be – and of course, after that, the town boomed.  There is a small display on the importance of our defense department in the history of Nevada.  Of course, you’ll find a little bit about the atomic testing (though not nearly as much as I would have expected).  From there, it goes to what we know as Las Vegas now – the gambling.  There are several antique slot machines on display and paraphernalia from long dead casinos.  On one wall, from floor to ceiling, is a display of show girls outfits – we’re talking huge head dresses, skimpy dresses…  It’s pretty dark, so even with the spot lights shining on them, it’s not real easy to see all the detail.  That is pretty much all there is to the Nevada State Museum.

The Origen Museum is along the lines of a science museum – much more interesting to kids, I’m sure.  Currently, they have two indoor exhibits and one large outdoor exhibit.  The first indoor exhibit is Space.  It’s mostly reading, but there are a few items to check out – a space suit, a lunar lander tire.  Of course, there is a lunar rock that you can touch.  The next exhibit would fit right along with the Nevada State Museum – it’s all about the land and founding of the area.  There is a train car that you can walk through and then there is what is perhaps the coolest part of the museum.  You enter a room that is all about flash floods.  The video is a bit cheesy, but the end result is pretty cool.  You stand on a grate that is maybe 2 or 3 feet above the floor – which is a recreation of a riverbed.  At the end of the video, you hear thunder and suddenly the trickle of water coming down through the rocks turns into a torrent – I don’t know how much water they use, but those couple of feet under the grate fill up really fast.  If you have a camera, don’t stand too close to the railing.  You won’t get soaked or anything, but the water does mist up onto you a little bit.  Enough that if it gets on the lens, you’ll be getting your lens cleaner out.

From there, you can walk outside to the last exhibit.  Out here, they have a mock up of a Native American settlement – a couple of homes and a garden.  There was nobody there when I visited, but I’m sure they do some demonstrations out there.  The outdoor exhibit also houses the animals.  There aren’t a lot – mostly tiny reptiles and rodents.  There are also some bats (though it’s so dark, you can’t see them) and tarantulas.  I didn’t see any scorpions, surprisingly.  Plenty of lizards abound and in one pen is a fox.  When I was there, it was sound asleep in it’s den – which you can also look at through a window.  It wasn’t super hot out, but it was daytime.  Most of these animals are nocturnal, so I wouldn’t expect to see any of them active.

At some point, I’ll head back to the Springs Preserve to check out the trails.  I still don’t understand why people bring their small children here, but if they do, this would definitely be a place to visit.

More pictures HERE.

The Titanic exhibit starts off like several “disaster” exhibits I’ve seen – you get a piece of paper with a name on it (in this case, a “boarding pass”) and at the end of the exhibit you find out if your person survived or not.  I wouldn’t doubt that eventually you’ll see something like that in regards to 9/11.

The exhibit isn’t huge, but has a lot of relics that were recovered from the wreck – personal property, items from the ship itself, and toward the end of the exhibit a piece of the ship itself.  Throughout the exhibit there are posters on the wall of passengers and crew with their stories and some quotes of both those who survived and those who didn’t.  You start off learning about the ship itself.  How it was conceived and how it was built.  Each room has several recovered pieces from the ship.  From there, you go through rooms about the different classes, starting with third class.  They have a mockup of a third class cabin – four twin beds in a small room.  No bathroom.  The next area mentions second class, but doesn’t really show any items.  Apparently Second Class wasn’t too far removed from First Class.

There are what I’d consider two major rooms to the exhibit.  The first comes next – a complete mockup of the grand staircase (anyone who saw the movie knows this staircase).  It looks to be an exact replica.  I wonder how many people look up at the landing and imagine Jack standing there waiting for Rose.  From there, you enter the First Class exhibit.  They have a mockup of a room as well as relics from that part of the ship.  The rest of the ship deals with the sinking itself and recovery of items.

There is a small darkened room with three warnings on the wall from other ships earlier that day.  The next room is also dark – it has a large replica iceberg – a real piece of ice that you are encouraged to touch.  There is a video from Discovery Channel showing a computer animation of the sinking itself (looks very similar to how the movie portrayed it).  The next room is a mockup of the promenade deck.  They have the sound effects of the ocean with a wall of stars.  The next room has a miniature model of the front half of the ship sitting on the ocean floor.  This isn’t miniature as in model train size.  The model ship is probably about 20 feet long and five feet high.

