some of you may have noticed a couple of new flags having surreptitiously appeared in "theplaces i've been" section of thesidebar. it is true that Jill and i recently returned from an exceptional trip to the remnants of the ancient Inka kingdom, now known as Peru. since it's been a while since i've been at the blog (which was partly because i hadn't really been much of anywhere to blog about), i thought i'd get back in the swing with a slightly smaller idea than trying to tackle such an epic adventure as our first foray into South America right away. so here comes a little piece of... the great battle-born state of Nevada!
Jill and i with this cool and memorable sign. thanks Herbert Hoover!
and a little of Arizona, i suppose, as the dam referred to in the title is indeed the magnificent, if quite congested, Hoover Dam, which straddles the state line. we were in Las Vegas last weekend and decided to go and spend part of our Sabbath at the Church of the State, though we picked a rather poor congregation as an example, so to speak, as the Hoover Dam is one of the only US government megaprojects that has ever come in under budget and on time, as far as i know.
the clear waters of Lake Mead play host to the four intake towers that are, in part, responsible for its existence, two-tone hills providing dramatic surroundings; below, Jill and i in front of the dam's concrete arch, the mighty Colorado River alarmingly far below us and those rather short safety walls.
so we approached from the Nevada side, and spent about an hour covering the last three of the 30 or so miles it takes to get to the dam from Vegas. the US Bureau of Reclamation have police officers that "screen" every vehicle trying to cross the dam, and they don't allow any semi-trucks, buses, RVs or vehicles with trailers across for fear of terrorist activities. almost as useful as a TSA checkpoint at the airport, this screen consists of a guy looking into your car--both front and back seats!--to see that the nuclear device or dirty bomb you brought with you has been well hidden and not casually tossed in plain view where its sight might terrify others, and then waving you on. these genius setups were on both sides, so we paid the rather steep parking fee of $7 in Nevada to avoid having to repeat the charade, and walked across what turns out to be a pretty short stretch of road linking the two states.
it is actually a pretty cool site, though absolutely crawling with people. it's done in a pretty nifty and definitely very 1930s design--surprise--with four water intake towers, two of which are used for generating electricity, standing strikingly in the clear blue waters of beautiful Lake Mead to the north. each of the towers closest to the dam itself has a clock that reports the time of the state in which it sits. this is supposed to result in what may seem to be a paradoxical, or at least an odd situation, as a 30 second walk could have you looking at a clock that is an hour ahead of its Pacific Time Zone neighbor. however, since Arizona doesn't celebrate daylight savings with the rest of us, we were robbed of this little luxury and the clocks registered the same time. well almost. apparently Arizona settles for saving just a minute or two of daylight, rather than the full 60.
the Hoover Dam Bypass will allow all the vehicles thought too terroristy to cross the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona without having to take a something like 100 mile detour. it's a win for national security and it looks cool. hooray for Uncle Sam!
so Hoover Dam is definitely worth a visit, and it sure makes a nice break from the tiresome casinos in town. it has some pretty cool spillways on either side that allow high waters in the lake to flow to the river below and rejoin those diverted through the towers to generate electricity. thus the Colorado keeps flowing, but without any of the dramatic churning at the bottom of the dam as you might expect with a more than 200 meter drop. in like manner, now that i've got some good material, i'll be resuming the flow of blogging, just easing back into it with this place and this post as my starting point and pattern.
and a little of Arizona, i suppose, as the dam referred to in the title is indeed the magnificent, if quite congested, Hoover Dam, which straddles the state line. we were in Las Vegas last weekend and decided to go and spend part of our Sabbath at the Church of the State, though we picked a rather poor congregation as an example, so to speak, as the Hoover Dam is one of the only US government megaprojects that has ever come in under budget and on time, as far as i know.
the clear waters of Lake Mead play host to the four intake towers that are, in part, responsible for its existence, two-tone hills providing dramatic surroundings; below, Jill and i in front of the dam's concrete arch, the mighty Colorado River alarmingly far below us and those rather short safety walls.
so we approached from the Nevada side, and spent about an hour covering the last three of the 30 or so miles it takes to get to the dam from Vegas. the US Bureau of Reclamation have police officers that "screen" every vehicle trying to cross the dam, and they don't allow any semi-trucks, buses, RVs or vehicles with trailers across for fear of terrorist activities. almost as useful as a TSA checkpoint at the airport, this screen consists of a guy looking into your car--both front and back seats!--to see that the nuclear device or dirty bomb you brought with you has been well hidden and not casually tossed in plain view where its sight might terrify others, and then waving you on. these genius setups were on both sides, so we paid the rather steep parking fee of $7 in Nevada to avoid having to repeat the charade, and walked across what turns out to be a pretty short stretch of road linking the two states.
it is actually a pretty cool site, though absolutely crawling with people. it's done in a pretty nifty and definitely very 1930s design--surprise--with four water intake towers, two of which are used for generating electricity, standing strikingly in the clear blue waters of beautiful Lake Mead to the north. each of the towers closest to the dam itself has a clock that reports the time of the state in which it sits. this is supposed to result in what may seem to be a paradoxical, or at least an odd situation, as a 30 second walk could have you looking at a clock that is an hour ahead of its Pacific Time Zone neighbor. however, since Arizona doesn't celebrate daylight savings with the rest of us, we were robbed of this little luxury and the clocks registered the same time. well almost. apparently Arizona settles for saving just a minute or two of daylight, rather than the full 60.
so Hoover Dam is definitely worth a visit, and it sure makes a nice break from the tiresome casinos in town. it has some pretty cool spillways on either side that allow high waters in the lake to flow to the river below and rejoin those diverted through the towers to generate electricity. thus the Colorado keeps flowing, but without any of the dramatic churning at the bottom of the dam as you might expect with a more than 200 meter drop. in like manner, now that i've got some good material, i'll be resuming the flow of blogging, just easing back into it with this place and this post as my starting point and pattern.
No comments:
Post a Comment