Moving Mountains

April of 1995 I accepted a position with General Cable Company in Kingman, Arizona.  As I drove down to start the job, I had the highlight of seeing Hoover Dam. Upon arriving at the dam, I parked and got out and walked the dam enjoying all the plaques and construction displays.The spillway walls were up and the dam was near to overflowing.  My how things have changed.

It wasn't long before my friends at General Cable told me that preliminary work was ongoing to construct a bypass bridge.  It would be built in about ten years.  I have crossed the dam probably 100 times or more since that first trip.  A memorable crossing was the second Saturday after 9/11 when we took our youth to the LasVegas temple to do baptisms for the dead.  Some parents didn't want their children to go and I can appreciate that. But it was interesting to see the security changes that took place so quickly.The government was quick to install a check point on either side of the dam. The first 6 months, they were very thorough with their searches of every vehicle.  Then I learned some expediting tricks.  If your vehicle has tinted windows, roll them all down so that they can see in side.  Always have your driver side window down for communication purposes.  Act like your not hiding anything.  And always say thank you just in case they remember you the next time.  You will sail right through 99% of the time.

Driving from Kingman it was about 60 miles from the detour route around the dam to the check point.  There were lots of signs warning people that all vehicles except for cars would be turned back.  As we approached the dam that day, we saw a yellow 16 foot moving van which was occupied by a couple of men who appeared to be of middle eastern descent.  Sure enough, they were turned around and had to travel back 60 miles to the detour and then another 100 miles to get to LasVegas.

Over the years, I watched the construction with anticipation of the bypass bridge completion.  I have waited in traffic for construction work; at other times for movies being made on the dam and of course for tourists.  I got pretty good at knowing when to take the detour because of bad traffic.  Friday nights and Saturday afternoons into LasVegas were the worst.  Saturday from noon to 4 going to Kingman were just as bad.

As the preliminary work was being completed and the design was taking shape, I started to follow the progress on hooverdambypass.org.  I was on the website when the hits were in the low 100,000.  Today the count was 14,591,800.  I have followed every step of the way since they contemplated the style of bridge to build including polling the web site visitors;  (I voted for a cable stay bridge. I like wires. I lost.) the location of the bridge; the construction of the approaches and ultimately the construction of the bridge.

The highlight of the bridge construction for me was this past Saturday when I got to walk the bridge with 20,000 of my closest friends.  Some souvenirs were given out.  I have saved them in their original  form.  Maybe in 50 years, my children can get $25 for the set.

Here is a link which will take you to a video tribute I made to show the bridge and some of the work involved in building the bridge.  I hope that you can get a feel for what is was like.

TTFN
-Ron

Unseen Passengers

We may have some unseen passengers riding with us in the Tahoe from now on.

Now that may sound strange but we are coming up on Halloween and after you hear what happened it may not be so far fetched.

The brakes on the Tahoe had gotten real bad.  No chirping or squeaking, just flat out grinding.  So Wednesday about Noon, the Tahoe was taken to our mechanic for an inspection. 

We trust our mechanic. He has treated us fairly and like family and he is ASE certified.  He knows his stuff.  He had done so much to extend the life of other car parts that we knew he was a straight shooter.

The results of his inspection:

• Front Brake pads? Gone
• Front rotors? Too thin to turn. Replace
• Back brake pads? Gone
• Back drum rotors? Too thin to turn. Replace
• springs, seals, fluids everything but the master cylinder?  Replace all of it.

Upon his report, I told him to fix it up.  Usually, he is really fast in getting things done.  I thought we may get a call Wednesday evening but no such luck.  It seemed real weird that I didn't hear from him on Thursday. Today when I didn't get a call at all from him, I decided that I better give him a call.

The call went something like this.

Me: Hey hows it going.
Mechanic: Great.  I'm just taking your Tahoe out for a test drive.
Me: Glad to hear it.  When can I pick it up.
Mechanic: Anytime this afternoon. (pause)  I think there is something you should know.
Me: O.K?
Mechanic:  Everything is fine with your car. But . . . We had a fire at the business in the far end of the building Wednesday night about 8:30 and the fire department came into the shop and cut holes in the back roll-up doors and and the roof to make sure we didn't have any fire in our section.
Me:  Isn't the far end business a pet crematory.
Mechanic: No, It's a human crematory.

When we picked up the Tahoe this afternoon, there was a definite "camp fire smell".  We just couldn't tell if it was Douglas Fir or Alder that we could smell. 

The next time you ride with us don't be surprised if we introduce you to Doug or Alder.  Don't worry though.  They are just wafting through.