The next room is the second major room.  The room deals with the locating and recovery efforts.  In the middle of the room hangs “the Big Piece.”  It is a portion of the exterior of the ship that was brought up in 1998.  It measures around 40 feet long by 20 feet high.  It’s massive.

From there, you enter a room that has some personal effects of specific passengers.  I’m not entirely sure how they know all of it belongs to a specific person – a couple of them said the items were found “among other items of the passenger in the debris field.”  Considering the ocean currents, while they may be fairly certain, I can’t see how they can be absolutely sure of the ownership.  Another side of the room has the passenger list.  This is where you check your passenger.  My person was in Second Class.  He did not survive – nor did his lady friend.

From there, you are sent out through the gift shop.

The exhibit is supposed to have a 10 year engagement at the Luxor.  I think it’s in its 4th year now.

Like the Bodies exhibit, no photography is allowed, so… no pictures.

So the process began of switching my personal stuff to the Mac.  So far, it’s been pretty simple.  Photography matters have been mostly completed.  All my pictures are now on the Mac.  The software I need has been installed – Photoshop, Nikon, etc.  The only thing left on the photography front is some of the plugins for Photoshop.  I had TiffenDFX on the PC, so I had to get the Mac version of that.  My email programs have been transferred.  Most of my email I now backup on gmail.  It’s easy, it has plenty of space and I seriously doubt I would ever lose my email on google.  I wonder how many times they have things backed up on those thousands and thousands of servers they have.

I haven’t reformatted my hard drives to Mac yet.  I may just format one of them.  As long as they are FAT32, I shouldn’t have a problem using them with the Mac or with my work PC.  But if I go to Mac format, the PC cannot use them at all.  No big deal for most of them – but my portable I sometimes use for work.  Actually, I don’t think I can format the others at this point.  I would have to move files, format, then move files back.  I don’t have enough free space to do that.

I still need to get Final Cut, but I don’t want the new version, Final Cut Pro X.  I’ve heard too much bad about it.  I’ll stick with Studio 2.  I’m not going to pay for MS Office.  I don’t need Outlook for personal use and the package itself is pricey.  Why do that when I can get OpenOffice for free?  (Yes, it’s already installed.)

I also made the decision to replace the hard drive in the Mac.  Supplement it is a more appropriate term.  I installed an SSD Drive as the boot up drive.  Then I took the 500GB drive that came with it and put it where the DVD drive is.  I have no real need for a DVD drive at this point (though I will move it to an external housing just in case).  The performance enhancement is considerable.  It takes about 20-30 seconds to boot up the machine. The RAM I’ve already upgraded – it came with 4GB, I upped that to 8GB.  (Oh, and speaking of the RAM… why would I pay Apple $200 to go to 8GB when I can pay Newegg $40 to do the same?)  I took an old 1.5TB drive and am using that with Time Machine – so everything is backed up.

I originally said that I would not use the personal laptop for work.  Now, I’m not so sure.  I’ve got a few work things that I haven’t figured out how to do on the Mac yet, but I’m sure it’s a simple thing to do.  And carrying around 2 laptops… yeah, that’s a bit of a pain in the ass.  I did buy a new laptop bag that will carry them both with no problem… but it’s still a pain and would not solve the issue while traveling.

There are two exhibits that reside in the pyramid.  They sit right next to each other.  The Titanic exhibit and the Bodies exhibit.  Both are what I would consider pretty pricey (around $30/each for non-residents) but you can save a bit of money if you buy a combo package (and you don’t have to visit them both on the same day – you have seven days to use the tickets).

The Bodies exhibit has been shown around the country, but it’s here in Las Vegas for an extended period (I’m not sure how long it’s engagement is).  If you’re squeamish about looking at real bodies, you may want to think twice about visiting.  There is certainly no gore, but again… these are real bodies that have been cut up for display.

The exhibit is divided up into what essentially are the different functions of the body – respiratory, circulatory, etc.  There are, I’d guess, about 10 posed bodies in the exhibit.  Several are posed in sports poses – basketball and baseball for example.  There are quite a few slices on display, too.  Toward the end of the exhibit, they have a full body sliced up – from head to toe.

Perhaps the most fascinating room (to me, anyway) was a room where the lights were mostly dimmed.  The different display cases are full of water – to hold the arteries and veins of different organs.  Through some sort of process, they have made the arteries red and the veins blue.  They are suspended in the water to keep their shape.  They really look like a web of blood vessels.  Some of the organs included in this particular room were the stomach, the brain, the lungs… and one case had an entire head’s arteries and veins.  I cannot even imagine how they put these things together.  They explain it, but the intricacies must be mind-boggling.

