The Minigans are Adventuring Again - Day 6

Vacations are interesting when you are traveling with a partner.  It takes people that are like minded and also open minded.   It also takes a great friendship.  Jim and I are really great travel partners.  We have been spending 24/7 with each other and still manage to laugh at so many things throughout our days on the road.   We both have things that are important to us and we both respect the other person's priorities.  I love traveling with him and we are having a blast!

This morning we started off in Henderson, Nevada in 100 degree heat.  Since we were going to a cooler climate, I dressed in jeans.  We had breakfast in the hotel lobby and headed out.  Next stop..... Hoover Dam.  Neither of us had ever been to Hoover Dam so we didn't know what to expect.  Honestly, I wasn't that terribly excited about going there but this was one of those things that was important to Jim so of course I wanted to make sure it happened.  Boy am I glad we did! 

First of all, the highways getting to the dam are beautiful! One spectacular view after another.  We arrived at the parking lot.  Not quite amazing but the parking lot was built into the side of a rock mountain so I was somewhat impressed.  Still, no real feel for what we were going to experience.  The parking lot led us down to the entrance of the dam.  This is where the fun began. One exception.  It was not any cooler so my jeans were a little on the warm side.

The walkway across the dam is just a sidewalk next to the road that goes across the dam.  We forge ahead.  Every step we take is more and more spectacular.  We walk across the entire dam and are so impressed with the views, the engineering and the manpower it took to build this wonderful monument  As an engineer, Jim understands the process much more than I did but I was still completely awed by everything.  The river flowing between the enormous mountains of beautiful rock was a sight to behold!

After the walk across the dam there was a tour of the power plant.  Again, very impressive.  As we bought the tickets, they asked if anyone 1) had a pacemaker or, 2) was claustrophobic.  I am still not sure why they asked these things.   The tour consisted of elevator rides up an down.  They instructed us to "go to the back of the elevator and line up shoulder to shoulder".  We got to know our neighbors very well. :-)  Maybe this is why they asked about claustrophobia??

The power plant tour was quite educational and impressive.  And it was indoors where it wasn't quite so hot.  Since I had dressed in jeans (thinking it was going to be cooler) I was quite pleased with the cooler temperature. 

After the tour we decided to head out and drive across the dam.  Just so we could say we had done it.  Great views, very slow ride.  Then we drove across the new bridge that had been constructed to lighten the traffic flow.  The pictures we had taken of the bridge from the dam were absolutely stunning so we were anxious to get photos of the damn from the bridge.  We just knew the view from that high up would be stunning.  Weren't we disappointed! The bridge had been constructed with high sides so we could not see over them.  Oh well.......

From the dam we drove to Kanab, Utah (first settled in 1864) .  The drive took us from Nevada to Arizona to Utah.  Views that were amazing.  I couldn't stop taking photos.  There was a haze though.  The photos would have been a lot better without the haze but not much we could do about it. 

Along the way we stopped at Pipe Spring National Monument.  The Paiute Indians had originally settled there because of a spring that ran through the area.  Very interesting history. We took a brief tour and learned a lot about the history of this spring and the Paiute Indians.

Once in Kanab, we found out there was a bicycle event going through town and there were very few rooms left.  We tend to fly by the seat of our pants so this caused just a brief moment of anxiety.  We managed to find a vacancy at a Hampton Inn though so all stress was eliminated!  Whew!  The town is fairly small but impressive.  Rock mountains surround the town and make for beautiful scenery.  I look forward to seeing it again in the morning!

Dinner was at a great steakhouse.  The Iron Horse.   Cute little western-type restaurant with really good food.  And really good service.  However, we did find out that Utah law requires you have (or order) food prior to having any alcoholic beverage. We ordered our food quickly!

Now, time to rest and go to bed so we can keep adventuring tomorrow!