We had some late-night laundry issues which kept us up until 3 AM, and we needed to check out of the hotel by 11 AM the next morning. Tired as we were, we were up by 9:30 AM, showered and packed and checked out by about 10:30. We set the GPS for the Hoover Dam, which was a surprisingly short half hour drive. We thought that it would be a quick tour.
After finding one of the last parking stalls in the dam $7 visitor centre parkade (at the top, exposed to the full force of the Las Vegas sun), we headed down to the dam visitor centre. Once inside, we encountered a massive line-up of dam people just inside the centre itself. We asked the clerk what the huge dam line was for, and she replied, "the powerplant tour." Great, the one dam thing Brett wanted to see. However, she informed us that the tour groups are 120 people each, and they leave every 15 minutes. Well, that's a little better. We paid our dam $11 tour fee each, and got into the dam lineup.
We were still waiting in the line for a good 45 minutes before we got into one of the dam tours. And it started with a visit to the theatre room, to watch a dam video straight out of a junior high science class. It was so boring it was laughable! The best part was the close captioning, especially when the music and explosions happened ("MUSIC" and "EXPLOSIONS") After, we took a giant dam elevator down to the inlet pipes, where the water powering the dam turbines flowed through. Our dam tour guide talked a lot about how the main purpose of the dam was actually to prevent flooding further downstream in the California agriculture belts, and that power generation is just a nice bonus. You could feel the pipes rumbling as they carried '88,000 gallons of water a second' to the turbines. Incidentally, that was the next and last stop on the dam tour. We saw the tops of the 8 or 9 turbines on the Nevada side of the dam (the generator rotor & stator parts) while the turbines themselves were another 4 or 5 stories below where we were. Dam.
With the tour finished, we had a walk around for a few moments, soaking up all the dam heat (113 degrees). They're building a dam huge roadway bypass bridge across the canyon, only 1/4 mile past the dam itself. It should be done in October 2010. They have the suspension cables, the arches and the pillars pretty much done. All they need to do is build the roadway that will go over the top of it. Watch for a Discovery special on it coming your way in about a year and a half.
By the time we were done hanging out at the dam, it was getting near time to check in for our last night in Las Vegas. We got a room at the Luxor for cheap. So, we drove down to the Luxor Hotel, Brett dropped Rhonda off, and Brett went to try and find a parking space in the check-in area (15 minute parking only). After Brett finally weaseled into one of those spots, he rejoined Rhonda in the check-in lane. We checked into our room after parking the truck (in the top deck of a parkade AGAIN!). We're staying in the pyramid part of the hotel, so we get angled windows with a view of the Excalibur Hotel, and a little of the New York New York Hotel, too. The elevation is not even called an elevator, it is an "Inclinator". It goes up at an angle and sounds like it is having a really tough time doing it.
After settling in, we hit the Strip, by first taking the tramway to New York New York. We saw the cool NYC decorating in the hotel and the roller coaster. Yes, Rhonda chickened out of going on the roller coaster, she blamed it on having just eaten. We had just had our first and only Vegas buffet, and it was an experience. After, we crossed the street to the MGM Grand, then down to street level to see the vendors on the street. We grabbed some souvenirs for some friends at the M&M Store, then we hit the Miracle Mile mall, but by then we were pretty pooped. We exited the mall right in front of the Paris Hotel, and across the street was the Bellagio. Rhonda had been gushing over seeing the fountains at the Bellagio, so we crossed the street and were treated to 'Luck Be A Lady' by Sinatra playing with the fountain show. Brett was awestruck by the spectacle (and the engineering behind it). Maybe now he understood why Rhonda had been "gushing" over it.
We cabbed it back to the Luxor and grabbed showers before tonight's event: Cirque De Soleil's Mystere. Another cab ride to Treasure Island, and we arrived just before showtime. Before the show started, they had a 'clown' ushering people to their seats and making a great spectacle of it all for the audience. Once the show started, it was sheer awe. An amazing spectacle of colour, dance, acrobatics, and technical theatre. It's safe to say that were were both stunned by the performance. It was really beautiful.
After, we took a cab to the Bellagio to see the fountains at night. We saw 'Luck Be A Lady' again, and the finale, 'The Star Spangled Banner'. Very nice. Once again, we cabbed it back to the Luxor, as by this time, Rhonda was in quite a bit of pain from her heels.
After Rhonda had changed her heels out for some more comfortable footwear, we decided to head down to the casino level and do some actual gambling. With $10 each, we had some fun on the slots, but lost it all. We finished off the evening with a McDonald's late night meal from the hotel food court and retired.
