Road Trip: Day 2

Fernley, NV to Kingman, AZ
517 Miles

After a great night's sleep at the Best Western, we were up for another day's adventure. The only bad thing I can say: my personal hell is being stuck in any room, but especially a breakfast room, with Fox News. There is no news. All the snarky little insightful comments by the twinkie anchors makes a mockery of news reporting. Just give me the damn news and keep your comments to yourself, please. We slammed down our eggs and juice and coffee and hit the road sometime just after 8 am. Sadly, there is no NPR on the radio dial. All the lower end frequencies belong to Jesus.

We headed towards Fallon, and noticed interesting things along the way. Such as: there is a Naval Air Station in Fallon, Nevada. There is also a Coast Guard Station. What? So we decided to take note of interesting signs and places along the way. There is an Undersea Warfare Center in Hawthorne, NV, which is also home to the Army Ammunition Plant. There are acres and acres of ammo bunkers on both sides of Highway 95. (Sadly, that night there was a horrific accident with a mortar explosion during training. Seven Marines were killed.)

We stopped at a rest area and veterans memorial park in Hawthorne, mostly to deposit the remains of our morning coffee. The park was over run with Japanese tourists. I don't know where their bus was. Maybe getting gas.

Past Hawthorne, in Mina, we saw The Desert Lobster Cafe, and a sign on the road that said Lobster Crossing. Goldfield had the Santa Fe Bar and Saloon, with a sign proclaiming “the meanest bartender in Nevada”. And don't forget the brothels: The Mustang Ranch (Sparks), The Shady Lady Ranch (Tonopah), and Angel's Ladies (Beatty)- which was originally called Fran's Star Ranch...I do not lie. In Amargosa Valley (Area 51), DennisHof's Alien Travel Center boasted Brothel, Hot Sauce, Pictures and Souvenirs. The UK Daily Mail link for that was the funniest. I found it all very entertaining.

We decided to get as far past Vegas as we could, and aimed towards Kingman, AZ. After gassing up in Boulder City, we stopped at the Hoover Dam. We passed inspection at the security gate. I was relieved that when Lloyd opened the trailer door, a river of wine did NOT flow out, which means my case of camping wine is intact after the rogue camper adventure. We drove down to the dam and across the top on the old highway. There were tons of tourists, and a new visitor center. We had a great view of the new bridge, which opened in Oct 2010, to alleviate the traffic congestion, accidents and security problems that came from having the interstate highway go across the dam. 

Deciding NOT to pay $7 to park, we headed back up to the new memorial park and walking path that takes you over the bridge. It had stairways and handicapped accessible ramping up to the display area and the bridge walk. Well done.

 One of the displays told of the siting difficulties, and how they anchored the bridge in less than optimal rock. Below the examples of the embedded pins used to keep things in place are some of the actual cores, which kept my Geologist happy.

 Beautiful geology, low Lake Mead, new visitor center on left. We'll save that for another time.

The views of the dam from the bridge were fantastic. I did look down, by the way, just a few times...

 My Geologist says to note the fault blocks in the wall on the right. They match blocks on the other side as well. Who chose this damn dam site, anyways?

 Here we are straddling AZ and NV. The two states matched the $100 million from the Feds, and another $50K came from other funding. A $250 million project that took 10 years, on budget, on schedule. And they chose the most difficult crossing to engineer, so that we, the people, could still see the dam. Thank you all for your cooperation. Made me think of the OR/WA CRC project, and what could be...

And here we are at the mid point of the span.

 The arch isn't visible from this angle. The walkway is wide, and you are well protected from the traffic. When you are driving across, you cannot rubberneck to see the views (which is a good thing, remember: part of the reason for the bridge was all the accidents on the Dam road).

 Bottom line, this is an excellent stretch your legs stop! I could have spent the better part of a day here, exploring the visitor center and taking pictures. Maybe on the way back?

The last 75 miles to Kingman were long, as the sun slowly set behind the Colorado River in the west. 

The light was lovely for rock lovers, photo taken from a speeding car...

 

 We found a room at a quiet Days Inn, at half the price of the Best Western across the street. A glass of wine, Chili's mango chicken with broccoli and rice, and I was ready for a good night's sleep. Again.