Meandering the Country

By the Time We Got to Phoenix … February 13 – 27, 2022 The drive from Las Vegas, NV to Mesa, AZ was 320 miles, which is slightly on the long side of what we typically do.  I promised Dick a tall, cool one when we arrive, so he kept his foot on the pedal!  Leaving Las Vegas, our route took us over the Mike O’Callagan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, which was pretty cool!  Surprisingly, you would never know from the view (or maybe I should say lack of view) Hoover Dam is right beside you.  It didn’t matter to us, we had all of the views in our minds from the visit we had just a few days prior! Despite the long drive, we still managed to arrive at Mesa Spirit RV Resort and get all settled just in time for the Super Bowl (I mean The Big Game) to begin!  Our friends, Brad and Kathy, are also visiting Phoenix during our stay here, so we started our time together with an informal Super Bowl Party.  Good friends, beautiful weather and a close football game all combi...

February 8 – 13, 2022 A short 35 miles from our Las Vegas campground is Hoover Dam.  After a lifetime of hearing about this dam, it was amazing to see this wonder of the industrial world!  Completed in 1935, this dam took five years to complete.  It was built to control flooding of the Colorado River, provide irrigation for farmers and water for drinking as the west expanded, as well as providing electricity for the population.  It was built with no expense to the tax payers, as the sale of the power created by the plant completely funded the project.  The complexity of this project is mind boggling!  We paid $10 each for access to the visitor center where we viewed a ten-minute video and listened to a slideshow presentation that did an excellent job of explaining how the massive feat of diverting the Colorado River and building the Hoover Dam was accomplished.  This feat was not accomplished without tragedy.  During construction, 137 people lost ...