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Morning came and we were glad that the Sun hadn't began cooking yet, we started dismanteling the "campsite", and no the slide still wouldn't pull in electrically, packed up and ready to go, Jeff pulled his truck up to his trailer hitch and tried to lower his trailer onto the hitch ball. No luck !!! the trialer would not lower, electrically or manually, we messed around with it for nearly an hour before Jeff called a RV repairman, $450.00 later and a new trailer jack later, we were finally on our way.
30 minutes away from Las Vegas is the Hoover Dam, Jeff and I had been there before and we wanted to make sure that the families saw this marvel of human engineering too.
Difference was that Jeff and I had gone to the Dam in January, when we hit Vegas with our wives and Gord and Debbie Gilbert our friends in Surrey. The desert while still hot in January was bearable to walk the dam and do the tour, however when you go there on July 6th the heat is disgusting !!! Grace and the girls and I as well as Micki (Jeffs daughter) walked the whole span from the Arizona side (where they made us park our trucks and trailers) to the Nevada side. The rest remained in whatever shade they could find on the Arizona side, again if you have never been here it is an absolute must to see, the tour offers a wealth of super interesting information (well super interesting to a geek like me anyway).
While we were crossing both ways I was telling the girls with me about all the things to do with the dam, water ways, hydro electric turbines, work hours, lack of rebar in the structure, lack of anchors mounting the dam into the cliffs on both sides. then at one point I was pointing out on a overview of the dam from above all the things I was describing and found that I had attracted a crowd who were all listening. Man I really am a geek !!!! LOL
Dana calls me a steel trap of useless information, I think that many will agree.
Finally we made our way back over to the Arizona side and Jeff and I hiked back up the mountainside to get our trucks and trailers, while the girls all waited at the bottom, driving back over the dam and around under the freeway, we drove up onto the Pat Tillman memorial bridge, which is a modern feat of structural engineering, look it up on line and watch the day by day construction progress (Amazing!).
Down the Arizona freeway we went and onto the high desert plateaus we stopped shortly after the dam to take a picture of the Colorado river meandering through the desert all the way to Mexico.
The high desert is absolutely amazing to see, the mountain ranges and desert flats all come together for an absolutely amazing view of what mother nature has created for us to appreciate. Highway speeds of up to 75 miles and hour are far easier to obtain here, with very little cross winds and a very good highway system to cruise on.
We pulled into Williams Arizona (the town closest to Grand Canyon) and arrived at the KOA at about 8:15PM, the "buddy sites" we had booked are pretty cool allowing both trailers to face each other so that the doors are facing each other and we can be more together in the site.
Setting up was easy with the best part being the electric slide was working again YAAAY ! 30 minutes later, was wer relaxing, talking having some dinner and a few drinks !!! Then Bed !
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