Nevada, Las Vegas - Thursday, October 30, 2014 - Lake Mead and Hoover Dam

Wednesday I tried a new recipe from Pillsbury.  They looked good and tasted good too.  It was suggested that these pot pies be baked in muffin cups, I opted for custard cups instead, glad I did they really puffed up.  You mix 1 c. chicken, 2 cups frozen vegetables (thawed), 1 can cream of chicken soup.  Press Grands biscuits into greased muffin cups, add 1/3 cup chicken mixture and bake at 375 degrees for 22-25 minutes.  I had a package of 5 biscuits and only 4 custard cups so I cut the extra one and put it on top.  The chicken mixture is meant to go along with one of the larger packages of biscuits so I had some left over, it should go well on baked potatoes.

 

 

Our destination today was Hoover Dam.

 

 

Our senior parks pass paid off again as we entered the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.  There are several scenic overlook spots along the way.

 

 

Nice picture of the bike at one of the overlooks.

After we left the overlook I decided to try to take some pictures while we were moving.  The mountains look even bigger when we are on the motorcycle.  Greg also mentioned that on a state highway there was no falling rock protection like there was on the interstate – well that made me feel betterJ.

This monument is one of the first things you see when you come in from the Nevada side.  Rubbing the toes of the statues is supposed to bring good luck – we’ll see.

 

 

 

 

 

This is Lake Mead formed when the dam was put up on the Colorado River.  We wonder what the division of colors on the rocks mean.

 

 

These intake towers pull water into the power plant.  One is on the Nevada side and one is on the Arizona side.  Each one has a clock on the tower.

 

 

 

 

This is the Nevada side of the dam.  It’s impossible to get a picture of the whole thing unless you are sitting in the middle of the Colorado River.  The enormity of this thing is just amazing.  See how small the people look at the top?  I was thinking about what the first day at work must have been like for the men who accomplished this --- “ok, now here is the plan”---what must have been going through their minds at that point?

View of the Arizona side.

 

A view over the edge, those are full sized pickup trucks down there.  Wonder if they ever think about the fact that they are wiped out if anything goes wrong with that dam?

 

 

The bridge over the Colorado River is an engineering miracle all by itself, see the semi that looks like a tiny toy?  It’s hard to show how big this is in a picture.

 

It looks like the visitors center area was updated in 1995.  We didn’t take any of the tours at $30 per person.  Even to get into the visitors area it was $10 per person.  It was a great day with any of the tours.

 

We had lunch at the High Scaler Café.  Good thing we saved our money by not taking the tours, lunch of two fish sandwiches, onion rings and small cokes was $34.  I have to admit the lunch was good, but I think that is a little pricey for a fish sandwich.

 

 

This statue was just outside the café.  Makes you wonder once again how all of this was accomplished.

 

On the way back home we drove through a nice looking RV park that is right on Lake Mead – Lake Mead RV Village, might have to try it next time we are out this way.

Nevada, Las Vegas - Wednesday, October 29, 2014 - Hitching Post RV Park

Finishing up cleaning today.  Wiped down the clean shower with gel gloss to keep it looking nice longer while Greg washed the windows inside.  We finished up by steaming the floors.  We are all sparkly for at least a couple of days.

I’m more impressed with this park since we walked around this afternoon.  Although the registration building isn’t much to look at…..

 

 

There is a restaurant/bar next door that is open 24 hours, we haven’t checked it out yet, doesn’t look too bad from the outside and it seems to be busy.

All of the facilities are very clean, I’m impressed.  The exercise room has a lot of very nice equipment in it.  My picture of the other side of the room didn’t turn out.

 

 

Outside there is a putting green.

Batting cage

 

 

Puppy wash with hot water and a puppy run.

We looked in on the pool which once again looks very clean, lots of pool chairs.  We didn’t go in, we didn’t bring our keys for access.

Laundry has a lot of machines, even commercial size.  I might have to take the bedspread up while we are here.

 

 

 

Most of the lots have some kind of tree.

 

 

 

The roads are all paved and the lots are crushed stone.  Definitely need to take the shoes off outside or you’ll be tracking in crushed stone dust.  That’s us on the right, second one.

 

Better shot of our site.

This afternoon the planes have been quiet.  I’ve cooked some basics for use in recipes later in the week – browned ground beef and sausage, put a pot roast in the crock pot, cooked some chicken breasts and rice.

Tomorrow we plan to ride the bike to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.  We have been invited to a dinner with John Force on Friday evening.  In case you aren’t a drag racing fan, he is an icon and Greg’s favorite racer, should be fun.

Nevada, Las Vegas - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - Hitching Post RV Park

We’ve not walked around the park yet.  But, I do know that the only reason I would want to come back would be to go to the drag races again.  It is the closest RV park to the drag race track, the prices are decent and we have full hookups.  The sites are kind of narrow if you have a motor coach with 4 slide outs like we do.  We had a little trouble getting maneuvered so we could get the bike off the lift.  There was a huge rock right where we wanted to go so we left the back of the coach in the road until we got the bike off.  There is actually nothing wrong with the site other than it is narrow.  The problem is that Nellis Air Force Base is not far away and we are right under their training flight pattern.  Several times a day the planes fly very low and are very loud.  I can tune things like that out when I’m busy, but if I was just wanting to kick back and relax I think it would bother me.

We spent the day cleaning.  Greg tackled the bike and the outside windows while I worked inside dusting, polishing and vacuuming.  We took a break mid-day to go get some groceries.

We did dig out the fall decorations.  We don’t do much for Halloween.  Got to have our scary bucket for treats.

 

 

The amethyst I got last week goes well with the purple “witchy” candleholder I got in Kansas.

Some fall decorations above the fridge.  The baskets are stuck up there with Velcro so they travel well.  I can just insert some flowers for the season to change it up a bit.  The teddy bear usually travels well, sometimes he takes a header off the fridge if we are on rough roads.

Our main decoration for any time of year is on the dash.  This is the fall theme this year.  This stuff has to be packed up when we move.

Right now we are watching the Kansas City Royals beat up on San Francisco.  Hope they can hold on.

Nevada, Las Vegas - Monday, October 27, 2014 - Hitching Post RV Park

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SON DAVID!!!

We are headed to Las Vegas for the NHRA Drags that will be going on next weekend.  I’ll bet they are going the same place.

 

 

Lots of beautiful views on I-40 west.  We didn't know there were so many different kinds of mountains.  These look like great piles of gravel.

 

 

 

 

 

Here we are at the Blue Beacon truck wash.  Getting some of the Kansas sand washed out of the nooks and crannies J

There is a lot of wonderful scenery out here.  There is also a whole lot of nothing in many places.  Greg made the comment that a lot of lives were lost when the pioneers were fighting the Indians for this land.  He’s not real sure why either of them would want it that bad – it looks like there should be plenty of room for everyone who wanted to be here.

The mountains in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area on US Hwy-93 north were breathtaking.

 

 

  

We stopped at the Lake Mead visitor’s center to have some sandwiches for lunch.  We plan on coming back to Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam on the motorcycle.

 

 

The lake was such a vivid blue today.  I am going to have to do some research to see how I get backgrounds to be as colorful as they really are.

 

 

 

We are going to have to learn the names of some new plants.  No corn and soybeans here.