Hoover Dam

What a difference a day makes.  We got a good night’s sleep.  Up at 6:00 am, we got ready for a day at the Dam.  I took care of the dogs and by 7:30 am we (the Bootles and Chandlers) were off to Pepe’s Taco Restaurant for breakfast burritos.  We ate breakfast and headed to the Hoover Dam about 30 miles east of our location.

Getting there early was recommended by the Hoover Dam website.  The Dam Tour wasn’t running but the Power Generator Tour was.  We got our tickets and followed the directions to the start of the tour.  First a brief movie of the dam concept and dam construction, then we were herded in an elevator and taken down some 600 feet to the generator room on the Nevada side.  Apparently, there is a generator room on the Arizona side as well.

Generators

We learned that the generators produce electricity for residential and commercial customers as far as Yuma, AZ and Los Angeles, CA.  The hydropower facility produces just over 4 billion kilowatt-hours a year.  Income from the sale of electricity makes the whole project self-sustaining.

I asked how many died in the construction of the dam.  My morbid sense I guess.  The dam guide told us 96 men lost their lives building the dam.  And none are buried in the concrete.  That rumor is a “dam lie”.

After the tour, we walked from the Nevada side to the Arizona side of the dam.  The size of the structure is awesome.  Lake Mead’s water is pristine.  On the way back, we stopped at the “old exhibit” for another presentation of the project.  This one focused on the reason for damming the Colorado River.  The river had a history of drought and flood periods.  This was devastating to towns downstream.  By building the dam, the Colorado River was “tamed”.  Water flow could be controlled downstream allowing irrigation for more than a million acres of some of America’s richest crop lands and nearly half a million acres in Mexico.  It also meets the water needs of 20 million people in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other southwestern cities, towns and Indian communities in AZ, NV and CA.

We scoped out the gift shop.  Bought nothing and headed back to the car for a picnic lunch.  It was too hot to have a picnic so we sat in the air conditioned car and talked about what we learned and saw.  After lunch, it was time to take the walk to the Hoover Dam bypass Bridge or Colorado River Bridge.  The bridge was completed in 2010 allowing east west traffic to bypass the two lane switchback road leading to and crossing over the dam.  It’s the bridge we took yesterday over the Colorado River.  The view of the dam and Lake Mead from the bridge was spectacular.  I’m so glad we had a clear day.  Ed and I walked to the apex of the bridge and started back to meet with Peg and Terry.

Lake Mead and Hoover Dam from the Bridge

This evening we went out to celebrate Peggy’s Birthday.  We ate at Red Lobster, one of Peggy’s favorites.  After dinner, Ed drove us up and back down Las Vegas Boulevard better known as “The Strip”.  It was amazing how many people were out on a 90 degree night.  We also found the old Las Vegas Strip.  The contrast between the old and new is a telling sign of the times.

We got back to the campground around 9:45 pm, said our good nights and went to our respective coaches.

Cottonwood, AZ to Las Vegas, NV

Well the day started out okay. We left Thousand Trails in Cottonwood, AZ around 8:00 am.  We traveled 50 plus miles north on I17 to Flagstaff.  Just west of Flagstaff we needed to refuel.  There was a Pilot Truck stop about 20 miles west.  (Truck Stops are easier for us to use because they offer diesel fuel and the truck lanes are wider.  There is more room to maneuver.)  While Terry was refueling, I walked back to see if all the connections to the car (we tow a car) were secure.  I discovered the air line to the car’s braking system had detached from the motorhome and was dragging on the road.  The brass nibble looked like someone held it to a grinding stone.  I went into the station (which sells Big Rig stuff) and asked if they sold that type of brass nibble.  The associate and I looked where she thought it might be and had no luck finding one.  She suggested we cross over the highway and check the Camping World Store just down the road.  Great!  That should do it.

Following her suggestion, we drove to the Camping World.  The parking lot was so crowded with RVs for sale that there was no room to pull the motorhome in.  Terry parked on the shoulder of the road.  Not to worry.  The road was not well traveled.  I ran in to ask for the part and was told they had no merchandise or parts for sale because the store was being renovated and all the stock was packed up or sent elsewhere.

“Okay, where can we turn our rig around?”, I asked.  We were sent down the road and told there were two storage facilities that would be large enough for us to use.

An aside for those of you reading that may not know, our motorhome is 43 feet long, the hitch is 3 feet and the car is about 20 feet.  Oh, and we can’t back the motorhome up when the car is attached.  So we need a space large enough to accommodate 66 feet of motorhome and enough room to make a wide turn.  In other words, a big area.

