Weather: sunny & very hot
I arose late, around 8.30, still not entirely rested from the previous day. I had a more substantial breakfast than usual at Parkers over the road, of eggs, sausages (tasting the same as usual, but hamburger-shaped), and a muffin.
From my hotel room I called ahead to the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas to enquire about room prices for the next two nights. I was somewhat surprised to be quoted a cost of $69.00 plus tax per night, considerably lower than those I'd been quoted when I'd enquired ten days previously, and I duly reserved a room. I left Williams at 10.15, and for the first time in days headed out onto a major road, Interstate I40. I took this as far as the town of Kingman, close to the Arizona/Nevada border, then turned off to the north along Highway 93 to the Hoover Dam.
The Hoover Dam lies in Black Canyon on the Colorado River, which here forms the border between Arizona and Nevada. The highway descends into the canyon via a series of tight switchback turns, offering excellent views of the dam and Lake Mead from above. I stopped briefly at one of the viewpoints and immediately noticed that while the dam itself appeared unchanged since my 1993 visit, there were new buildings nearby.
The need to control the waters of the Colorado River had long been evident. In the early years of the century, an attempt at diverting some of the waters for irrigation in California had given a few years of prosperity, only to fail catastrophically, flooding an entire valley and creating the Salton Sea, a lake which exists to this day. Further floods and the growing need for water and power to sustain the growing population of the southwest region led to increasing demand for a dam, but construction did not begin until the Depression years of the early Thirties, the first task in the construction of what would be the world's largest dam being to construct the world's largest dam, a temporary structure sufficient to keep the turbulent waters from the construction site.
Having reached the dam and made the slow crossing along the top of the dam, I found what these buildings were: a new Visitor Center overlooking the face of the dam and a multi-storey carpark set back into the mountainside. This evidently gave considerably more parking space than had previously been available, but even so proved to be very busy. It was by this time around lunchtime, so my priority was to visit the cafeteria, where I had a rather unthrilling sandwich and a suitably large and refreshing drink, it being extremely hot outside.
Having eaten, I went into the Visitor Center and paid for a guided tour. Compared to the quiet atmosphere at Glen Canyon Dam, it was very busy and I had to queue for a while in order to get on one of the tours. The tour proved similar in form to that at Glen Canyon, though with a slightly less entertaining guide but nonetheless very informative. As before, we were shown the main turbine hall and taken out into the sweltering heat on the platform at the base of the dam, towering 221 metres high.
One of the most striking points made by the guide was just how harsh
conditions in the canyon can be, at the height of summer temperatures
rising to 50
C or more. In the confined working environment of
some of the tunnels cut into the rock around the site, construction workers
were often operating in absolutely unbearable conditions, in excess of
60.
Heat exhaustion was a major problem on a construction site
which was no stranger to death, scant regard being paid to safety during
the early years of construction. In the early Thirties, at the height of
the Depression, few people seemed worried -- for every worker unwilling to
accept the conditions, there were many willing to take his place, for wages
several times the national average of the day.
Following the tour, I spent some time in the exhibition in the Visitor Center, full of interesting displays and videos relating to the dam's construction. An amusing point related to the opening of the then Boulder Dam (the name of Hoover was stripped following his 1932 election defeat, only to be reinstated several years later): it occurred three hours early owing to a mix-up over time-zones. This was only noticed on the day, and with President Roosevelt due to address the nation live on radio later that day, the timings had to be hastily rearranged to suit the president!
By about 16.15, I decided it was time to move on, and returned to the car for the relatively short drive into Las Vegas. Unfortunately by this time the sun was low in the sky, and shining straight into my eyes for most of the journey, making driving a little unpleasant. To makes things worse, as I reached the outskirts of the city I could hear a most disconcerting noise coming from the car. It was some time before I was satisfied that this was merely a result of the poor road surface than of any vehicular defect.
The long drive across Las Vegas to the Strip was particularly bad: heading due west with the sun straight ahead I could barely see the numerous traffic lights, let alone any road signs, but I made it and then found the turn-off for the large parking lot behind the Luxor. I first walked to the front desk to check in, and went to my room, on the first (or second to Americans) floor of the pyramid.
The room was well-equipped, with all fittings decorated in a pseudo-Egyptian style with hieroglyphs and other symbols. I soon left in order to sort out the business of getting my luggage to the room: I was not particularly keen on the prospect of carrying a heavy suitcase the considerable distance from the car, one of the dangers of staying in the world's third-largest hotel (one in Thailand beats the Luxor to second place, while the 5000 room MGM Grand across the Strip takes first). I decided to take advantage of the porters that such a luxurious establishment has to offer, and brought the car around to the front entrance. I was a little disappointed that I had to stand around for a few minutes before anyone came to collect my luggage and take it inside; from then it was about fifteen minutes before it was brought to the room.
After relaxing in the room for a while, I went downstairs in search of dinner. Rather than return to the buffet, I opted to try the Pyramid Cafe, where I had Mexican-style steak fajitas, the meat served sizzlingly hot in a pan and accompanied by tortillas and a variety of spicy dips. I then decided to take a walk, exploring first the Tropicana Hotel with its South Seas theme and then the mighty MGM Grand. One of the main attractions for visitors is the lion enclosure in the centre of the atrium, a glass-panelled area in which a lioness was pacing around under the watchful gaze of the assembled masses. I spent a few minutes watching, looked briefly around the rest of the public areas of the hotel and then returned to the Luxor to bed.