I thought I'd share this with you guys. We lost my dad due to COVID and a couple co-morbidities last summer. He was a pilot, as am I. He was also a machinist in the aircraft industry - helped build the very first 747. I went on to be an engineer who worked on many aircraft designs and modifications, including some Boeing airliners. Anyway, we were both fans of the Reno Air Races and went to several of the races over the years. Our favorite racer was a highly modified WWII machine that actually was not one of the P-51 (hard to believe). Anyway, we'd often trade notes about this airplane. It had a huge engine shoehorned into the front of it and at one point it was the world's fasted prop-driven aircraft. We marveled at how many cubic inches were in that massive engine.

Just recently, I got Nevada plates on my pickup. I didn't want custom plates but I did want the plates that show a P-51 rounding a pylon. These Air Race plates support the Air Races. I asked if they'd mail me the plates and the clerk at the DMV said, "Nope. We have them here. I'll just go pull a pair off the top of the stack and hand them to you when I'm done with your paperwork." A little while later she walked up and handed me two new license plates wrapped in plastic. The 4-digit random number I received on those plates was the same number of cubic inches in the motor of our favorite racer. What are the chances of that? Slim to none...