Week 83 - Las Vegas, Death Valley - 03-16-2008

Hello to all,

After visiting the Horn property in Meadview, AZ, we headed to Boulder City, Nevada. On Sunday, we visited the Faith Community Church, met nice people and heard a great message by Pastor Williams. Then we visited Hoover Dam. This 712 foot tall dam was built from 1931 to 1936, two years ahead of schedule using around 3,500 workers. The dam is 45 feet thick at the top where the vehicles cross and 660 feet thick at its base. 96 workers died at the construction site and hundreds more died off site from carbon monoxide poisoning while digging the diversion tunnels. The four tunnels, each 56 feet in diameter, total over three miles in length. After the Colorado River was diverted, workers dug down 135 feet through the mud to reach bedrock. Concrete was poured continuously for two years starting in 1933.

1) A view from the top, the drop is over 600 feet. 2) The intake towers and Lake Mead. 3) The generator buildings and water flow downstream. Unlike Nuclear power plants the water temperature is the same coming in and out of the dam. 4) The road across the dam has dozens of turns, some as slow at 15 mph. A new, almost straight, dam bypass road will be completed by 2010. The slanted power line towers are not falling over; they are built at an angle so the power lines will clear the rock walls. The west side of the bypass bridge is between them.

This set of turbine generators is on the Nevada side. There is a duplicate set in Arizona. Water travels up to 85 mile per hour as it reaches the turbines which generate 2,080 megawatts of electricity providing power to Arizona, Nevada and California.

From Boulder City we went to Las Vegas. While we don't gamble, it is fun to see the "eye candy" on the Strip. It was hard to select which pictures to show, so we included them all!

We came to Vegas as we had a free 3-day coupon to stay at the Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort. It is a gated community where you can purchase your site. On our first trip here in May of 2006, we met our good friends, Charlie and Cheryl, from Conyers, GA. This time we met two nice couples from the San Joaquin Valley, CA.

We like to think of ourselves as frugal, not cheap! This week we stayed two nights at Elks, for a total of $25.00. We stayed three nights at LV Motorcoach Resort for free; one night dry camping in Death Valley for $12 and two nights for $16.00 per night. The average for eight nights was $8.63 per night. It is not Europe on five dollars a day but close! The RV Park below is Terribles RV Park and Casino in Pahrump, NV. As you can see it is anything but terrible!

The whole focus of our travels this week was to visit Death Valley. And we did. We had so many photos that you will have to wait until next week to see them. Leaving Stovepipe Wells Village in Death Valley at 100 feet below sea level, we climbed to over 5,000 feet as we traveled on Highway 178 on the way to Ridgecrest, CA. There was a sign at the beginning of the road that said "not advised for trailers or buses". Our experience tells us that the road will be narrow with tight turns and slow. But we love these back roads, so off we went. After traveling up the road for a while, another sign says "Prohibited ... Vehicles over 25' long or 9' wide". Now you tell us! After many, many miles we found a place to turn around. We parked there and flagged down on oncoming vehicle. They told us that we would probably be okay to continue on. As we were now at 5,000 feet, we did not want to descend to zero and back to 5,000 again. So we continued. Not only was the road narrow with tight turns, it turned to dirt or tortured asphalt. This road goes into our category of "we will try most things once!".

We rode our scooter throughout Death Valley in shorts and T-shirts. Arriving in Hesperia, CA, we were greeted by snow flurries and nighttime temperatures of 32 degrees. Are we having fun or what?

Next week we will be at Hemet, CA all week. You will see our pics from Death Valley next week.

Have a blessed week,

Love, Pete and Ellen

Photos from Mar 2008