Scott cooked up some cinnamon rolls for breakfast at a picnic table near Lake Mead. We ate on the sidewalk to hide from the sun. Even before seven the sun is HOT!
We are driving Lake Mead Parkway south from Valley of Fire to the Hoover Dam.
The Hoover Dam itself has not changed. However, the traffic bridge, beefed up security, new parking, and new visitor’s center have all been added since Scott and I visited here sixteen years ago. We couldn’t park in the regular parking because of the height of the van loaded down with bikes. Consequently as I stepped out of the van to check if we could clear the height to park in the commercial area I was approached by a woman shouting,”Get back in your vehicle!” So I did. Then she wanted me to roll down my window. I didn’t really want to talk to her, but we did and she shooed us to the other side of the bridge. :-) The kids wanted to know why we had to enter through security so many times. It is sad that we live in a world where we have to be constantly on alert and worried about security so often. I am thankful that I get to work in a school where I have only had a few instances in over a decade where I had to worry about the safety of my students or myself. These poor people spend every day just looking for someone trying to cause trouble, and we are not talking about throwing spit balls.
New traffic bridge.
I don’t remember there being an escalator by the visitor’s center before. I also don’t remember there being a fee to get into the visitor’s center. We bought an $11 ticket instead of $8 to get a tour of the dam. We couldn’t bring the Mountain Smith pack or food into the visitor’s center, so we just brought our water. Cody was hungry two seconds into the walk, as usual, even though he just ate before we got out of the van. So he hung on us begging for food. Brooke’s desire to always be at the front of the line by the guide helped Cody eventually stop pulling on us and head to the front.
The picture on the left is of one of the original diversion tunnels. Brooke was asked if she wanted to push the elevator button between floors on the tour. Anyone with small kids knows, pushing elevator buttons is a BIG deal. The people on the elevator even clapped for her when she got them to the right floor! She turned the same color as the purple stripes on her shirt. The picture on the right is of a very cool game where you had to spin a wheel to generate electricity. Then you could click on items in your home to turn them on, but you had to crank fast enough to generate enough electricity for all the items you were using. The whole family was having fun playing this game.
I am oh so excited about our first complete family picture on this trip. It only took 29 days! It is of course not completely perfect, but it has all of us!
The generators on the Nevada side. We can only see two of the seven stories tall that make up the generators. The middle picture is of the generator used for the electrical needs of the Hoover Dam. This was used to start the larger generators when the dam first opened. The Arizona side also has larger generators and a smaller generator so that they can perform maintenance on one or the other. Our guide told us about a time last year when they were switching over the internal generators and accidentally missed the simultaneous switch over by a millisecond. The entire Hoover dam went dark and the elevators were stuck. They had to call the large utility companies that own the larger generators to ask if they could use a little of their power to start the Hoover Dam’s power again. The picture on the right is Brooke sitting in a display showing the inside of a generator. There were also great hands-on activities explaining electromagnets.
The picture above and on the left is really showing how they restructured the nation’s energy grid after “The Big One” or the blackout in 60’s. I find it interesting because it highlights a topic Scott and I were talking about a few days ago. I have never been to the Four Corners and I wanted to go especially since we were so close this time. Anyway… The Four Corners is supposed to be at the corners of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, but it is really 2,000 feet to the east of where it is supposed to be. Odd fact. Another odd fact – when the Hoover Dam was originally dedicated it was given a different name. What was it?
The fourth grade History Alive! curriculum has students try to solve the problems of building the Hoover Dam on their own before they learn how engineers solved the real world problems. For example, students had to decide what to do with the Colorado River so the dam could be built. They also had to decide how to cool all of the cement, as cement releases heat as it cures. Sometimes I wish there were a tele-transporter that we could use to physically show our students all the amazing marvels they might never get to see.
Hoover Dam wrap up. I remember the visitor’s center being much different sixteen years ago. The focus of the introductory movie and most of the displays today boasted how wonderful the dam was and is for the communities in the area. They highlighted the ability of farmers to count on a steady water supply without flooding, recreation activities on Lake Mead, renewable hydropower from the river, and on and on. We would have liked to see more focus on the history, science and engineering behind the dam. If they are going to boast how wonderful the dam is then they should probably also highlight the lack of water going to Mexico and the environmental damage caused by creating a dam and a man-made lake. As Scott stated, the History Channel does a better job explaining the Hoover Dam than the Hoover Dam video did. The tour was worth it if you are going to go in the visitor’s center, but it is not worth $8 just to get into the visitor’s center. Also they try to charge you $7 to park now. You can park far, far away for free, but it is a long walk with almost no shade from the hot, hot sun. The security is a little over the top. We understand why, but it doesn’t produce a sense of curiosity and wonder for the kids, quite the opposite really.
Las Vegas! We did another drive-by photo shoot. Scott and I came here when we traveled the country in 97 –98. I was okay with skipping it all together, but he wanted to at least get some photos since we were so close. The scenery and signs left Brooke with a lot of interesting questions though.
Wedding Chapels Galore! Brooke wondered why someone would want to get married by Elvis since he’s dead.
What Vegas wedding chapel tour would be complete without a drive-up wedding chapel? It is on the corners of Lover’s Lane and Special Memories.
Now four hundred miles to Sequoia National Forest. Another new state for the kids – California! The winds are crazy. The van would probably drive better if we could move our sail around to better channel the wind. Across the Mojave Desert we go!
A picture of three giant solar panel fields we saw.
Cody was able to get in a little nap. He fell asleep mid coloring some Color Wonders.
This was our camping site last night.
A view from the campsite this morning.
We stopped driving around 8:30. When we were looking for a campsite up a hill along a very bumpy dirt road covered by long grass Brooke asked, “Where’s the road?” Scott without skipping a beat said in a Dr. Brown voice, “Roads? Where we are going we don’t need roads!” After reaching the top of the hill Scott said, “Hmm. I thought there would be more than cow pies at the top of that hill.”
It was not a typical day. We drove 400 miles today. Although what is typical about living out of a tent and a van? We drove most of the day. We ate turkey and cheese on crackers for lunch and munched on snacks. The kids asked what was for dinner, but it was just too long of a driving day. I jokingly suggested bread and butter. While I set up the mats and sleeping bags Scott helped the kids with bread and butter. Dinner! While I was in the tent organizing my phone randomly played “Just Another Day in Paradise” by Phil Vassar. The song depicts the craziness of a day with a family, but the contentment and beauty within the craziness. I have to laugh when I think about how Scott had to shovel some of the cow pies out of the way so we could put down the tent, and that my kids are eating bread and butter for dinner. Despite the oddities this is “Just Another Day in Paradise.” The temperature was much better than the night before. And that really is an understatement. It was perfect sleeping weather.
