January 7, 2011

Hoover Dam Nevada and Arizona border

Construction of Hoover Dam began in 1931 and the last concrete poured was in 1935.  Hoover Dam is multi purposed.  It was used and is used for flood control, storage and delivery of waters for reclamation of public lands and other beneficial uses.  The water storage and river control provides downstream projects to enable residents of the Southwest to irrigate million acres of some of America's richest crop lands and nearly half a million acres in Mexico.  These lands grow a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, cotton and hay throughout the year, generating millions of dollars for local economies.

It supples the water needs for more than 20 million people in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson and other southwester cities, towns and Indian communities in Arizona, Nevada and California.

Not to mention the low cost hydroelectric power for use in those three states.  Hoover Dam alone generates more than 4 billion kilowatt hours a year which is enough to serve 1.3 million people.

This project was originally estimated to cost $165 million and was repaid with interest to the Federal Treasury through the sale of Hoover Dam power.  

What we learned was that they worked 24 hours a day 363 days a year.  They got 2 vacation days a year and it took only the 4 years to build.  It measures 726.4' high, 45 feet across at the bottom and 1244 feet across at the top.  It took 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete.  The first shift of the day poured a layer, the second shift moved the slips up and so on and so on.  The wall was built in massive blocks.

Lake Meade side of the dam

Turbines

You can see the size of the turbines....see the man walking down below?

Turbine building  one on each side.  The one you see is on the AZ side and the one in the bottom of the picture, you see just the roof, is on the Nevada size of the river.

Colorado River

Bridge dedicated to Pat Tillman, killed in action and O'Callahan, a politician

We walked across this bridge........actually about halfway across.  Quite scary!  It's also a highway so traffice no longer has to drive over the dam.

January 13, 2011

Then we spent a day at the Golden Nugget Casino.  There was a chili cook-off in the parking lot.

We went to Joe's Crack Shack's seafood buffet that day and eat ourselves silly!  We ate all the crab, shrimp, mussels, clams that we wanted.  We waddled out of there and played the slots till about 5:30pm that evening still feeling stuffed with too much food!  We lost, just in case you're interested, but we never bet more than $20 or so.

Looking towards the clubhouse (red brick on the building) from our front window.

Looking to the right out our front window 

Friends from Billings visited us....their rig across the street from us.

Diane and Dick Emmons, Billings, MT
We've been friends for 40 years!!  It was awesome to spend 3 days with them.

 January 15, 2011  Saturday

Our GPS took us on this road to Oatman, AZ today.  Can you say "cheap GPS"?  don't buy cheap!  11 miles of this crap!

Chuck feeding the donkeys

they just keep begging and will come up to you and grab the bag of carrots if you're not careful

Baby about 3 weeks old

Oatman, AZ where dockeys rule!!  This is Route 66 that you see here.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring!  Stay tuned for more updates in a couple days! 

We are having a wonderful time this year.  The weather has been a little colder than normal but we're expecting 70 degree days this coming week.  

Don't know if I mentioned, but I teach Zumba in the clubhouse on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and attended a class last week, Zumba toning, on Thursday.  I will be going to a class on Tuesday, a regular Zumba.

I've been playing pokeno and 65 in the clubhouse in the afternoons and evenings but for a few days I had a cold and didn't do much.  That was before our Hoover Dam outing.