Hoover Dam - A Shocking Experience

In 1928, the Boulder Canyon Project Act passed by the US Government appropriated $165 million dollars for the Hoover Dam project, the Imperial Dam project, and the All-American Canal.  The end result of these taxpayer dollars included the expansion of agriculture in the southwest, over 4 billion kilowatt-hours of renewable energy distributed across Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and California, and the control of flooding across vast and valuable farming regions of the Colorado River basin.  In today's dollars, depending on how you choose to calculate it, the cost of this project in 2012 dollars ranges from $1.7 billion dollars to $23 billion dollars.  Consider this tiny number in light of the trillions of dollars pumped into bank bailouts ,or the $664 billion dollars spent by the Department of Defense in one year, or the $43 billion spent by Homeland Security, and it's pretty easy to see that we're not getting value for money these days...but you probably already realize that and just can't figure out a way to vote for change.

Enough of that, let's get on with what really matters, like our next meal!

We stopped at the Cracked Egg in Henderson, Nevada on the way to the Hoover Dam from Las Vegas.

Look at this delicious breakfast burrito.  I substituted the salsa verde on top for the usual salsa cruda and sour cream, and it turned out great!

Our son went with the North Coast scramble, and my wife choose the healthy pesto-chicken scramble.  I thought mine was the best choice. 

One thing we learned in Italy - eat a huge meal early, and you're done for the day!  Economical, efficient, and a time-saver if you can avoid the siesta.  Next stop, Hoover Dam!  The first amazing sight is the O'Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge over the gorge.  I'm happy to see Pat Tillman's sacrifice duly noted for posterity by renaming this bridge...kudos to Arizona and Nevada for making this happen.

Here's the view of the dam from the bridge.

When told to stay away from the edge, our son didn't listen so well.

We also kept telling our son to stay away from the transformers, to no avail.