DAY SIX, part one: The Hoover Dam

DAY SIX, part one: the Hoover Dam


After arriving at the campground the girls and I decided to walk to the showers. We bundled up our clothes and toiletries and walked a couple of blocks in the dark to the bathrooms. Only to find them locked and key-access only. Dammit. Defeated and deflated, we walked back to the RV to join the boys in chips and salsa (from El Pinto!) and TV. Not long after Desi tried to hop into the shower did the RV Village after-hours welcome wagon arrive, bathroom key and internet code in hand!

A second trudge up the hill opened the gateway to a sweet oasis of spacious tiled showers and steam (and most likely athlete’s foot, but I forced that out of my mind). The girls jumped into the only two showers while I stood green with envy in a veritable sauna. My pores have never been more open, I am sure. They offered to wait for me to take my shower, and after a microsecond of contemplation I assured them I’d be fine on my own and to go back to dad. : ) Since the first cavewoman stood naked in the rain and scrubbed herself with some sort of flower concoction on a branch, there has not been a shower more enjoyed than the one I took last night. Color me relaxed, clean, and happy.

I slept like a baby. No dreams of floods or being blown over. Nary a mudslide invaded my subconscious. But I learned a valuable lesson about RVing: do it with someone who has similar sleep patterns! The girls, obviously are sleepers. The little ones, ditto. Me? God do I love to sleep in. I’ve always said I’d rather stay up til 4 am than wake up at 4 am. John? The polar opposite.

So at 4am, he was up. Light on, keeping himself busy in the back. He also read by flashlight up in the loft, woke me up to ask me a question, dropped something large and heavy, and took a shower and shook the camper like an earthquake. : ) I’m trying to convince him to force himself to sleep. Now, he has traveled a hell of a lot more than I have, but I always thought it was best to force yourself to accept the new time zone, and eat and sleep when the time zone tells you to. It worked in China, even though it made me feel so sick. To each his own, I guess, but I really wish he would either take a walk, or an Ambien. : )

Once ready to roll we proceeded to Hoover Dam. John was very excited about this leg, because of all of the History Channel and Discovery Channel shows he has seen. As we rounded the mountains toward the Hoover Dam exit, we got a glimpse of the mountains we had driven through the night before in the weather. And then the O’Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge came into our sites! This is the new bridge constructed just this year for better traffic control at the dam. It also prevents semi trucks from crossing the dam in the post-9/11 era. We had wondered why we had seen a sign warning “heavy crosswinds next 1 mile” last night.

To get to the dam, you have to pass through a security check point. John had to show the security guard the underbelly of the RV, while a female guard had to come on board and inspect the interior. I hope she didn’t breathe in too deeply. 6 days of 6 Roberts is not a good thing!

Thankfully, we were still allowed to drive across the dam. They are strict about stopping on it, and there are a lot of pedestrians and gawkers to watch out for. I can see why the new bridge was a must, not just for security, but also for traffic flow. During heavy tourist seasons, I can only imagine how congested that route must have become!

Walking to the dam was incredible. What a feat of engineering! We ate lunch in the café, then headed down to the Visitor Center. We had 2 options for the tour: a general tour and the Dam tour, which allowed more access and a more in-depth look at the dam. We wanted the in-depth tour, but Ava wasn’t old enough by 3 years. : ( Again, another reason to come back!

The tour took us down to see the diversion tunnels and then the generators. The room we were viewing showed the top 30 feet of the turbine generator, with the rest of it being 7-stories beneath! It was inconceivable! Afterwards were a museum area and an overlook, with breathtaking views of both the dam and the bridge.

We walked across the dam and crossed the state line. We were a bit dismayed that there wasn’t a line painted on the roadway, like we had seen in a movie. But it was fun to watch Ava jump back and forth between Nevada and Arizona.

Once back in the RV, we drove back towards the bridge to see if we could walk on it. But the parking lots for the bridge (and now for the dam) were overcrowded. So we drove over the bridge and back again, all the while planning to come by in the morning to walk on it and view the dam from it.