Awake: 6:18am Temp 49 sleep 5+31 sunny overnight @ Las Vegas, NV.
After breakfast, we leave the Outdoor Resorts of America Las Vegas @ 10:35am. Drive east on State road-160 to I-15 to I-215 to US-93 & arrive @ the Canyon Trail RV Park in Boulder City, NV @ 11:43am.
Today’s travel: 1+06 time 26 miles 5.3 gal used 5.0 mpg 23.7 avg speed.
After we pay our camping fee, park & plug in the electrical shore cable; without opening the slides, we get back onto US-93 with our Suzuki & continue heading south, but not so fast. Hoover Dam is a mere 6.5 miles from our campsite but it takes us (50) min to get there. Construction & security are the culprits.
After that experience in patience, we enter the Hoover Dam welcome center & take our place in another line that moves slowly toward the big screen theater; some old film clips during early stages of building the dam & some later clips that up-date what effect the harnessing of the mighty Colorado river & Lake Mead has had on downstream farming & electrical power provided.
Then our large group squeeze into an elevator, descend down some (53) flights deep into the core of the dam, where we witness hearing & seeing the huge water pipe that carries some of the water from Lake Mead into the turbines that spin (17) generators, providing many Megawatts of power for California, Nevada & Arizona. The whole operation looks quite good for being (73) yrs of age. Our tour guide was the best & the tour lasted about (1.5) hrs. Back @ the welcome center, we walk through a museum area that describes many more technical functions in depth, plus pictures & artifacts from the (1930’s) dam building. Then K & I walk the breast of the dam, taking pictures along the way. The latest big happening @ the Hoover Dam is a high by-pass road system under construction; due to open in 2010. This will surely speed up traffic going south on U.S. 93 from Las Vegas to I-40.
We were having a snack of Pretzels @ the Hoover Dam parking facility when John B. called from Nicktown; he lost most of his honey bees, (5) hives, yesterday & feels pretty bad about it. He is not sure why but intends to find out more about their mysterious death. With less traffic now, we return to our motorhome in (20) min.
Dinner: tuna steak, broccoli with Kathy’s homemade mayo, brown rice & a mixed salad.
DVR movie: “Dark Victory” with Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, etc. Definitive Davis performance as spoiled socialite whose life is ending; Brent as brain surgeon husband, Fitzgerald as devoted friend register in good soaper. 1939. Not too shabby; quite entertaining actually.
Lights out: 11:57pm
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