Lajitas Resort

Driving 1800 miles in two days (while easily doable given a proper car, a case of Red Bull, and a company gas card) can still beat the crap out of you. That’s why our arrival at the Lajitas Resort just outside Terlingua, TX was a welcome break from the road. The parking lot was filled with dozens of cars from Shelby’s entire recent model range including the relatively mild Shelby GT, to the positively insane  600+ horsepower GT500 Super Snake. As nice as our glass roof Mustang was, it was just too sedate given the company we were in.

I handed off our keys to Jim Owens, VP of Marketing for Shelby Autos, and in turn was handed a new set of keys, this time to a posh hotel room by the pool. Though the Lajitas Resort is about twenty miles from anything, we had come a long way since the Super 8 motel. I showered and headed down to dinner. At the buffet-style dinner, I shook hands with all the major players at Shelby Autos, Amy Boylan, President, Gary Patterson, design engineer extraordinaire and test driver, and Carroll Shelby himself. As it turns out, they were pleased with the promotional work we did for them surrounding the GT500KR launch and as such, greeted us with great enthusiasm. It was nice to see a friendly face after our Texas dive-bar experiences.

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We sat down at a table with some other journalists, all of whom were at least twenty years our senior. The expressions on their faces said it all: what are these two kids doing at such an exclusive event? Clearly they don’t know that our humble little online show gets more monthly views than their magazines have subscribers. In fact, I’d bet that 25% don’t even know that there’s this new thing called the "internet," 50% of them think their readers don’t use it, and the other 50% of the geriatric journalists there would be in bed by 9 PM. I smiled to myself quietly and went to the bar.

While the elders retired with a warm glass of milk, I spent the next few hours with Bullrun founders Andy Duncan, David Green, the Bullrun flag girls and most of the female staff. Only after exhausting the hotel’s supply of Patron was it time for bed. Even in my hazy state of mind, on the walk back to my hotel room, something caught my eye: A brand new black and yellow, 375 Horsepower, Shelby Mustang Terlingua. Hard to believe that they were handing this "young punk" the keys to this bad boy tomorrow morning. Wonder what jeers and squint eyed looks this would draw from the council of elderly editors in the morning. I couldn’t wait to find out.