Day 24 – June 11, 2024 – Henderson, NV
Today we drove to Boulder City and checked out the Hoover Dam. We got the Dam pass and had a tour starting at 10 a.m. One of our guides was JR, and he was a character. He explained things in detail and was great. We also had Zane, and he was our guide through the electrical part, which was interesting as well. The pictures really don’t do it justice. It was an amazing feat to build something to this capacity in the time they did.
Construction started in 1931 and was completed in 1935, two years ahead of schedule. It is hard to imagine this project only taking 4 years to build and they also came under the 49-million-dollar budget they were given. It’s hard to fathom how many workers there were, how much concrete was poured, what they had to do to divert the Colorado river so they could work on the dam, and so much more.
The town of Boulder City was built in 1931 by the Bureau of Reclamation and Six Companies, Inc. (the company that was awarded the contract for the building of the dam) to house the workers who were building the dam and the workers’ families.
After the dam, we drove to downtown Boulder City, picked up a small taco pizza from Tony’s and then had a beer at Beer Zombies Brewing Company. We then drove down to Las Vegas and hit the National Atomic Testing Museum. We probably were in there close to two hours checking out everything. It is a “national science, history, and educational institution that tells the story of America’s nuclear weapons testing program at the Nevada Test Site”. It was very interesting, yet scary, to see what all happened during these tests.
Once done at the museum, we headed back toward Henderson and hit Lovelady Brewing Company for an early happy hour beer. Once done there, we went back to the BNB, cleaned up, cooked dinner (salmon, veggie medley and leftover egg noodles). For dessert, we got some local chocolates at the little grocery store on the premises and watched a bit of TV. All in all, a good day!
FYI, it got a 113 today, shoot me! Heat is heat, regardless if it’s a dry heat or not, lol! Tomorrow we are going out for breakfast as we have not had pancakes or waffles in over a month and we are tired of eggs, lol!!!! Have some plans for the afternoon/evening, but not sure of what else is in store, will have to wait and see 😊
