Thursday, December 24, 2009

Hoover Dam

Thursday, December 24, 2009
Ehehehe so I finally have time to finish all the backlogged summer posts *sheepish

The first day of our trip in Vegas can be found here and here. Now I'll be blogging about the Hoover Dam. It was once known as Boulder Dam and is on the border between Arizona and Nevada. Since we were going to visit the Grand Canyon in Arizona, we had to pass through it.



Rocky mountains everywhere. This road trip reminded me of my childhood days where I would watch Hollywood movies with cars driving on mountainous roads like these and wonder if they found it scary since its a steep drop if you ever flip over the ramp. Well, now I am traveling on the very same paths and it just feel so surreal. You'd only understand what I'm talking about if you had never lived in Western countries before and so when you go there, its like 'omg this feels like a movie! oooh LAPD cars as seen on tv! mountainous roads! etc.' like some sua ba lao lol.

Although I was raised partly in Hawaii before moving to Malaysia, I was too young then to remember much.



Reno ♥ Sorry, every time I see helicopters now, he would automatically pop into my head lol. My obsession with Final Fantasy 7 knows no bounds I tell you :P



So everyone is required to pass through the Hoover Dam to get to Arizona. But I guess some got tired of it and a bridge is now in the process of construction so those who have seen the Hoover Dam before can continue straight on the freeway instead of having to stop and go through security checks and what not.



Security checks cuz they are afraid you might blow up the dam or something idk. This is obviously not the dam ok. I'm just posting pics as I ramble on lol.



And we're here! You can get down and take a tour but we didn't since we were somewhat pressed for time.



One second you're in Nevada....



And the next you're in Arizona :) Nevada is using the Pacific Standard Time Zone and Arizona the  Mountain Standard Time Zone. But because Arizona doesn't observe DST, they both show the same time half the year. Like in the summer then.




Looks familiar? The movie Transformer was shot here :D Ok lah, idk if it was really shot here or done using a green screen but the point is, this place appeared in the movie. That is the dam by the way.




The Hoover Dam used to be both the world's largest hydroelectric power generating station and the world's largest concrete structure before it was surpassed by the Grand Coulee Dam (no idea where this is, I stole this info off wiki ehehehe) in 1945. It is now the 38th largest hydroelectric generating station in the world.



Colorado River. The river is mad pretty ok unlike our Sarawak rivers all so muddy one why? I always thought rivers were muddy because of that okay. For a moment, I would believe you if you said this was an ocean.












So pretty. Like a tiny little empire!



Proof that we were here :D



Pic of my parents for all my uncles and aunties back in Malaysia. We are doing fine here :)

Here's a short clip showing the place:


Yeah I know we said were pressed for time earlier and thus didn't stop by the museum (at least I think it was a museum), but in the end we decided to stop a little higher up along the way because its a tourist attraction ok, how can we just drive by like its nothing?

So you now have pics thanks to my incessant pestering at daddy to stop the car lol.



And also because my sisters wanted to go to the restroom haha. Seriously, they need to go to the restroom like every hour it was slightly annoying. Do younger kids have less bladder tolerance or something?

Btw, trivia of the day courtesy to 2nd sis: Vegas apparently uses soooo much electricity that even if the whole Hoover Dam waters were to be completely drained, it could only provide enough power to light up Vegas for 25 minutes. Whereas it can power other whole states for like forever. Vegas is mad crazy lor for using so much power -_- Can blame all environmental issues on them ha.

If she's not mistaken, Vegas is powered by all the leftover electricity channeled to it from the other 49 states daily.



Me and 2nd sis.



And then off we go to continue our journey to Grand Canyon. Its like 250 over miles from Vegas to Grand Canyon. Or 402km for those of you using the metric system. Or SUPER EFFING LOOOOONG TILL CAN DIE for those of you unfamiliar with either.



What river (colorado river) lor. More like ocean still if you ask me. An oasis in the middle of desert lands. So refreshing!

So anyway, here ends the Hoover Dam post and I will blog about Grand Canyon next :)

2 comments:

xcoto said...

Grand Coulee Dam is in north central Washington state.

Leira said...

correction, not 24 hours, only 25 minutes.