|
|||||||||||||||
Hoover Dam is about a half hour drive from Las Vegas. It supplies power for cities in the area, and even into Southern California. It's construction generated the beautiful Lake Mead, the largest man-made lake in the country. Hoover Dam is a miracle of modern engineering, which was built under-budget and finished ahead of schedule thanks to clear leadership, good planning, and dedication of it's workers. The bus tour, had none of these things. They forgot to pick us up, they rushed us through the exhibits, and it took forever to get back to our hotel. Before I tell you about the damn bus tour, let me tell you about the Dam tour. Once we got into the Dam parking lot, it was pretty Dam quick to get out and head over to the Dam ticket office. We got tickets for the Dam guided tour, went through some Dam metal detectors, and watched a crappy Dam movie about the history of the Dam dam. (I mean, the dam's history...) We got to see the Dam generators, the Dam water pipes, and we got to take plenty of Dam pictures from a damn fine Dam observation point. I had a Dam good time. The bus tour, however, blew chunks. They didn't give us enough time to complete the guided tour before we were supposed to be back on the bus, so we had to rush through. They charged us extra money for a lunch on the tour, but it turns out the lunch is really just you being left at the Hacienda hotel/casino with a buffet ticket for several hours while the driver takes the non-lunch-eating guests back to their hotels. We figured those poor people who stayed got left at the Hacienda for at least 4 or 5 hours with traffic. Other optional (and expensive) highlights of the bus tour included the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory, which takes only minutes to drive to yourself. The upshot of all this is, by all means, go see the Hoover Dam, it's very cool. But take the money you'd spend on a bus tour, and rent a car for a day. |
|||||||||||||||
