After a quick breakfast and cup of tea we left about 9 and after a bit of confusion on the way, a new road that the sat nav didn't know about, we arrived at the car park about 45 minutes later. We paid our $10 parking fee then made our way down to the visitor centre. Through airport style security and we purchased our $30pp Dam Tour tickets for the 11am tour. With instructions to be back for 10.45 we explored the observation deck and the visitor centre exhibits which was really interesting and very informative about the planning and building of the dam.
At 11 we, and 28 others, were led off on the first part of our tour to the powerplant at the base of the dam. Very impressive with a great guide. The first stop was a viewing gallery for one of the by pass pipes, then on to a large hall housing 8 massive generators, actually everything is on a big scale. There was a general buzz and vibration down here from the power of the water.
The next part of our tour took us through the inspections tunnels within the dam wall itself. We also walked through a tunnel with led to a ventilation grill in the actual wall of the dam where we could see out. Really very interesting. The tour ended at the walkway on top if the dam.
After taking some photos and looking at both the river side and Lake Mead side we headed back to the gift shop and cafe where we got an ice cream and sat in the shade for a while.
We got the car and decided to drive up to the car park near the by pass bridge. We walked to the centre of the bridge to take photos of the dam. The sun was really hot by now, car was showing 94°.
We headed back to Vegas and managed to park the car without the stress of Friday. 🤣
We walked straight down to the New York New York with the intention of riding the rollercoaster. Unfortunately after buying tickets we found that the ride was temporarily closed due to a fire alarm. We waited a while but decided to come back later as they had no idea how long it would take to sort.
We walked back through the themed food area and stopped for a hotdog and drink before going back to our hotel to rest for a while before dinner. Keith took the time to watch some live NFL, its always recorded at home to watch the following day as he cant stay awake!
We set off south on The Strip and with dark clouds in the distance decided we should have another go at the coaster at NYNY just in case the weather put a stop to it. A fun ride but a bit of a headbanger. From experience the over the shoulder restraints are not good if you wear stud earrings or glasses! 😲ðŸ˜
From here were headed down to the Luxor for a nose around the hotel. We decided to have dinner here at a restaurant called Taco Tequilla. It was quite nice and definitely good to avoid more fried food.
A quick wander round the Mandalay Bay then we took a monorail back up the strip to Excalibur and then walked the rest of the way to the Bellagio as I wanted to watch the fountains again.
And that's it! Vegas done! Verdict - It was on my bucket list to do but we have decided is not my/our thing. It's certainly an experience and I'm pleased we've done it but not sure we'll be back.
Another long driving day tomorrow as we head through Death Valley to Bishop on our way to Yosemite.
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