Nothing quite meets the rubber to the road than the Shelby Cobra 427 shown next to Highway 101 in Oxnard in the picture above. With a twin-supercharged overhead-valve V-8  and 800 horsepower, the first Cobra came off the line in 1966. Replica 427's have been produced since that time.

The picture above taken from Highway 101 in Oxnard might easily come from another era. With Anita's restaurant in the background, the cherry red Cobra moves down that strip of pavement. Highway 101 is an interstate highway born over 70 years ago in the age of the automobile. Every family began to acquire a car, and California highways began growing an industry, tourism, next to roads. In Oxnard you gain a sense of an earlier time when motorists drove, then stopped right next to the highway at motels.

The first motel in the world (supposedly) was actually built in San Luis Obispo. You can see it directly off the 101 Highway, in fact.  The earliest motels offered some of the amenities campers previously enjoyed.  It took a while for motorists to adjust to using hotels strictly as a place to park your car and body for the night.

But once that adjustment came, roadside hotels became the standard in travel for years to come.  Today, the concept of checking into a room for the night is especially served with affordable chain hotels that advertise slogans such as , "Leave the light on."

As prices have risen on hotels, many of us who spend over $100 per night out of our own pockets (rather than on expense accounts) have begun search for locations and destinations to gain more out of the price of room.  Trying to find either amenities near the hotel or at the hotel itself makes the price seem justifiable as an expense of pleasure, or as a gift to ourselves.

calsite