Only about 80 km's put on the truck today, and we're all still in Vegas. (But not for much longer)
After finding one of the last parking stalls in the dam $7 visitor centre parkade (at the top, exposed to the full force of the Las Vegas sun), we headed down to the dam visitor centre. Once inside, we encountered a massive line-up of dam people just inside the centre itself. We asked the clerk what the huge dam line was for, and she replied, "the powerplant tour." Great, the one dam thing Brett wanted to see. However, she informed us that the tour groups are 120 people each, and they leave every 15 minutes. Well, that's a little better. We paid our dam $11 tour fee each, and got into the dam lineup.
We were still waiting in the line for a good 45 minutes before we got into one of the dam tours. And it started with a visit to the theatre room, to watch a dam video straight out of a junior high science class. It was so boring it was laughable! The best part was the close captioning, especially when the music and explosions happened ("MUSIC" and "EXPLOSIONS") After, we took a giant dam elevator down to the inlet pipes, where the water powering the dam turbines flowed through. Our dam tour guide talked a lot about how the main purpose of the dam was actually to prevent flooding further downstream in the California agriculture belts, and that power generation is just a nice bonus. You could feel the pipes rumbling as they carried '88,000 gallons of water a second' to the turbines. Incidentally, that was the next and last stop on the dam tour. We saw the tops of the 8 or 9 turbines on the Nevada side of the dam (the generator rotor & stator parts) while the turbines themselves were another 4 or 5 stories below where we were. Dam.
With the tour finished, we had a walk around for a few moments, soaking up all the dam heat (113 degrees). They're building a dam huge roadway bypass bridge across the canyon, only 1/4 mile past the dam itself. It should be done in October 2010. They have the suspension cables, the arches and the pillars pretty much done. All they need to do is build the roadway that will go over the top of it. Watch for a Discovery special on it coming your way in about a year and a half.
By the time we were done hanging out at the dam, it was getting near time to check in for our last night in Las Vegas. We got a room at the Luxor for cheap. So, we drove down to the Luxor Hotel, Brett dropped Rhonda off, and Brett went to try and find a parking space in the check-in area (15 minute parking only). After Brett finally weaseled into one of those spots, he rejoined Rhonda in the check-in lane. We checked into our room after parking the truck (in the top deck of a parkade AGAIN!). We're staying in the pyramid part of the hotel, so we get angled windows with a view of the Excalibur Hotel, and a little of the New York New York Hotel, too. The elevation is not even called an elevator, it is an "Inclinator". It goes up at an angle and sounds like it is having a really tough time doing it.
After settling in, we hit the Strip, by first taking the tramway to New York New York. We saw the cool NYC decorating in the hotel and the roller coaster. Yes, Rhonda chickened out of going on the roller coaster, she blamed it on having just eaten. We had just had our first and only Vegas buffet, and it was an experience. After, we crossed the street to the MGM Grand, then down to street level to see the vendors on the street. We grabbed some souvenirs for some friends at the M&M Store, then we hit the Miracle Mile mall, but by then we were pretty pooped. We exited the mall right in front of the Paris Hotel, and across the street was the Bellagio. Rhonda had been gushing over seeing the fountains at the Bellagio, so we crossed the street and were treated to 'Luck Be A Lady' by Sinatra playing with the fountain show. Brett was awestruck by the spectacle (and the engineering behind it). Maybe now he understood why Rhonda had been "gushing" over it.
We cabbed it back to the Luxor and grabbed showers before tonight's event: Cirque De Soleil's Mystere. Another cab ride to Treasure Island, and we arrived just before showtime. Before the show started, they had a 'clown' ushering people to their seats and making a great spectacle of it all for the audience. Once the show started, it was sheer awe. An amazing spectacle of colour, dance, acrobatics, and technical theatre. It's safe to say that were were both stunned by the performance. It was really beautiful.
After, we took a cab to the Bellagio to see the fountains at night. We saw 'Luck Be A Lady' again, and the finale, 'The Star Spangled Banner'. Very nice. Once again, we cabbed it back to the Luxor, as by this time, Rhonda was in quite a bit of pain from her heels.
After Rhonda had changed her heels out for some more comfortable footwear, we decided to head down to the casino level and do some actual gambling. With $10 each, we had some fun on the slots, but lost it all. We finished off the evening with a McDonald's late night meal from the hotel food court and retired.
Only about 80 km's put on the truck today, and we're all still in Vegas. (But not for much longer)
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