It’s a Good Day to Die – Boulder City, NV, USA, July 10, 2022

He said if we got started early, we would get there before we die.  He lied.  We had to drive 3.5 hours through Las Vegas and when we got to Hoover Dam, it was 108.  Let’s just say we are stupid.  We didn’t want to hit any of the national parks in a weekend to try avoid the crowds and had to option today of staying another day in Utah or we could drive to see Hoover Dam.  Well, we chose poorly.  For whatever hair brain reason, we left.  Barely alive, we made it.

Hoover Dam is one of the manmade wonders of the world and the sole reason Boulder City exists.  It was made up of all the workers and their families who move here to work on the Dam.  It was originally named Boulder Damn by President Roosevelt, but the name was later changed to Hoover since he had such a large role when Secretary of Commerce getting all the states in agreement and getting the funds approved through congress.  He felt the project as a way to kickstart the economy after the Great Depression and to some degree it worked.  The working conditions were horrible, and the dam took 6 years to complete.  Surprisingly only 96 men lost their lives during construction.  It is very complex and an engineering marvel for the 1930’s.

It is smaller than the Glen Canyon Dam and Ron was a bit underwhelmed.  I am not sure if it was because we were both so spent by the time we got there or it just because it wasn’t what he thought.  Either way, we took our tour then grabbed a hotel to stay for the next couple of days, recovering and deciding next steps now that we were on the sun.