So long, Cali. Hello (briefly), Nevada.

Monday, Jan 23…

last dunes of DV

With a wistful farewell to the Valley we follow State Line Road into Nevada and pass through the interesting metropolis of Parumph. (Funny how reality kicks you in the teeth sometimes. Despite its unusual name, I didn’t find the town very impressive; hence, “interesting metropolis” was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. But when I googled it I found some truly interesting info.) The name is derived from the Paiute pah-rimpi or “water rock,” a reference to the abundance of artesian wells in the area that enabled the white settlers of the late 1800s to develop large ranches and raise cotton, alfalfa and livestock. Jumping ahead almost a century, Pahrump grew almost exponentially from 1980-2010, and is considered an archetypal example of an exurb (you can look that  up yourself 😃). And, most surprising (or maybe not at all), in 2008 Michael Jackson bought a home and briefly home-schooled his three children here. Who knew?

More than meets the eye
(including the Chicken Ranch,
which does not raise chickens)

somewhere in western Nevada

bypassing Vegas

After settling in at the Boulder City Elks Club, we unhitched the car, cleaned the windows so we could drive (cringing at the dirt left everywhere else), and headed for Hoover Dam. I’ll let photos tell the rest…

pedestrian walkway on bypass

Hoover Dam Bypass, opened 2010

view from the bypass

Fast Facts:

• The base of the dam is 660’ thick (that’s 2 football fields!)
• The dam is 726 feet tall – almost 200’ taller than the Washington Monument.
• During peak periods of electrical demands, enough water runs through the generators to fill 15 average-size swimming pools in one second.
• There’s enough concrete in the dam to build a four-foot-wide sidewalk around the Earth at the Equator.

view of the bypass

sculpture honoring the dam's builders

That "moon" is really the street light!

 

Driving on the dam.

(If you look closely, you can still see part of the dam's electric grid at the back.)

BlogThoughts... Frustration! When I preview this page, I see that the layout is a MESS in the middle.  And, as happens repeatedly, you must wonder why I've used such a small image when there's plenty of space for a larger one. Plenty of space in the preview/publish version, but not on my working page. I finally gave up trying to fix the bullet list. (It is slightly better than the original, which was ludicrous.)