Love, Honor and Respect on the road less traveled

Monday, March 21

Yesterday, when taking pictures of the quail on the rock pile, I asked Kim what he thought the PVC pipe coming out of the rock pile was for.  He didn’t have a clue.  Today, I was up earlier than Kim and the alarm, so I went outside to enjoy the early morning quiet.  I noticed that someone had placed a flag in the PVC pipe…and that there were more flags on down the road that goes beyond the campground.  Could see about 5 of them from our campsite.  Later I realized that something was written on the flagpole about 50 yds down the way.  Curiosity got the best of me, so I told Kim I’d be real quick, the flagpole wasn’t that far.  However, once I stepped out onto the road, I could see maybe 12 flags total down a distance of about ¼ mile; and what I thought were just plain ol’ rock piles turned out to be roadside rock memorials to different branches of the military.  As I walked the length of the display, I saw 9 for various military branches and 3 with personal names.  What was going to be a real quick look turned into a ½ mile walk.  I came away thinking that someone or some group put a lot of time and effort, not to mention love, honor and respect, into building a unique tribute that not many people see because it’s not a busy road.   

Today’s ride was to the Hoover Dam, about 100 miles north of us.  After finishing up a few things, we set out about 10 a.m.  Figured two hours to ride there….several hours to eat lunch and explore….then a couple hours to ride back.  Took us all of 9 hours!  When we were finishing up lunch at The Pit Stop in Boulder City, I did a quick check in with Rapunzel.  She confirmed that the map in my head was on target.  But she also indicated Hoover Dam was 8.3 miles away and it would take us 40 minutes to get there.  It was currently 1:17 p.m., we were on the fastest route and we’d reach our destination at 1:57.  What?!   Thought for sure she was wrong on that one, but as we were pulling up to the security check point at the Dam, I looked at the clock on my bike…1:50 p.m. and we still had at least a ½ mile to go.  Took maybe 10 minutes to get from Boulder City to the Hoover Dam access road off Hwy 93, and then another 30 minutes to go the final 2 miles.  Traffic was bumper to bumper and there was the checkpoint which was slowing things down a bit.  And those two miles were downhill, so by the time the road leveled out, my fingers were cramping and going numb.  Much easier to do the downhill, stop and go thing in a car. 

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Used to be that the only way from the Arizona side to the Nevada side of the Hoover Dam was driving across the top of the Dam.  A few years back, a bypass to the Hoover Dam was completed and for security purposes, I thought  that driving across the Dam was no longer allowed.  Found out today that driving across the Dam is allowed, but for parking purposes only. I knew from several visits over about 8 years that construction of the bypass was a massive project. Today’s visit made me curious about it…the timeline, the reason why, etc.  Wikipedia has this to say:  The Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge is an arch bridge in the United States that spans the Colorado River between the states of Arizona and Nevada.  Opened in 2010, it was the key component of the Hoover Dam Bypass project, which rerouted US 93 from its previous routing along the top of Hoover Dam and removed several hairpin turns and blind curves from the route. As early as the 1960s, officials identified the US 93 route over Hoover Dam to be dangerous and inadequate for projected traffic volumes. From 1998–2001, officials from Arizona, Nevada, and several federal government agencies collaborated to determine the best routing for an alternative river crossing. In March 2001, the Federal Highway Administration selected the route, which crosses the Colorado River approximately 1,500 feet (460 m) downstream of Hoover Dam. Construction of the bridge approaches began in 2003, and construction of the bridge itself began in February 2005. The bridge was completed in 2010 and the entire bypass route opened to vehicle traffic on October 19, 2010.

There are other sites that offer more detailed information, but this satisfied my need to know.

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Rode into some fierce wind today along US 95 on our way to the Dam.  Constantly hammering at us from the left.   I suggested we take a different route back to avoid the wind and just to see some different sights.  Well, we saw different sights but we didn’t avoid the wind.  This time it was coming from the right.  And it didn’t help the gas mileage any battling against the wind.  My gauge wasn’t looking so good, so we stopped at one of those stations that charges way too much because it can…bought only a gallon to ensure that I made it to the Bullhead City or Kingman exit, whichever had a gas station.  Kim opted not to buy any because he thought he had plenty.  By the time we took the exit, he was sweating it out.  At the first gas station, all the pumps were ‘out of order’….the second station was a mile or so down the road.   Took 4.7 gallons to fill his bike….cut it close that time.  J

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On the way to Boulder City, we passed through Searchlight, NV, which bills itself as a historical mining town, but looks more like a fast food/casino town.  There are several old mines visible on the approach to town, but don’t know if there are any currently working mines.  I was curious about the origin of the name…found this on Legends of America site:  About an hour south of Las Vegas is the old mining camp and revived town of Searchlight, Nevada. It all began when G.F. Colton discovered gold in 1897 and soon started the Duplex Mine. The next year, the Searchlight Mining District was founded and a post office was established at the camp. The origin of the town’s name has been speculated about for years, with some saying it came from a box of matches, while others claim it originated with the searchlights that were used to guide patrons into the brothels of the area.  Nevada Senator Harry Reid, who is from Searchlight, has indicated the towns name most likely came from Colton, who is reported to have said "it would take a searchlight to find gold ore there" right before he found gold.

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