Wednesday September 8th
The Hoover Dam is just an hour East of Vegas, so I decided to pay it a visit. Just before reaching the dam I caught a good view of Lake Mead, the lake created by the dam, and saw that people had parked up along the side of the road to look, so I joined them and took some pictures.
When I reached the dam and parked up it became apparent that security is a big issue here. I had to get my bag x-rayed, and there were lots of rules about what couldn't be taken in, including "no weapons". I bought a ticket and was told that the tour started in ten minutes.
The tour began with a presentation. We were told that the dam is run by the Department of Reclaimation. The guide -- a straight talkin' gentlement of about 60 -- told us (with apparent regret) that its original mission was to reclaim the desert for the use of the American people, but time change (i.e. now everything is all wishy washy and politically correct) so now the department "manages" and "conserves" the desert.
As for the dam, well its main function is to control the waters of the Colorado river system; the generation of electricity is secondary. Before the dam southern California had big problems with droughts and flooding. Now SoCal, Nevada, Utah and Arizona have more reliable water supplies thanks to a network of dams of which the Hoover dam is the biggest and the keystone. So it makes sense why security is so important here.
The talk also covered various aspects of the construction, including technical details about how the concrete was laid and details about the working conditions. Hearing about those guys toiling in the heat day after day, year after year for meagre (but above average for the depression) wages made me glad of my comfy desk job. I could barely walk around outside for five minutes before desperately seeking the nearest air conditioned building.
After the talk we were taken down to the generator room. This is a large open space at the bottom of the dam with five or six huge turbines making 1300 megawatts of power. It was an impressive sight. Even more impressive was the view from a lookout point at the top, a fascinating blend of jagged canyon rocks and industrial equipment, pylons and cables, and of course the structure of the dam itself. Next I had a look at the various exhibits about dam construction, and then walked along the top. There is road across the top that links Nevada to Arizona; this gets busy during the summer so there is a bypass and a new suspension bridge being built across the canyon. I would be worth going back in a couple of years to see the completed bridge.
Having explored the dam I grabbed some lunch and went back to my car to plan the next part of my journey. Death Valley was there on the map and it looked like I'd be able to loop around to Sequoia park after that, so off I set along US route 95, back towards Vegas and straight into a huge traffic jam. After about an hour of queuing, I reached the cause: a convoy of emergency vehicles was parked up next to a truck with a damaged and burnt looking trailer. The words, "Ashfords -- The Careful Movers" could be made out on the side. It's a shame I couldn't get a picture, it would have been around the Internet in a flash...
I didn't have any particular plans about where to stay, but I had some guidebook suggestions. With the traffic jam I decided to stop in the tiny town of Beatty. To reach it I drove through more nothingness than so far on this trip. This time the landscape was flatter and the horizon more distant.
I reached Beatty at about 8pm as the sun went down over the desert and checked in to the Burro Inn motel. It's rather pleasant, the town is tiny, just about one street in the middle of the desert. It's hard to believe people live in such a remote location. I had dinner in the adjacent Saloon -- Restaurant -- Casino, and got talking to a German girl who lives in LA.
Back in my room I relaxed watching a programme called Shooting Gallery shootinggallerytv.com on the Outdoor Channel. Today's episode was about how to fire handguns extremely quickly. The expert trainer explained about stance, quick drawing, slapping the trigger, and fast reloading. He then demonstrated the El Presidente (start facing away from three targets, put two rounds into each, reload, then put two more rounds into each target) in under four seconds! There were even handgun commercials -- the Texas Rangers (motto: one riot, one ranger) were endorsing Sig Sauer handguns. America rocks!
Update: now on the Outdoor Channel is a programme called Pleasure Boater. It has tips and howtos for maintaining your boat, and reviews of boats and equipment. My dad will be jealous...