Day 2 In & Around Vegas

Rise and shine, it's 5:30!
That is how the day started. Larry needed a ride into work and I was happy to oblige. I haven't seen sunrise for a while, so it had additional benefits.
I hung out at the office for a while and jawed with Larry, Dave and John. We had coffee, talked about travelling and some of the projects they are doing. The ornamental metal construction business gets them into some neat projects. After a coupe ours of this they had to do some work, so I beat it.
Ripley and I got kicked off the beach at Lake Meade. Turns out we weren't in the dog approved area. The water is really warm here. Much warmer than at Parker.
Hoover Dam was my next stop. I opted for the power plant tour. The dam is over 750 feet high and has 550 feet of head at the turbines. Well, that would be at spillway level, and the lake is well below the spillway, about 120 feet below. The docent said the drought broke last year and water is accumulating at Powell, but has not reached Meade yet. The lake was lower in 1952 by about 25 feet.
Here are a few pictures.
The lake side of the dam and some really handsome guy.And the down river view. They are building a bridge for US Highway 93 to relieve traffic on the dam. This is a rainbow style bridge. It is interesting to see how they build it.The spillway - no threat of water leaking out anytime soon!And the ginormous pipe where the spillway water goes...This is a picture of the top edge of the dam all the way down to the river output below. Follow the seam in the concrete down. Please appreciate this shot since I had to lean over the edge to get it. Trust me, this is a cool photo.
And later in the afternoon, Larry finished work, we had a couple beers, cooked up a great meal and had some old style Palmdale chat. Larry is a good friend!

Oh, I almost forgot. Here are the power generating turbines. Eight of the 17 total. Just in case you thought I may not have actually taken the tour.

Next stop - Fishing Bridge at Yellowstone National Park. Finally!