23rd December, 2000:
Scheduled departure was at 6:30 AM, but since one of my teammates was heading back to India at 7:30 and we were also late by half-an-hour already, we bade good-bye to them and then started off by 7:45 AM. There were three of us for this trip, myself, S and A. We had all the driving directions that is the highway and route to take, my car was all checked that is for tyre pressure and gas was filled to full tank the previous day itself, so we were all set. We were heading towards NorthWest towards Las Vegas, which is adjacent state called Nevada, wherein we are in Phoenix city which is the capital of Arizona State. The total distance between Phoenix and Las Vegas is around 300 miles (450 Kms), and the estimated time to reach was 4 and half-hours
As per plan we reached Hoover dam by 12:30 PM which is on the way to Las Vegas. From here Las Vegas is only 30 miles. Hoover dam is built on the Colorado and Lake Mead rivers just like our KRS dam on Cauvery. But this one is gigantic compared to KRS and it generates power for around 1.2 million people and also provides irrigation water to the whole of Nevada state. We spent around 3 and half hours at Hoover dam, there was a guided tour of the dam, power generation facility etc for $8 which I highly recommend. Also there is a boat-cruise for another $10 which we could not due to time constraints. Also, there were some video movies showing how the dam was built.
So here are some more details about Hoover dam:
1. Hoover Dam is 726 ft. tall. That is 171 ft. taller than the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. and twice as tall as the Luxor Casino (338-ft.) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
2. At its base, Hoover Dam is as thick (660 ft.) as two footballs fields measured end-to-end.
3. As many as 20,000 vehicles a day drive across the 45 ft. wide top of the dam between Nevada and Arizona.
4. There is enough concrete in Hoover Dam (4 1/2 million cubic yds.) to build a 2 lane road from Seattle, Washington to Miami, Florida or a 4 ft. wide sidewalk around the Earth at the Equator.
5. During peak electricity periods, enough water runs through the generators to fill 15 average sized swimming pools (20,000 gallons each) in 1 second.
6. Each of the 30 ft. wide penstocks (water pipes) can carry enough water to fill 900 bathtubs (100 gallons each) in 1 second, or 960,000 (12 oz.) cans of drink in 1 second.
7. Hoover Dam is shaped like a huge curved axe head, 45 ft. wide at the top and 660 ft. thick at the bottom.
8. Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the USA and contains enough water to flood the entire state of New York with 1 ft. of water (26 million-acre ft.).
9. If you drink water from the tap at Disneyland, Anaheim or Sea World in San Diego — that water is coming from the Colorado River and Lake Mead, 300 miles away.
10. Each of the 17 generators can supply electricity to 100,000 households.
11. When operating at full power, the 17 generators can supply all the electricity needed by a city of 750,000 people.
12. Each generator weights (4 million pounds) as much as 4 1/2 fully loaded Boeing 747-400’s.
13. The Colorado River is more than 1,400 miles long and supplies water to Los Angels, San Diego, and Phoenix. Las Vegas gets almost all its water from Lake Mead. Lake Mead was made by Hoover Dam when it blocked the Colorado River and flooded the Mojave Desert.
14. Between 1931 and 1936 when the dam was built, 96 men were killed in industrial accidents. None were buried in the concrete.
15. The mascot dog and favorite pet of all the construction workers during the building of the dam was buried at Hoover Dam. The grave is near the Hoover Dam Visitor Center and can be visited.
16. It would take $2,000,000 worth of copper pennies to make the copper buses (4-inch in diameter hollow square wires) that carry electricity inside the powerhouse.
17. Every state in the USA furnished supplies and materials for the construction of the dam.
18. More than 8.5 million pounds of dynamite was used to blast the foundation for the dam and 8 miles of tunnels through the canyon walls.
