| The Hoover Dam |
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| Wednesday, 07 April 2004 00:00 | |||
 Today we went back to Arizona for a while. Actually, on Monday on our way here we crossed over the Hoover Dam, which is at the state line between Nevada and Arizona. The traffic going through there at any given time is greatly congested and we wanted to get to the The Silverton Hotel, Casino and RV Park, our destination, so we decided we would come back at a later date to explore the dam.
The weather since we arrived here has been fabulous, warm and sunny throughout the day, cooler at night for sleeping so we haven't needed our air conditioner. Today was no exception with a high of 25.5C (78F) so we headed off to the dam at 10:00 AM. They are in the process of building a huge by-pass with a completion date in 2007 so the traffic once we neared the dam was crawling but we parked easily and went for a tour. The Hoover Dam is a very impressive structure built during the depression to control flooding of the Colorado River, and provide a source of power for generating electricity. The history is fascinating and the work that involved as many as 21,000 people with the "official " number of construction deaths at 96 and only took five years to actually build. Considering the size and scope of this structure in an era without computers or some of the machinery enjoyed today, that's pretty incredible. As a result of damming up the river a beautiful lake was formed, Lake Mead, another popular vacation destination.
We returned to our campsite in the afternoon to enjoy a rest. Yesterday's adventure required miles of walking and we deserved an afternoon nap, a rarity for us. The Silverton Casino campground is one of the nicest RV parks we have been to and it was time to enjoy some time there. The sites are all paved, it is very clean and their facilities include private shower/bathrooms, a laundry room, a large pool, horseshoe pits and easy access to The Strip. Their casino is undergoing some major growth and they are in the process of adding a huge Bass Pro Sporting Goods Store that will be completed this fall.
We have enjoyed this stop in our travels. (Since this writing the RV park no longer exists...I guess that's the price of progress??  )
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