Stewarts Visit
Mollie’s folks, Jay and Rita, made the big trip over to Vegas to spend some vacation time in the desert with us! They were able to stay for about a weeks time, and it was great to have them! Its nice having guests in the house now, feels good to be able use those extra bedrooms for something besides gear storage.
I had to work for a lot of their stay, but Mollie is on summer vacation now, so they had plenty of time to see some of the sites. They made a trip to Zion and Bryce Canyon without me during the week (Argh…wish I could have been there!), and it sounds like they had a wonderful time. I love hearing people’s first reactions to Zion and Bryce, they are such other-worldly places, something to behold. Photos taken by my better half….
The weekend rolled around and our destination of choice was the Hoover Dam. I’ve lived in Vegas now for over a year, but I’d still not been to the dam. I have driven over it, and seen it from above and below, but had yet to experience the full tour. We had a leisurely Saturday morning, then headed down South to see the big structure.
We took the ‘tour’, which includes a couple videos, an exhibition room, and as much time as you like on a very cool viewing deck above the river. The tour aspect was about 30 minutes long, and was pretty unique. You are loaded into an elevator with 40 or so other dam viewers, then dropped 500ft into the bowels of the dam itself. We got to view one of the generator rooms (above), and one of the 50+ foot around water feeder tunnels. The vibrations of the moving water could easily be felt as we toured around.
I had no idea how spectacular a feat building that dam was. They completed the entire project in four years. Not only that, but they completed the diversion tunnels in two years to divert the entire river, then another two years to lay the concrete. Reports that were posted stated that they lost 96 people in the construction. It could potentially be a lot more than that because several deaths were reported as sickness, like pneumonia or the like, when in actuality they died from other construction related causes.
On the top of the dam by the visitor center, two bronzed sculptures are present, and they were amazing. Great symbols of human achievement, and a memorial to those who passed away during the construction. The entire morning was full of the — “Rah Rah!! Human Spirit Conquers Nature for the Better of Mankind!!” kind of propaganda, which I kind of enjoy really. It is amazing what is possible when humans set their minds to complete something.
Monday the Stewarts headed out for another excursion to the Valley of Fire, and spent most of the day in the rocks out there. Another place on the list for me to go visit sometime. It was great having the in-laws in town, and I hope they come again!
As heard last night from a notorious friend:
Q: - “You know what the difference is between Inlaws and Outlaws?
A: - The Outlaws are Wanted.”
Har Har….
