Lost Wages and the Dam Bridge

We moved on to Lost Wages (Las Vegas) intending to stay for five days.  We stayed at Main Street Station RV Park, an inexpensive urban park within walking distance of Fremont Street.  We ended up staying a whole week as the weather forecast to the north was not very good.  We had the annual maintenance done on Opus and did some shopping in preparation for our trip to Alaska, as Vegas is the largest US city we will be in until we arrive in Anchorage.  Nanc bought a new rain jacket and we added some canned goods and other non perishables to our larder that will be much more expensive up north.  With all the shopping and the maintenance going on the credit card we got a call from the bank to make sure it had not been stolen.  It is good knowing they are always checking for any unusual spending patterns.  

The drive from Tehachapi to Vegas was back into the desert with miles and miles of sand and sage brush.  We really can't wait to get out of the desert and to someplace where it is green.

Las Vegas does seem to be doing better economically than when we were here in 2009.  The Fremont Experience was packed with people every night.  The Experience is a bit of Mallory Square in Key West and Bourbon Street in New Orleans with street performers and music everywhere.  The two block long canopy over Fremont Street has a music and video happening every half hour.  It is worth a visit just to see this show.

And, of course, there are the casinos.  There are even a couple of new ones that opened a block or two off of Fremont.  Downtown Vegas is on an up swing.

And it would not be Vegas without the lights.  In the middle is Slotzilla that is going to be a zip line under the canopy and over the people of the two block Fremont Experience.

When in Vegas you are supposed to leave some money to help them pay the electric bill.  Here is Nanc doing her part. 

Look at what we did win.  The honor of having our picture taken with $1,000,000.  That is as close as we will ever get to a million.

When we came to Las Vegas in 2009 we had to drive Opus over the Hoover Dam because the Dam bypass bridge was just being constructed.  The need for a bridge to keep truck traffic off the dam was brought to a head after 9/11.  This is what the project looked like then. 

And here is the completed Mike O'Callaghan Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.  O'Callaghan was a former teacher and Nevada governor. Tillman was a former Arizona NFL football player who gave up a promising career to serve in the military after 9/11.  He was killed in action.  You can still drive across the dam but access is only from the Nevada side.  You have to turn around and drive back.  The turn around area is quite large and we saw several RVs make the trip.  

This is the new look you get of Hoover Dam from the bridge.  You can walk to Arizona on the bridge, but, like the road over the dam, you must turn around and walk back.  The sidewalk on the Arizona side is blocked.  There is a nice exhibit about the building of the bridge and O'Callaghan and Tillman.  Here is a link to our 2009 post on the tour of the dam with our friends Mike and Sherri. 

Here is a look at Lake Mead today........

And here it is in 2009.  Despite the drought, the lake doesn't seem to be much lower today.

A look at the intake towers in 2009.....

And today.

This sculpture is in honor of the scalers who repelled down the side of the cliff to drill the holes and set the dynamite to blast away the rock while building the dam.  A very dangerous job.  We always enjoy visiting this engineering marvel.  It is truly amazing and beautiful and a very worthwhile trip.