Thursday, April 30, 2009
I woke up this morning in Vegas, and the goal is San Diego, with a stop at the Hoover Dam since I didn’t make it yesterday.
Hoover Dam is only about 30 miles out of Vegas, so it’s a short little drive. When I got there, the elevators were down and so they weren’t giving tours inside the dam, so I just walked around on top for a bit. FYI — if it’s not too busy, there’s free parking on the Arizona side that is relatively close, with more free parking as you go up the hill. They’re in the process of upgrading Highway US-89 (the 2 lane highway that goes across the dam) to 4 lanes and so they’re putting an arch bridge just downstream which should help traffic and provide some great views. From the Hoover Dam, I headed for San Diego. The freaky part was how the freeway changed as soon as I hit the California line — the traffic seemed to get heavier, and it never really seemed to turn back into the rural freeway that I’d driven much of the time up till then. California is beautiful, but lots of hills (and traffic). Tomorrow, I’m just going to stick around San Diego.
This was the room I stay in in Vegas.
They’re in the process of building a bride just downstream of the dam to increase the capacity of US-89, which currently runs across the dam.
Hoover Dam from the front - the white at the bottom is the roof of the power house.
Zzyzx Road — you wonder if they did that just so it would show up last in the dictionary….
The California freeways.
Leave Las Vegas (breakfast buffet $12.78) — 9:38am (PDT) — 221,718km
Hoover Dam (parking $7) — 10:20am to noon — 221,768km
Baker CA (nap, lunch $11, water $2.99) — 1:45 to 3:15pm — 221,959km
Victorville (gas $28) — 4:40pm — 222,114km
Arrive Valley Center — 7pm — 222,298km
Today — US$61.77 — 6:10 hours — 580km
Total - CAD$552.34 — 27:20 hours — 2777km
Comments
Just a note. It’s named zzyxz for a reason. You know how you place the name game in the car? You look for the letter ‘A’ in a sign somewhere, then the letter ‘B’, etc. etc. etc. Or you play the double letters game in the car instead. This would cover both games as you’re coming to Utah. I believe it was intentionally named that way specifically for that reason. I need to check my references though and get back to you on that.
PS. Just found this from wikipedia.
“The name Zzyzx was given to the area in 1944 by Curtis Howe Springer, claiming it to be the last word in the English language. Springer made up the word’s pronunciation.”