Hoover Dam and Boulder City

Hoover Dam - or as me Ma would say "Ronnie, the dam Hoover doesn't work again".... !!

Before you can visit the dam, you have to get there right? The first picture shows our preferred mode of travel these days - by foot! We had heard that you can hike into the dam using the old railroad track that was used to supply men and materials from the town of Boulder, to black canyon where the dam was being built.
Notice the train tunnels behind Elvis - these were blasted through the rock, this project and the operation to divert the river flow through tunnels was a major up taking in those days and cost almost as much as the dam.





A beautiful view of Boulder Beach and Lake Mead from the old rail track. I just happened to be sitting there when this picture was taken, a bit like Elvis in the previous one.

Having walked to the dam, it was time to get to grips with the innards! This is inside the dam, the structure is solid concrete, but obviously there's lots of secret tunnels and stuff to mooch around.

As a former electrician myself, it was my duty to check out the hydro-electric plant. It all appeared quite normal to me, the only complaint is regarding the hard hat - why is it they never have an extra-extra-extra large hat. I mean that little thing is never going to give me any protection.

Did you know (it's factoid time) that the hydro plant produces 4 BILLION Kilowatts per year, which is almost enough to power THREE American houses (without air conditioning)!!

If you were to look at the 'dry' side of the dam wall very carefully, you would see a tiny little vent about a quarter of the way up, this picture is from the inside of the air vent tunnel. The dam has lots of tunnels, unbelievably though, even when they were designing the dam they knew it would be a major tourist attraction so most of the tunnels have elevators done in beautiful art-deco with marble floors. The Americans never miss a trick to show off lad. (I know that hat looks ridiculous in this picture)

Here are three pictures around the dam's different sides, this is the Lake Mead side which is created by the dam and is the largest man made lake in the entire universe. Notice that peculiar white band around Lake Mead again (pigeons??) Did you know the lake is capable of holding 1.24 TRILLION cubic feet, which is enough to supply SIX American homes for a whole month.

This is the other side of the dam - notice no lake. There wouldn't be much point in a dam if there was a lake on both sides though would there? You would probably be able to see much better if those two 'big heeds' weren't in every bloody picture!!

This is the 'dry' side again from a ridiculous angle. The water comes out of the square structure at the bottom (hydro electric plant) and the Colorado river resumes as normal. The prime reason for the dam is to protect farmland and homes from the floods and droughts that often occurred before the dam, it also provides all year water supplies to Las Vegas and California and manages to control the water just enough so the Mexicans end up with nowt.

The building of the dam came just after the great depression and provided a much needed employment boost at the time. A little bit like Margaret Thatcher coming to power in Britain in the 1980's, putting everyone on the dole and forcing poor Bomber to paint houses to get his dole.

Did you know that the dam was originally named 'Boulder dam' until someone had the bright idea of naming it after a modern domestic appliance. Or was it named after president Hoover, whose parents were so impressed with their new floor cleaner they named their first born after it - I can never remember!

And now for a cup of tea question, you must get all three correct

1. How many men were buried in concrete when building the dam?

2. The dam is the only American public works project to be completed before time and under budget. How long and how much?

3. How many twigs and branches did it take Erin, Keith, Lindsey, Paula, Jen, Bob, Ivory and I to dam Beech Creek in Blanchard PA? (Don't cheat by googling this!!)

One more dam factoid: The dam is made of 4.5 MILLION cubic yards of concrete, which is enough to make a 4 foot path all the way around the equator (or a parking lot for 18 American family size vehicles)!! The concrete had to be poured in small amounts, if the whole lot was poured at once it would take 125 years for it to cure. They even had to build a massive refrigeration plant and pump cool water through the concrete to stop the whole thing getting too hot and cracking.

This is at Boulder City - a city actually built so that the people who were working on the dam could be housed etc.

This was a little vintage car show, we think we might upgrade to one of these next time we travel - the tent just doesn't have the same style.

You knew it wouldn't be long before I was aboard a train. The driver actually let me on the engine and showed me around. He kicked me off later when he realised I was a reet train bores-heed and even he couldn't stand it any longer!!

Elvis and I travelling first class on the train. Wooooh wooooh , chooo choooo etc (not diddlee-dom, diddlee dee or Ryan will knack you)!

Some beeeeeautiful 'mowters' from the car show in Boulder.

Only chocolate and cake can illicit such a smile on Elvis's fyace. It was gorgeous mind you, a bit of a tradition in the states. Anyone care to name the million calorie laden cake?

I think word got out that I was visiting the local breweries. The Boulder brewery created this beer especially for me - ahhh bless them, how kind. Anyone fancy a pint of ...........

After two days of camping at Boulder Beach, this lovely couple (Jerry and Emma Lee) from Oklahoma took pity on us sweating in temperatures in excess of 100 degrees and invited us for dinner in their beautiful air-conditioned accommodation. We had tacos and Emma Lee even made us a chocolate cake. By the way, were not trying to re-enact the shadows famous dance in this picture (Jerry does have eyes by the way)!

One last look at Boulder Beach before we left for a 'drive over' the Hoover dam and onto a famous road featuring the bingo call 'Clickerty Click'.

Having just drove over the dam, we're now in Arizona as the river is the border between Arizona and Nevada and into a different time zone. For a bonus cup of scad, what's the time difference between AZ and NV.

Cup of tea shenanigans:

Following the 'Natural Arch' falling in the Valley of Fire after our visit, I'm now watching the Hoover Dam very closely, if anything happens to that Elvis and I are fleeing to Mexico or pleading asylum.

If you see a sunrise everyday, then something is wrong - try a pint of 'double bastard' before you go to bed, just one though or you may lose the weekend!

Our Poll and Rust are combining forces I see - sending Boorbuns to each other! Well give yourselves a cup of tea because the white band is caused by mineral deposits and the other morning I saw a pigeon crap on the side, so you're both right. Of course Ginny could be right too, because we did take a few dips in lake and our 'mingingness' is legendary.

Outsourcer, the locals might call them the 'margarita lakes ' but I didn't ask that now did I? Please concentrate - perhaps you're getting up too early?

A cup of tea to clever Gowd Dawter Sophie too, who correctly recognised 'Keee' and 'Duzan' on the blog (please note cups of tea can be transferred to another beverage of a similar ilk).

By the way, we're now at the Grand Canyon - I can't wait to write the blog because we have just had the most amazing time. Trouble is there's no computers around there! There's this new thing though called 'Wi-Fi' - apparently if you have your own laptop you can link into the tinternet without having to visit a library. The woman telling me about this was obviously sniffing glue or something!! Connecting to the Internet through a wireless - it'll never catch on. Crackheads!!