The two storage areas were not going to work.  We drove down the road a bit farther and discovered an abandoned gas station.  Terry figured we could disconnect the car.  Turn into the station and back out onto the road.  Like a three point turn.  Reattach the car and be on our way.  We were in the process of disconnecting when a very nice man came out saying we could drive around the building (on a gravel road) and get right back onto the main road.  I walked the road to see if there was enough room and that the big pine trees along the way would not scratch the coach.  It looked good.  Terry turned onto the gravel road, made the first left turn around the building while I was guiding him to make wide turns.  Then it happened.  I could see the front driver tire was spinning and sinking.  I told him to stop.  I walked to the other side of the coach to discover along the road were freshly cut trees and our passenger side front tire was sunk about two and a half feet into wood chips from the cut trees.  We were stuck good!  We disconnected the car.  I was about to call for a wrecker, when Terry suggested he straighten the wheels and back up.  The rear wheels (dual axles) where still on solid ground.  Cautiously, he turned the wheel; put the coach in reverse and gingerly backed out.  It worked!!  Yippee!  The nice man came back with a shovel.  I asked if we could help him fill the hole.  He smiled and said ‘No, it’s alright.”  Terry pulled back on the road headed in the correct direction.  We reattached the car and we were on our way.

There was one problem, the steps which go in and out when the door opens and closes, would not go all the way out.  We will have to take care of that when we get to Las Vegas.  Oh, I forgot to tell you Las Vegas is where we were headed.

We pulled into the Thousand Trails in Las Vegas around 3:05 Pacific Time; beat to death.  We parked next to our friends the Chandler’s who were in the area and decided to spend a few days with us.  Ed helped Terry get all the connections made (water, electric, and sewer) while I told Peggy about our day.  When we got all set up and rested a bit, the four of us went to KFC for a quick meal.  KFC is Terry and Ed’s favorite fast food restaurant.  Peg and I tolerate it.

After supper, we made a quick run to WalMart and headed back to the campground.  Tomorrow the four of us will tour the Hoover Dam.  Tonight, we are going to get a good night’s sleep.

Sedona, AZ

August 20 & 21, 2012

We arrived in Cottonwood, AZ (south of Sedona) late yesterday afternoon.  Set up camp and went to supper at Carl, Jr. (a hamburger place).  Today we took a drive to Sedona for a Pink Jeep Tour on the Broken Arrow Trail.   

Ready to Roll

Our Tour Guide, Jeff, was an excellent guide.  We got some great information on the area and some great pictures on the landscape in the Coconino National Forest.  Nature put on a great show.  The rock formations and the history behind how they were created is very interesting.  I was humbled by the size of the formations and how much water and wind it took (and still takes) to form this landscape.  

Beautiful Scenery

 And Jeff knows how to drive a Jeep!  He took us over some vertical drops I’m not sure I could have walked over.  I hope the pictures show the steep inclines. 

Steep Incline

 Jeff suggested we try Enchantment Resort for lunch.  We drove into Boynton Pass.  At the end of the road was this secluded resort nestled at the base of Boynton Canyon.  We had a pricey lunch in a beautiful setting.

Tii Gavo

View from Tii Gavo

As we were about to leave, the family that shared our Pink Jeep, walked in for their afternoon meal.  Unfortunately, they will drive back to California tomorrow and go back to work.  Yikes!

Overall, Sedona is a beautiful place.  The architecture blends into the landscape as if Mother Nature planned it that way.  It was a very satisfying day.

We are going to do wash and relax tomorrow.  Don’t expect too much for the next few days.  From here we are headed to Las Vegas for four nights.  I’ll catch you up then.

Cris

New Jersey to Illinois

August 16, 2012

Hi Friends and Family,

We left NJ around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.  We had an uneventful drive across the Pennsylvania Turnpike to I70.  We headed southwest on I70 and overnighted in Cambridge, Ohio.

This morning we headed west on I70 out of Ohio through Indiana.  As we approached Indianapolis, we saw some very black storm clouds running south to north.  We figured we were going to be in for some dicey driving.  We had a few sprinkles and then some light rain for a short time.  The skies cleared.

We pulled into the Casey, IL KOA around 4:00 p.m. (or is it 3:00 p.m.?).  We crossed into the Central Time Zone so it was 3:00 p.m.  We set up camp and was ready to find the closest fast food restaurant, when it started raining.  We then heard a knock on the door.  It was the campground owner, “We are under a tornado watch.  Everyone has to get into the restrooms by the office.”  So we put the dogs in their crates and bee lined it to the restrooms.  We were joined by two other couples and two dogs.  It is a good thing we didn’t bring Tuxedo and Gizmo.  There would have been too much drama with four dogs in a small restroom.  Anyway, we chatted with our restroom mates while listening to the wind and rain outside.  Suddenly, the lights flickered and then ---.  We had a power failure.  So we stood in the restroom for about 45 minutes in the dark.  The rain lightened and the campground crew gave us the “Okay” to go back to our coach.  It was still raining but not as hard.  We slogged through four inches of water in some places.  When we got to the coach, there were downed branches all around the car and the back of the coach.  Luckily, there was no damage.  I had to pull the coach up about five feet so the campground crew could cut the broken branches.

It is 8:00 p.m. and the power is still not back.  It is still raining.  It’s too cloudy for the satellite dish to work.  Terry, Tuxedo, and Gizmo are all asleep in various places in the coach.  I guess I’ll hit the send button and join them.

Storm Clouds building as we drive in Illinois.

Broken Branch which fell on back of coach

We are headed to Springfield, MO in the morning.  Pray the weather clears for our trip.
Terry, Cris, Tuxedo & Gizmo