TR SNIPPET HOOVER DAM

I woke up early, but it sure took me a while to get packed and head out of Laughlin.

I wrote a bit. Then I went to breakfast for 27 cents at Colorado Belle, using up my poker comps. I had my current favorite: three over easy eggs with a sprinkle of cheese topped with a country fried chicken and some country gravy.

They had some fine mixed fruit.

And that made a good breakfast. 27 cents is what I used to pay for breakfast at Torrejon Air Base in Spain. I was paid separate rations then and saving to bring my wife over, so that was often my only meal of the day.

Driving to the Hoover Dam was easy. On the dam I paid $10 to park in the garage, and I walked the dam. Cars still can drive that way, but they don't all park up the whole place as they used to. I liked the parking garage.

The place was packed with people.

I guess it has been ten years or so since I've visited.

Everything was well maintained.

The museum at the Visiting Center was another $10 and the tour was $50. I took that years ago. I did not bother with either because I wanted to be outside, and I was not really in to absorbing long lists of facts. For the most part I wanted the experience of the dam itself.

It is alarming to see how far the water has sunk, very visible on the rock cliffs by the white showing where the water used to be. Sad.

Otherwise I enjoyed the views. I especially like the art deco look of the monument, the tall sweeping angel like figures. I could sit on a stone seat and take my time with them in spite of the crowds.

There is a taped narrative that gives quite a bit of information and it is easy to hear.

I liked the whole thing.

Up high is the new bridge that offers drivers a highway to bypass the bridge. The bridge crosses the state line.


 Parking is free there and it is really a treat to walk that bridge. I had my doubts when I was here last and it was just a proposal, but it is really fine to see the entire dam in perspective and walk along with that view in constant sight.

Getting up to the bridge means climbing quite a few steps or walking a long, winding pathway for those who don't do steps. The first half of the bridge was crowded, but then it thinned out. Most folks just go as far as halfway or less. I walked all the way across the back.

I suppose it will cost more to see this part when they build in some toilets and perhaps a restaurant.

I was happy to have gone first to the old dam area because that is the only place where there were toilets. The hard part about old age traveling is that toilets are often very much required. And I had stopped at a gas station on the road just before getting to the Dam, but I needed the restrooms again. I can slow that process down by not drinking fluids, but that is dangerous in dry Vegas.

 

 

 

I was happy not to have tried to do a longer ride and see the city of Choride. I was fairly tired and wanted to get to the Four Queens well before Friday night rush hour traffic. I stayed off the confusing express roads and took Boulder Highway, stopping again at a McDonald's for a bathroom break, and also visiting the Gambler's bookstore to bring home some cards and other bits for the poker guys.

They dropped the price on cards when I bought 20 decks to $1.25 and opened them so I could see that they were not black marked on the edges. That is the most common method of making certain those cards are not introduced into play, but it is almost never done without some of the black catching on the back of the cards and making them marked. No one in my group will play with them then.