Hoover Dam
We found a free Spirit flight to Las Vegas and figured we’d spend a weekend having fun. The return flight was a red eye, arriving at 6:3-0 AM. Bella’s son thought that would be OK (such at trooper) so we brooked it and pretty much forgot about the flight. When we made plans for what we would do in the city, we bought Groupons for things like the zip line across Rio and that was about it.
When we were landing Bella said “why don’t we go visit the Hoover Dam? We’ll need a car, of course…” Why didn’t we think of that before?
I went on Pirceline and booked a car through Advantage for $21.80 for the time we’d be on the ground. We figured we would spend more than that on Uber if we didn’t have a car. How could we go wrong?
We took the bus to the rental car facility and ended up driving away in the second car for which Advantage gave us keys. The first one had a check engine light so we weren’t comfortable taking it out of the parking garage.
The drive was short, finding us at the dam just before opening.
We parked for $10 and walked down to the entrance of the power generating tour.
The white lines on the valley walls indicate the water level at different times in the past. The height can be controlled by how much is allowed through the dam and through spillways on the sides.
We paid $12 each after our veteran’s discount for the tour. After a security inspection we were led into an elevator and taken all the way down to the power generating turbines.
The lights on top indicate which ones are in use. Not all are required at any given time, allowing for maintenance to take place. There are an equal number on the other side of the river, in Arizona.
After the tour we visited the two museums on site. The first one had a giant diorama of the area affected by the river and the dam, explaining the need for control of the water flow for both sides of the dam.
The museum inside the visitor’s center showed how much engineering and work went into building the dam.
The dam itself is an engineering marvel. It’s been in place since the 1930s. The amount of concrete poured is astounding. Some of the workers spent years without a day off and it cost many their lives.
~ Freddy
