The beauty of writing is that at any given time, you might just be the first person in the world to take commonly used words and put them in a unique order that has never been written or spoken before. Today is one of those days, as I am pretty sure that nobody has combined into one sentence the names of Carroll Shelby, Sam Walton with map makers Rand McNally. Of course nobody in their right mind would normally make such an association, but these three subjects are occupying a large percentage of my time lately.

But first, what about the rescue Cobra? Though I have been conspicuously absent from this forum, it has not been so much because I have been wrenching in the garage. In fact, with the exception of a mildly sanded 289 FIA shell, my garage is empty. Empty!

The garage was vacated a couple weeks back when I took the chassis and a whole pile of parts up to Green Bay for powder coating. A visit and call today indicated that I will see my components return home at the end of next week with a fresh coat of satin black.

Our 351 Windsor is at the machine shop where a friendly guy named Dave calls me every couple days with good news and a few ideas on how we can make this monster small block develop more horsepower...And even more ideas on how to lighten my checkbook. In all seriousness, the engine in the Spence car was highly suspect upon disassembly, but it turns out that the machine work was fairly decent. Inside, our friend had popped for top of the line TRW forged pistons and a fairly stout short block assembly. Combine this with some Roush heads and it looks like we will be coming home with a fresh 400 hp mill under 2K. Not bad considering that the engine was reported to be a junkyard special.

With all this activity there is not much for me to do at home these days...Except look at the map. If the Cobra project weren't exciting enough, a late Friday meeting with my boss several weeks ago has added another degree of challenge to the resto-mod...I now need to transport a fully disassembled Cobra 900 miles to my new home in Rogers, Arkansas. Sure, the nice promotion at work is making this move easier and it now looks like I'll be able to get to the Unique homecoming after all. Deep South Cobra Club, here I come!

Enter Sam Walton...Again, not normally a name that you would associate with this adventure, but I am going to represent my company by working with (and for)almighty Wal*Mart in their home town.

With the surprise of relocation fresh on our minds, my wife and I joined my parents for a long weekend in Las Vegas for valentines day...Funny that our trip should also correspond with the 2004 SAAC meet! What a lucky break! (OK, OK, no coincidence)



I have seen many Cobras and Shelby Mustangs, but the sight and sound of a loping aluminum snake is always enough to get the blood pumping. This day was no exception as real-deal CSX cars mingled with fine replicas of all makes.



As I stood snapping photos, my wife nudged me in the arm and spoke excitedly...I looked up to see the old boy himself (Carroll) walk by and head to a 70's GT500 for a signing and picture. The owner spilled words all over himself and Carroll was there to administer a tongue lashing which set the man back with a unusual stare. To paraphrase the awkward interaction, it seems that the owner tried to tell Shelby that the GT500 convert was 1 of 1 that was exported to Spain in the specific color combo, etc. The old man wasn't impressed and told the groveling owner that he imported lots of cars, and that his vehicle was nice, but not all that special. Here are the protagonists just before the 'exchange of words'.



The Vegas sun shone brightly on gleaming paint and bulging fenders. There were plenty of nice example cars which provided an abundance of paint ideas.



Back home in blustery Wisconsin, nights of wrenching h