Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Before I get off on a tangent I had better let you know that I did successfully retrieve my computer bag from the office this morning, with passport intact. I knew you were all wondering what happened and it was very cruel of me to make you wait until now to find out about this. Anyway, this morning our campground was only 10 miles away from our intended target. However, as we were about to find out, the terrain between here and there is surprisingly rocky and hilly. Where were we going? For those of you who have been following the WhereIsJoRoMoHo blog, which gives an up-to-date status of our whereabouts (link in top left corner of my blog), you already know I am talking about the Hoover Dam. Apparently this rather rugged terrain is a perfect dam site. The dam itself is quite a spectacle and has an aesthetic appeal, especially when compared to the other dams we have seen. And, as you may know, there is an amazing story behind the building of the dam. Talk of a dam started back in the teens and twenties in the early 20th century due to severe flooding along the Colorado river. It wasn’t until the late twenties that anything got going since there were 7 states involved and trying to get agreement among that many players can be a challenge. Even the naming of the dam was a story. They had originally spent a long time looking up and down the Colorado River for the optimal site for the dam. Most of the sites that they identified to be on the short list were in Bolder Canyon so they named the project the Boulder Canyon project. When they finally selected the winning site for the dam, it turns out that it was not one of the ones in Boulder Canyon after all, it was in Black Canyon. But they figured, what’s the point of changing the name of the project as this point, so they stuck with the original project moniker. And, believe it or not, this name stuck so well that ultimately the dam itself was labeled the Boulder Dam. Then finally, during the Truman administration in the late forties, they changed the name to the Hoover Dam as Herbert Hoover was instrumental in getting the initial consensus needed to move forward with the dam. It didn’t hurt that Herbert also happened to be the President when they finished the dam too. Ok, enough about that. Now, in stark contrast to what I ran into at the other dams when it came to taking photos, the good people at the Hoover Dam actually encourage you to take photos of the dam, inside and out, pretty much wherever you want. I cannot stress enough that this behavior is the exemplar for dealing with tourists at all dams. We even drove across the dam taking pictures! It is quite an impressive facility and even more so if you look at it through the eyes of someone in the 1930’s. How in the heck did they manage to build this thing back then? It is truly amazing. Even now, it is still the tallest dam in the US at over 700 feet high and it utilizes 17 separate generators! Granted they do not generate power as efficiently as more modern generators but 17 can still produce a lot of juice! In case you weren’t aware, the Nevada-Arizona state line runs through the middle of the Hoover Dam. This results in half of the dam actually being in a different time zone. Bizarre. And the generators are also split with 8 in Nevada and 9 in Arizona. I wonder if Arizona had better negotiators? In the end we had a very entertaining time at the Hoover Dam and I must comment on the fact that the people handling the tours are top notch. Informative with an excellent sense of humour. What more do you want in a tour guide?. If you are in the neighbourhood, definitely pop in for your own dam experience. Come on, you knew I had to throw one in sometime. One thing you cannot help but notice when you travel across the Hoover Dam these days is the fact that they are building a by-pass section onto the highway which will direct traffic across a bridge just to the south of, and overlooking the dam. I enjoy heights but even I raised an eyebrow when I saw how high this bridge is going to be when it is finished. About two weeks before we arrived a crane being used to build this bridge collapsed due to the high winds in the area. The crane had supposedly been designed to withstand winds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h)! It must have been the mother of all wind gusts that took that crane down. So now they are in the process of designing a crane that can withstand 200 mph (320km/h) winds. Ok, so am I the only one who thinks that driving across this bridge could prove to be a bit of a challenge … especially if you are driving a MoHo? I think the next time I am passing through I will still be opting for crossing the Colorado via the dam. After our dam experience (sorry) we were heading to a campsite somewhere in the vicinity close to the Grand Canyon. The question is, should we drive the MoHo all the way there and back from the main highway or should we pick a spot near the main highway and just shuttle in to the canyon with the Matrix the next day. Sometimes you cannot predict the forces that will help form a decision. In this case it was the impending darkness that helped us decide to pick a spot near the highway and shuttle in. Watch tomorrow to see the photos that I have been waiting all trip to take.

Today’s word:

exemplar \ig-ZEM-plar; -pluhr\, noun:
1. A model or pattern to be copied or imitated.
2. A typical or standard specimen.
3. An ideal model or type.4. A copy of a book or text.