Time for another road trip. We had to double back to Kingman to then head north to Las Vegas so the 270 km drive wasn't as exciting as 2 days before. Christine did find some time to count trucks though (ho hum). Andrew thinks she cheated because she counted 26 trucks in 5 minutes. Andrew then did the maths. Apparently 520 trucks passed us in the opposite direction in the 1 hr and 40 min we were on Interstate 40. Andrew kept busy working out fuel consumption from mpg to L/100kms (20.4mpg = 11.5301266 L/100kms). We paid $3.40 per gallon for 'gas'. That equates to .89 cents per litre!
After about 3 hours of driving we stopped and did a 'Dam' tour . . . . . . . . . . at the
Hoover Dam. The 1 hour tour told the history of the dam, gave us a look at the hydro-electric powerplant and took us inside the dam wall where we saw some of the 3.3 million cubic meters of concrete (enough to build a footpath around the equator). We peered out of a ventilation shaft half way down the side of the wall that wasn't wet. A view that not too many people get to see. We also walked along the top of the wall and tried getting information about where
Megatron was held before his escape. Unfortunately that information was classified and our tour guide did his best to avoid answering. The Hoover Dam sits on the state line between Arizona and Nevada and halfway across the dam the time changes. There is an hour difference between the states and the kids thought it was great fun going from 3pm to 4pm and back again just by taking one step. A huge, nearby, highway bridge gave a great photo vantage spot and we managed to get up to view the dam from that angle before it closed for the evening. We left the Dam at about 4:30 and hit the Las Vegas city limits 30 mins later. Because we didn't type the exact address into the GPS, we took a while to reach our hotel,
New York New York Hotel Casino on the southern end of Las Vegas Blvd. We approached
The Strip from the north and as it was peak hour, the traffic was crawling. Andrew found it very difficult to concentrate on the driving while the kids and Christine oooohhed and aaaahhed at all the lights. We checked into our
'2' rooms with the kids in a Madison Ave room with 2 queen beds and a rollaway and Christine and Andrew nearby (but not interconnecting as requested) in a spa suit. The hotel has a number of scaled down
New York City towers, a Statue of Liberty and a full sized roller coaster. Scaled down to over 2000 rooms and 45 stories high. After checking in and having tea we had a walk throughout the complex marveling at it.
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| Hoover Dam |
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| A long way down |
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| We looked out of that ventilation shaft! |
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| The generators on the Nevada side of the Colorado river. The entire Hydro electric power plant only supplies 1% of the nations electricity. |
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| Another big bridge |
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| View from the big bridge |
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