19. There are 2700 miles of transmission lines sending electricity from Hoover Dam to Los Angeles.
Source of this information: http://www.hooverdam.com/
So from there we started off and reached Las Vegas by 4:30 PM, checked into our hotel – Quality Inn, refreshed ourselves and got ready to explore Las Vegas. This is a city of lights and hence city wakes up by 5 PM in the evening and sleeps by 4 AM in the morning, so it is a night city and we were right on time. Also, we were lucky because we had Gandhi Indian Cuisine an Indian restaurant right across our hotel, so we first went to the hotel to have our lunch since we ate some fruits, chips, biscuits and apple juice in the car and we were hungry. So we were the first for dinner, though it took a while for the food to arrive we finished our dinner cum lunch and started off to the main attraction place in Vegas, which is called ‘The Strip’. Hotel had a free shuttle to this center point, and I did not want to drive in a new city with not much of direction sense, so we took the shuttle to the Strip, which was actually pretty close.
Before I continue explaining what all we saw at Vegas here is brief about Vegas. This city was built with the main goal of entertainment for all other states in US, since the weather here is very moderate and pleasant all through the year unlike other places in US (so they choose this place). Since it is the entertainment city, there are a whole lot of hotels for tourists or travelers to stay, real good variety of food, casinos, bars, different kinds of shows (magic show, dolphin show, simulation of volcano, treasure island show), movies, various rides like roller coaster, big-shot. Also, all these hotels are built on the Strip (the road name) and these hotels are real big. Another important feature of these hotels are, they are all modeled on famous places in the world (architecture model) like Paris, Venice, Desert (Aladdin), New York etc. Each one of these hotels is unique and they all contain different sets of shows and games and ofcourse all of them contain these casinos where people come in and bet big money on gambling. We did a sightseeing of these casinos because the betting was starting only at like $100.
But there were these slot machines which takes from 5 Cents which is all we could try and that also just to have fun. So we were looking at the rich and decorated interiors of each of these hotels and also window shopping in the shopping centers with in the hotel and ofcourse we could not try any of the restaurants either because they are too expensive or they offer 99% non-veg stuff. So you might ask me what did I do in Vegas then, the lights were awesome, the whole strip road is always glittering and there are these real fun rides and ofcourse the dolphin show, white tigers, the Volcano, Stratosphere all these are memorable. So you can still enjoy the city with all these and we could not anyhow complete all the hotels and all the shows and games though we spent two full days. We were very tired walking because each hotel inside is so big just walking and looking around one of them is a minimum 2 hours. So we spent till 2 Am in the morning when we finally said we
Those slot machines – Casinos @ Paris hotel
have had enough because our legs were no longer with us, we headed back to hotel and slept till 11 Am in the morning.
24th December, 2000:
We went to Gandhi and had our lunch first after we got ready by 12:30, then took the shuttle again and we were back on the strip a little early today by 1:30 PM itself, because there was this Dolphin and white tigers show in the afternoon. We finished them then headed to Paris, which also has a replica of Eiffel tower, only difference being it is 50 % tall as against the original one but you can still see the whole lit Vegas city. We went to the top of the tower took some nice pictures, then headed off to Aladdin- desert shopping, casinos and hotels. Then from there we came to New York, where we had this enjoyable roller coaster ride which again takes you to the top and comes back down in a second at 45 degree angle and also go through 360 degrees and reverse. The tracks are laid in this manner and this ride is something you have experience, which is not available, any where else, I might not be doing justice by explaining them, but you have to come and experience this. From here we went to Stratosphere, which is the tallest point in the whole of Vegas from which you can see the whole city, we took some more pictures and then it was already 11 PM so we headed back. Then I took the car and explored the night lights and the hotels and casinos, it was a good ride and returned home by 2 AM again and crashed (slept) instantly.
25th December, 2000:
We checked out of hotel by 12 after we got up and got ready. Went to Gandhi again for lunch since food was really good over here, then filled up petrol for car also, and headed back home. Traffic on the return was much lesser as against the onward since it was Christmas day. We stopped at Lake Mead, which was really huge and awesome scenery. Water was very cold since the temperature was around 10 degrees, we took some more pictures spent near about an hour and headed back straight home and reached home by 6:30 Pm.
Travel Tips:
Vegas is around 300 Miles from Phoenix located very ideally for a comfortable drive (Approximately 5 hours). To fully explore you will need 2 nights at Vegas, check the web-sites for good hotel deals, weather details.
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