There is one room with a warning – you can bypass it.  This room has the fetal exhibit.  They make it a point to explain that these died in womb.  I won’t get into the whole abortion issue, but seeing these certainly makes one think.  They have fetuses from about 2 weeks up to 16 weeks.  Around 8-10 in all.  There is also a set of conjoined twins.

The room immediately following the fetus room is the room dedicated to the sex organs.  Yes, they show everything.  They even have a setup of a woman facing a man (only from about waist to mid-thigh).  Surprisingly, while there were some kids there when I visited, they were fairly quiet.  I can only imagine if a large group of kids came in here what a circus it would be.

Another thing they show is how diseases and other ailments affect the organs.  On display is a brain that suffered what I imagine was a massive stroke – the entire center of it was black.  There is a side by side comparison of a healthy aorta with one filled with plaque.  The only “interactive” part of the museum is a display of two lungs – one healthy, one from a smoker.  Next to the display is a clear plastic case for people to dump their cigarette packs.

Some of the bodies do look like they are deteriorating.  Not some sort of gross falling apart, but there are some things (muscle tissue, tendons, etc.) that look like they need to be reconnected.

If you find yourself at the Luxor and have nothing to do, the bodies exhibit may pique your interest.  It’s definitely interesting, if not a bit pricey.

I have no pictures as they do not allow any photography in the exhibit.

There are actually two exhibits in Las Vegas about the mob.  The first one is the Mob Experience at the Tropicana.  I haven’t visited that one, yet.  The newer (and newest attraction in Vegas, I think) is the National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement downtown (also known as the Mob Museum).  I braved the traffic near the strip to make a visit.

The museum is housed in the former post office (and former federal courthouse).  It’s the only building in Las Vegas that is clearly an old government building.  It also is the only building in Las Vegas on the National Historic Landmark list.  The museum opened on February 14th (in a nod to the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, of course).  The tickets ($18 or $10 if you are a Nevada resident) are timed, but I was able to walk up and go right in.  I was kind of surprised.  Even though it’s been open for two weeks, I expected there to still be a crowd on a Sunday (and the parking lot ($3) was full.

The museum is spread out over three floors.  The tour starts on the third and makes its way down.  The third floor starts at the beginning – immigrants (mostly Sicilians) coming to America.  There is a lineup room that you can stand in – behind two way glass.  From there, you enter a theater showing a very short movie on the mob.  After the theater is gambling.  The next room is all about Las Vegas and it’s beginnings at the beginning of the 1900s.  From there, it goes into the bootlegging that the mob was involved with during Prohibition.  The next room explains the firepower of the mob and the government’s attempt to catch up.  There is a Tommy Gun that you can fire – you pull the trigger and you hear the rat-a-tat-tat of the gun.  Next up is a very small section on prostitution.

This is followed by an exhibit on Murder, Inc. out of New York City.  They have an electric chair that you can sit it.  I’m not sure if it’s one that was actually used, but if it is, they intimate that it is the one that was used to execute several mobsters (as well as the Rosenbergs).  From there, you enter a hallway that explains the hierarchy of the mob – which was in more cities than I realized.  There are, of course, the main cities of New York and Chicago.  But there was also a mob presence in Cincinnati, of all places.  One side of the hallway talks about sports gambling – how they did it and what sports they were involved in.  Contrary to popular belief, the mob was also dealing in drugs at the time (I had always heard (through movies, of course) that the mob avoided dealing in drugs – they didn’t).  That wraps up the third floor.

The second floor is geared more toward the g-men and the government’s crackdown on the mob.  The biggest part of this floor is the original federal courtroom where hearings were held on the mob.  The room is now a theater (but with all it’s original furnishings) that is about the Kefauver hearings.  I had never heard of the hearings, but apparently they were held all over the country.  After the courtroom presentation, you enter an area dedicated to Las Vegas.  It’s mostly about the entertainment side, not the mob side.  It’s a very dark area with displays of mementos from the mob era of Las Vegas.  There is one small room focused on how the mob skimmed from the casinos – and how some of them were caught.  The Las Vegas section ends with some information about the big names in casino ownership – Howard Hughes, Jay Sarno, Steve Wynn and others.

