The road from the LA area to Las Vegas is both busy (traffic) and quiet (scenery) at the same
time. Though there would not appear to be much to see (it's a desert most of the way) it has some of
the most interesting scenery and landscape in my opinion. I enjoy the quiet solitude the it bespeaks of.
It was a short night and an early morning for Debbie. She missed seeing a lot of the desert on the
way to the Las Vegas area including this shot of the "worlds tallest thermometer" located in Barstow
California. This time thru it was only reading in the high 60's-70 area. It was a real chilly day!
Hoover Dam is such an immense piece of construction that it just boggles my mind. It is hard to
imagine that they built this ahead of schedule and under budget, yet according to present day engineering
projections (there were no real guidelines back in the 30's for a dam like this) it was built 300% over minimum
requirements and should last for a couple hundred years.
The generators have the capability of producing electricity for a large section of the southwest and
has not only paid off the construction costs and ongoing maintenance of the dam, but is now
at the point where it could make a profit (as contracted however they sell the electricity a a point to
just break even on the costs).
Something that most people don't really believe is that it can get downright cold in the desert. We
were going thru the area much earlier in the year than I had gone last time. We found several snowdrifts
in the woods near the roads on the drive to Flagstaff, Arizona. Something else that you may not realize
is that Flagstaff is actually located at the base of some fairly high mountains and only 20 miles or so
out of town is a ski resort. Being at such a high elevation (Flagstaff is 5000 feet or so) is one of the reasons that it is as cold as
it is here.
