Yes today saw the fulfilling of several ambitions as we finally got ourselves into some of the nooks and crannies of the mighty Hoover Dam... We saw the exhibits, watched the movie, decided not to buy the tshirts, and, after a three hour wait due to the backlog of people taking the tours, we went on the grand extended tour taking in the outside and interior of the dam and the surrounding cliffs... And I am glad to report I recognised much of the interior of the dam due to spending far too much time playing Fallout: New Vegas (it took me a minute to figure out how I knew stuff about the inside of the dam, I thought I was having a past life experience or something for a minute)... But that will come in handy if ever there actually is a nuclear apocalypse, and I survive... And I happen to be in Vegas...
The whole thing is pretty incredible and also amazingly beautifully detailed with deco touches in places and incredible three inch thick marble floors throughout many areas... I am not going to begin to go on about how unbelievable it is this was built 80 years ago with only basic tools and machinery and it only took two years to make the dam itself... Seriously find a book or watch a doco. One interesting point is although the official death figure for workers was around 90, some say the number could be closer to 700... And they were working for around $4 a day in brutal conditions.
So that took up most of the day and we had to put up with an awful lot of Americans being American-ish... By the time we got back to town it was about four pm so I started trying to direct us to a couple of places I wanted a quick look at, with varying degrees of success at first... We also found a supermarket en route and decided to get some driving supplies and stuff... American hotel rooms don't have fridges half the time (if you are in your room doing stuff that requires a fridge you are not spending money in the hotel/casino) so we have been proper kiwis and set up a way to balance our beer and milk on the aircon unit outlet to keep it chilled... But for everything else it has to be kind of impervious to the heat, so in my continued drive to out-'Merka 'Merka I purchased for our lunch the following -
- weird American style bread
- California tomatoes
- Spam WITH bacon
- Cheese-wizz ("You got my Cheese-wizz boy?")
- Half and half milk
Funny side note, I pushed the lift button to come down here to the lobby to type this and was daydreaming away and the lift doors opened and I looked up and there were twenty two large eyes looking up at me from all round the lift... The lifts here are large, and standing all the way around the back and sides were nearly a dozen young-looking girls all dressed in bridal veils and going out clothes and all (oddly) almost exactly the same height...and nobody else... I looked at them, they looked back at me... I looked at the empty space in the middle of the lift... They looked at the empty space in the middle of the lift... We looked at each other... At that moment it struck me, for some reason, that it was like some odd inverse version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves... But in Opposite-Land, with worse odds... I hesitated for a fraction of a second (always a mistake) raised my eyebrows and stepped in, looked at them one by one, probably with something of a terrified look on my face, and shook my head, and turned to face the door... They erupted in a fit of giggles then shushed each other ... I half turned and looked at them all nervously... Surrounded on three sides, all still looking at me like this was the funniest thing ever... I turned away... They whispered back and forth and kept on giggling... Silence... I turned again and asked who was getting married, they pointed her out, I congratulated her polititely, trying to keep a straight face, and turned back... More giggling... To my left a small voice commented on the possibility of me being the stripper, and the entire group lost it completely... At that moment the doors opened on the ground floor and a large crowd of hotel guests waiting to get in witnessed as I stepped out, looking slightly sheepish, and held the doors as eleven giggling hens party members spilled out into the foyer after me...
So ANYWAY after the supermarket today we continued to search for a place that had the particular item I wanted, and eventually we did indeed happen upon the right place, even though others told me I would not find one anywhere... Persistence always pays off. So then this happened...
Yes, I found my .500 Smith & Wesson.... In fact I found two. And I fired them both. That is the largest handgun in the world, and it is freaking awesome. I want one. Or several. It's a "me" gun. By way of trying to demonstrate the scale exactly -
Thoroughly satisfied by that whole thing (there is video, don't worry) we headed back to he hotel, after determining we were too late to visit So-Cal Speed Shop (another pilgrimage for me) until another day. Tired from our day out we didn't want too much fuss for dinner so wandered to nearest takeaways, and I foolishly decided to introduce my companion to FatBurger. That's a story for another time, look it up though... For now I shall leave you with an OMR which seems somehow appropriate on a day we dedicated to the achievements of the honest working man, Uncle Tupelo's classic 'Whiskey Bottle'... For all the working class stiffs trying to make it in today's 'Merka and struggling to hold on...
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