The next room is what I’d describe as the “spiderweb” room.  On the walls are spiderwebs showing all the different influences the mob had – elections, unions, and (of course) the Kennedy assassination.  After that room, you ender the section of the museum with a more gruesome aspect – hits on mob members.  If your squeamish about pictures of dead bodies, they have an escape door before you enter the area.  Most of the pictures (and a film) are black and white, so I don’t think they are nearly as gruesome as one might think.  They have a barber’s chair that apparently one mobster was sitting in when he was killed.  One wall has a display of different “tools of the trade” – bats, guns, etc.  Another wall has “Mob’s Greatest Hits.”  That’s pretty self-explanatory.  That ends the second floor.

The first floor starts off with exhibits on the government’s crackdown on the mob – how much paperwork they had to generate just to convict mobsters and how they conducted surveillance to name a couple of items.  There is a small “Weapons Training” interactive game.  Basically, a shooting game.  You then move to a room that deals with the threats of today – things like human trafficking, drug gangs, and internet crime.  After that, it’s back to Hollywood’s fascination with them mob.  A wall is filled with images of famous crime characters from film – everything from the Godfather to My Blue Heaven.  There is a theater playing a presentation on Hollywood and the mob.  On one wall is a few costumes including a couple from the Sopranos.  Once you pass through that, you are entering the gift shop.  Typical of all gift shops, you can buy mob themed clothing, mugs, etc.

The one thing I noticed is that it seems like there are still some display items that have not been finished.  Most of the displays have no documentation as to what you are looking at.  Is that a gun that was owned by Capone or a gun from a government man?  What’s this little date book from?  Things like that.  Overall, I was impressed with the museum.  Compared to everything else I’ve seen, it’s the first real “museum” that I’ve come across in Las Vegas.  I’d say it’s definitely worth the price.

At some point, I’ll make it to the Mob Experience at the Tropicana.

More pictures HERE.

I am leaving at the perfect time for Seattle – Sunday here in Las Vegas we are supposed to get the first of the real heat – a prediction of 99 degrees.  Seattle is supposed to be about 70-75.  I’m hoping it’s not raining while I’m there.  I’m only going to be there for about 30 hours, so no real time to go out with my camera, unfortunately.  On top of that, I’m not going to be in Seattle proper, but in the suburbs.  New York will probably be two or three days.  There should be enough time to get out for a little while – plus it’s Manhattan.  Not like you can’t find something to shoot in Manhattan by foot.

We apparently have some jobs coming up in Europe, but since we have a European office now, I seriously doubt I get to go there.  It would have been nice – Barcelona and Brussels.  I’d love to go back to Barcelona.  The last time I was there I only had about 3 hours free time during the entire 5 days I was there.  I’ve never been to Brussels… that would be really cool, too.

While I’m visiting all these attractions in Las Vegas, I figured I’d make a post about one that no longer exists.  I made it to the Liberace Museum on the last day it was open.  How could I not?  I imagine if the place was still open, I probably wouldn’t have made it, even to this day.  But as soon as I saw it was closing, I knew I had to make it there.  When I got there that morning, there was a huge line out the door waiting to get in.  Apparently I wasn’t the only one with the idea of making a visit before closing.

The museum itself was two buildings.  The first was a building in the parking lot of a strip mall (the mall itself was entirely taken over by the Liberace estate.  Once you entered, the first display was of several of Liberace’s cars.  Just like the man himself, the cars were decorated over the top.  From Rolls-Royce to a Volkswagen, they had the Liberace touch.  From there, the path led to a room with a portion of Liberace’s piano collection.  Several were extremely old – old enough to have their info state that some may have been played by Bach himself (kudos to the museum for pointing out that it was reported that Bach played on them but it wasn’t confirmed).  From there, you were directed to the second building.

The second building was in the strip mall itself.  Along the walk to it, they placed plaques in the ground (similar to what you’d see on the Hollywood Walk of Fame) noting significant dates in Liberace’s career.  I’m sure they are still there, so if you happened to stop by, you could at least see that part of the museum.  Also, several storefronts were used for restoration projects.  In at least one, you could see an outfit of Liberace’s in mid-restoration.  I’m not sure what will happen to it.  I assume restoration continued – the plan after closing the museum was to take the collection on the road.  No word on whether that’s happened yet or not.  Next door to the entrance to the second half of the museum is a restaurant that, as far as I know, is still open.  It was originally named for Liberace, but the name was changed (before the museum closed).  I believe it was also available to rent.

