The Best Dam Blog Entry Ever

Well, FINALLY I am updating my blog - yes I know it's been a while and all of you have been waiting with baited breath to see my trip pictures. (ZZZZzzzzzz....) What's that? Wake up!! Anyway, I thought I would give a kind of a chronological account of the trip and the accompanying pics. Some of it is from memory though, so a completely accurate retelling may not be possible!!

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Here is a picture of our first major stop - Hoover Dam. It really is a remarkable piece of engineering, especially for during the depression. It was built from around 1932-36, below budget and ahead of schedule. We went on the tour there and it was quite interesting. What is really cool about it is that despite its practical purpose, the designers and builders put in many nice artistic touches throughout. Even down in the generator area, the floors are marble tiled with Navajo Indian patterns. Many areas (even the dam's intake towers, visible in the picture) are in the clean Art Deco style.

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This is the downstream side of the dam - about 700ft or so down to the bottom. There are many interesting facts about the construction of the dam - the workers were paid up to 3 times the national average wage at the time, but the conditions were bad and the work very dangerous. Many lost their lives during its construction.

After leaving Hoover Dam, we headed east into Arizona. The other folks on the trip had never driven on the famous Route 66 before so we headed along there.

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There's not much of the old Route 66 left - it's been replaced mostly by the interstate(s), but there are a few interesting spots left - real "Americana" type places. I'll post more on that next time, as well as our Grand Canyon day hike shots...