La diga di Hoover

La diga di Hoover...aka, The Hoover Dam is the next ever-so-exciting installment in the Southwestern Chronicles. I had seen this huge wonder from the window of a plane but never in person. The sheer enormity of it was very exhilarating. The thing that amazed the most, however, was the fact that humans were building a bridge ABOVE (way, way above) the Hoover Dam so that traffic to Las Vegas on that route would not have to travel over the dam itself.

We walked down an escalator following a sign that led us to believe the Visitor's Center was downstairs. It was required that we walk through a series of metal detectors to enter. As we neared the xray machines and detectors Kyle reached in his pockets and a look washed over his face. He had been extra careful to remove anything that might not pass through the detectors before we got out of the truck, except that he forgot something. He leaned over to the security guard and explained his position, produced his badge, and whispered, "I have a magazine in my pocket." The guard was perplexed and said, "It's okay. It's only paper." (Falling on the floor laughing as I type this, yet again)

It turned out that he had to go around the back way and put the "magazine" in a special locker with another guard. Meanwhile I was having a pleasant conversation with another guard about OU basketball, Kyle's occupation and age and Hawaii. When K finally came back, we realized that the visitor's center was not, in fact, downstairs at all and that we had gone through the metal detectors for no reason. Fifteen minutes later. We got the magazine and walked back up the stairs, looked down the dam, and proceeded on the way to Las Vegas.

And what a ride it was................................................................................................