The second half of the museum continues with a large display of Liberace’s outfits.  All, of course, were beyond over the top.  In the middle of the room was a piano (with requisite candelabra) with a mannequin wearing what has to be the most elaborate costume he ever wore.  While I was there, a visitor actually went up and started playing the piano.  There were around 20 outfits.  His patriotic outfit was probably the most simple of all of them, but still pure Liberace.

From there, you enter a room with some of the furnishings from Liberace’s home.  If I recall correctly, one side was a bedroom (not sure if it was his bedroom) and the other side had a display cabinet with a lot of Liberace themed swag as well as glass goblets.  He must have collected them.  The next room had award and some more clothing of his – shoes in particular.  From there, you enter a theater of sorts.  I don’t know how often it was used, but there was a piano there for playing with seating.  At the time I visited, one wall had a projection playing Liberace appearances on TV.

From there, you entered the gift shop.  Since it was the last day of operation, the gift shop was nearly empty of goods.  You could still buy t-shirts (I can’t imagine anyone wearing a Liberace t-shirt) and if you liked, spend a good amount of money (well over $1,000) for a tiny gem encrusted piano.

The understanding I have is that the museum was closed due to lack of funding.  A lot of info I saw was from people complaining that the Liberace Foundation simply mismanaged the money.  For one thing, they argued that the foundation shouldn’t have bought the strip mall – there was no need for them to own that property.  I doubt a museum ever reopens, but I would think if they did, having it on the Strip would bring in more money (though honestly, it’s been so long, Liberace’s memory is fading from most people’s memory.  Anyone born after 1975 I’m sure don’t really have a clue who he was).

More pictures HERE.

The Gallery consists of essentially two rooms.  There are maybe 20-25 paintings in all.  Nearly all of the paintings are from Monet.  There are a few others and they all are by artists who crossed paths with Monet at some point.  There is no barrier keeping you from getting inches from the paintings (though you will notice they are covered in glass in the frames).  I’m not that familiar with Monet, but I don’t believe there are any of his major works of his in the gallery (though considering his stature, wouldn’t all of his paintings be considered “major works?”).  Each painting is identified with the artist, title, approximate year and where it’s from.  As far as I can tell, the entire collection is from the Boston Art Museum.

The Impressionist exhibit runs through the first few months of 2013.  You can also get a tour with a docent.  Also, once a month the Gallery hosts Art and Wine.  As far as I know, that would be the only time you are allowed to have any food/drink in the gallery.  It’s a nice respite from the noises and crowds of the casino.

There is no photography allowed in the gallery.

We ended up eating at Rao’s in Caesar’s Palace.  Everyone should at least be aware of Rao’s.  Not necessarily their Las Vegas restaurant, but their New York City restaurant.  It has something like 9 or 12 tables, which means it is next to impossible to eat their.  Don’t even think of walking in.  Thankfully, their Las Vegas restaurant is not that small.  We just walked up and got a table.  The food?  I’ve had Rao’s spaghetti sauce before (marinara).  It’s a little sweeter than most sauces.  But oh my God it’s good.  It was the same at the restaurant.  The only real complaint I would have is that they put too much sauce in the bowl.  And that’s not really a complaint – I just didn’t eat all the sauce.  The price wasn’t that bad, either.  It was about $20 for the bowl of spaghetti.  Well worth it.  I’m sure I’ll be back.

After Rao’s, we headed down to Fremont Street to take some more pictures.  It was really busy – the County Music Awards were in town, so the street was filled with cowboy types.  The music stages were all featuring country artists (though no big names, of course).  I went down primarily to get photos of street performers.  I prepared – I had a bunch of singles to tip them with.  I was surprised how many of them would say “we work on tips” as soon as they saw my camera.  Each time I had to say, “I know” and show them that I had a bill in my hand.  There were quite a few Transformers, but each and every one of them had absolutely ridiculous outfits.  They didn’t even try.  There were two favorites (really three, but one was a duo).  There was a Spock who looked eerily like him, except this one had to be at least 6 1/2 feet tall.  The other was the duo – Smokey and the Bandit.  I asked him how many people recognized who they were.  I don’t think Smokey and the Bandit shows on TV that often anymore.  Once we finished at Fremont, I headed home.

