Hoover Dam

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Las Vegas but I knew it was going to get a bit warm. I could have stayed in my room and shivered in the air conditioning, or I could have stayed in the casino and really cooled off when I lost my shirt.

So what did I do? I jumped into the car and drove south to Hoover Dam. At least it was cool inside the car, although I know it was broiling outside where the temperature was hovering around 100 degrees.

It’s been a lotta years since I last visited Hoover Dam. I’ve always just passed through Boulder City and glanced at the little business section, but never really stopped.

This time, I stopped. I hadn’t had breakfast yet, so I parked across the street from a little place called Mel’s Diner. And I do mean small – there were maybe 12 tables inside, and 9 or 10 seats at the counter. But the lady at the cash register was nice, the waitress who took my order was nice, and even the patrons were nodding hello as they passed me.

(Chicken-fried steak … yum!)

When I reached the Hacienda Casino, the traffic slowed to a crawl – a bumper-to-bumper classic two-lane road crawl. And it continued that way for at least two miles. I had seen some signs along the highway (“Construction on the Arizona Side, Highway 93,” and “Expect Delays”) but this was ridiculous.

Well, it turns out that the congestion was caused by the security checkpoint. Every car had to stop while a Fed ranger peeked in and waved us through one by one. It was smooth sailing from there.

They’ve changed the area since I was last there, building a huge parking structure on the side of the mountain. Now you can’t park close to the dam, but rather must walk … and walk … and walk.

Plus, the new visitor’s center was closed, so there were no tours being given. So there were people walking everywhere. I refused to be one of them, so I drove over to the Arizona side and took some pictures from the parking lot there, foregoing a walk along the top of the dam.

As I drove back, I stuck Pinchy out of the window and took some pictures of him that way. Then, I decided to drive into the parking structure, pay my $7 and at least get some pictures of the entire dam from on high. I have to say I did decide to walk along the dam, but when I found out the elevator wasn’t working, I said forget it.

The walk down wasn’t too bad (there were 150 steps, according to an old panting feller I met as he huffed and puffed his way back up the stairs) but good thing I checked the elevator. It was out of commission. So a quarter-way down, I thought better of it, turned around and headed back up.

It was just too damned hot. Fifty pounds ago, I would have, but not in 104° heat.

So I just jumped back in the car and headed back to Las Vegas, getting back to my hotel in late afternoon. Boy, the A/C in my room felt good.