12 March

Because I only had to travel a small distance, I arose later than normal, got ready and dressed and went down to have the $2.99 special breakfast. Naturally it worked out dearer after tax, but it was still cheaper than many others. After, I packed, checked out and was at Boulder Dam just after 9. After parking and walking across, I purchased a tour ticket (unlike Glen Canyon, it wasn’t free) after passing through a detector which didn’t go off, even with all the change and other metal I had.
The first thing was to see a movie on the making of Hoover Dam, which was explanatory, but also a little gung ho. Then we went down to see the penstocks, the tubes which take the water from the dam to the turbine. After that, it was off to see the turbines and then up to see the dam from an observatory. The past thing was to visit the old exhibit centre, which had been set up with a relief map of the whole Colorado River basin. There was a show which combined narration with lighting up parts of the relief map, putting each part of the system into perspective. Although official figures give the death toll for making the dam about 190, it was more like 400 when those who died away from the site, but from injuries incurred at the site, are taken into account.
It is/was a marvellous piece of engineering, moreso because it was “first” in a number of ways.
I left and went into Boulder City proper. I called in at the Visitors Centre, couldn’t connect to the Internet through their “hot spot” but did show the people working there Bryce Canyon. I also booked in for a room at Jean, just south of Las Vegas, for this evening for less that $40, which made me happy in a number of respects. I didn’t have to search, I got a good price and it was close, but not too close, to Las Vegas.
I set off for Death Valley, determined to see if it would live up to the hype. Getting there was an exercise in watching the terrain change and become far more inhospitable, and seeing the elevation drop and the temperature rise. By the time I got to the Visitors Centre, the elevation had dropped to one hundred and ninety feet below sea level and the temperature was up to nearly ninety degrees Fahrenheit – in contrast to fifteen degrees only the morning before. I was disappointed I couldn’t get a tea towel (embossed with “Using this for its purpose is worse than perishing in Death Valley”, for other people to use when drying up) but got a T-shirt with a motto which makes it obvious which of my nephews it is for (and I’m not going to say, for that would spoil the surprise).
I went to my hotel, the GoldStrike, in Jean via an abandoned mining town of Rhyolite. Many of the buildings were still standing and obviously substantially built, in contrast to many of the homes I saw being constructed while driving today (Jerry was building them). At the hotel I went to book in at the price quoted and couldn’t – the clerk saw my heavy vehicle licence as ID and gave me the “Trucker rate” which was $25, tax included. Why didn’t I know about that earlier? After finding my room (an exercise in itself, as it was on the first floor which was one BELOW the lobby and casino area) I went and had a buffet tea – that was I could get food that suited me, rather than the ninety-nine cent shrimp cocktail that had others going.
That taken care of, I headed into Las Vegas. I have got used to driving on the urban freeways at night and just move around and keep up with traffic as required, unless it’s moving too far above the speed limit, in which case I stay in the lane I need to for the next mile or so.
In Las Vegas I cruised. It was interesting, because the lights made the place. It definitely had more show than substance, but I found that I was disappointed that the material fuelling the town (water and power) had come from the Hoover Dam, where people had put in ideas, effort, skill and in many cases their lives, to have all this used for show. However, I suppose we all have different priorities, and many of those who have invested in Las Vegas have had their priorities repaid many times over.
Driving to return, I followed the SatNav but came across an accident. Ambulances arrived just before I did, but prior to that cars had been entering the freeway via the “on ramp” by going around the cars (and people) involved in the collision. The SatNav was determined I should use that entrance, so I had to detour a bit before it would calculate another path. Even then, on my way back, an ambulance came down the road, a little over the speed limit, in the left lane, and it was being passed by drivers who simply moved to the (slow) right lane.
The road surfaces on all the roads I have used are showing signs of either wear or poor maintenance, as travelling in the wear patterns creates an awful judder in the car. Moving slightly out of these wear areas allows the car to travel smoothly, but then I am very close to the lane edges (too close for some other drivers). But not much longer to go in that regard – although I am now able to get over 450 miles from a tankful, so the car is responding to my driving.
The hotel has no Internet, so both the photos and this won’t be posted until tomorrow sometime.