Sunday was the new experience.  We had talked about going on Saturday and decided Sunday would be a good day to do it.  My co-worker was heading back to London soon, so this really was the last chance.  We ended up heading to a gun range just to shoot a gun.  Keep in mind, the only time I’ve ever event touched a working gun was recently – and it was unloaded.  The gun ranges in Las Vegas advertise the ability to shoot a multitude of guns – including fully automatic machine guns.  I didn’t really have any desire to do that – the price is around $50 for 25 rounds.  Essentially $50 for less than a minute (well, unless you decide to not shoot it how it’s supposed to be shot).  They also advertise the Desert Eagle.  While we were waiting our turn a group came in to shoot the Desert Eagle.  Even behind a window, we could feel the rounds as they were shot.  And it was LOUD.  I can only imagine what the recoil is like on that thing.

So I decided to just try a handgun.  Something simple.  I ended up with a Ruger and my co-worker ended up with a Glock.  Each of us got two 15 round clips to shoot.  It took a few seconds to shoot that first round.  Not because I was afraid or nervous (I wasn’t, but my co-worker said he was shaking a bit when it was his turn).  No, the time it took was just making sure my aim was there.  It was.   The first clip I emptied fairly slowly.  I didn’t want to be far off the bullseye.  The second clip I tried going a little faster.  Almost all of my rounds went through the bullseye.  A few were in the second circle under the bullseye.

It was actually kind of fun.  I may have to go back sometime to try some more (like a .40 and a .45) and maybe even try that Desert Eagle.  I don’t think I’d bother with anything more than that – the prices at the gun ranges in Las Vegas can get really high – at least one charges close to $500 for a package (which I believe includes both the Desert Eagle and a machine gun).  My cost was only about $40 – that included range rental, gun rental and ammunition.  If you had your own gun and ammo, I think the range rental is only about $10-15.

So here I am at the range.  If anyone is wondering, it’s a Ruger P85 9mm with a 15 shot clip.

I made the drive across town to visit the Shelby Headquarters, home of the Carroll Shelby Museum and Tour.  It’s located in an industrial complex right near the Las Vegas Speedway.  On their website, they offer a tour of the facility every day except Sunday at 10:30 in the morning.  So I made my way over there early to take the tour and check out the museum.

Suffice it to say I was very disappointed.  When they opened at 10am, another person asked about the tour.  The lady at the counter said they were not offering tours on Saturdays.  They need to modify their website (and their pamphlets) to mention this.  I don’t know if I’ll ever get to see the tour – I don’t know when my next day off during the week is.

The museum itself is pretty small and not conducive to taking pictures.  They have plenty of cars – including the original Cobra and the second Cobra.  Both on display are part of Carroll Shelby’s personal collection.  The original is in “survivor” condition – meaning nothing has been restored.  Considering this, it’s still in really good condition.  It looked like the seats were a bit torn up, but the body itself looked pretty damn good.  They also had many Shelby Mustangs from the late 60s.  Not all of the cars had info on them, though.  One in particular was (I think) a Dodge Omni.  I never knew Shelby did any work on that car.  They also had a Dodge pickup that was a prototype that Shelby worked on for Dodge.  The museum is also their showroom, so they had the current version of the Mustang that has been “Shelby’ed.”  You can upgrade your Mustang to have 750bhp.  That’s some serious power.

Before I made it to the museum, I had a few minutes, so I spent it watching people drive exotics across the street from Shelby.  That was entertaining.  For somewhere around $400, you can go 5 laps in an exotic.  The cars I saw were a couple Ferraris, plenty of Lamborghinis, a Mercedes AMG gullwing, a Porsche, an Audi R8, an Aston-Martin, and… a Corvette.  With all those other cars, why would anyone bother with a Corvette?  It might be as fast as those, but still… it’s a Chevrolet.  There were also two Porsche Cayennes that made the rounds.

It was interesting to see the people driving the cars around the track.  Almost all of them made the first lap fairly slowly.  I am assuming this was to get familiar with the track.  After that, most of them opened them up.  Whoever was driving the Ferraris around you could tell were really trying to open them up.  Most of the others were too, except for one of the Lamborghinis.  Whoever was driving it appeared to be just taking a Sunday drive.  Maybe they were trying to string out the time they were in it.  But I have a feeling they were too afraid to really push it.

If you ever make it to Shelby, everything is free.  However, photography is not allowed on the tour.  I was told “due to privacy concerns of the customers.”  I don’t get that.  There’s nothing to connect anyone to the cars, I assume.  My guess is more along the lines of they don’t want pictures of their product going out before the car rolls off the line.  That’s fine and understandable.  Maybe the workers don’t want their pictures out there, either.

More pictures HERE.