Las Vegas, NV - Day Three of our stay here proved to be the most adventurous and exhausting. As seems to be the theme here, we were functioning on little to no sleep. We made it to bed Tuesday night around 3 a.m., only to hear the alarm go off at 6:30. Yuuuuuuuck. We forced ourselves out of bed which proved to be a good things because we were one of the first ones in line at the magnificent Hoover Dam.
They are currently building a large bridge over Black Canyon to bypass all the traffic that currently crosses over the dam. That in itself was spectacular and made you marvel at human engineering accomplishments, then you turn around and see the dam, which has the same effect. The dam is worthless to write about because without seeing it, you simply cannot fathom its sheer size and bohemithness. It's insane. We took the tour and went deep into the bowels of the dam. It was simply fascinating. All of it.
After the dam visit, we crossed over into Arizona and on to Lake Mojave recreational area, downstream from Hoover Dam. After a quick kayak lesson, Donna and I embarked upstream in a two-man kayak. It took some wrangling but we eventually figured out the mechanics of it and headed on. The water of Lake Mojave, oddly enough is crystal blue and slightly chilly, at a tolerable 52 degrees. (By tolerable, I mean to put your finger it for three seconds.) The scenery swallowed us. Towering canyon walls cast shadows on us as we passed through the slip of crystal water. At one point we stopped to picnic beneath the shade of a desert scrub, and being a red-blooded American boy I tried to do what anyone would do miles from civilization: skinny dip. Unfortunately, the water, being 52 degrees made it more of a ridiculous streak show, so I put my pants back on and we proceeded north. Before we left, like moon explorers of old, we named the base where we landed: Camp Louisiana..."in honor of the strong impact Louisiana has had on both of our lives." Not to completely disavow my Texas roots, we named our boat the USS Texas.
About a half hour later, we came upon a sand beach nestled against a towering cliff. Two guys were also there, poised to jump off a rock about 25 feet high over the water. Believe it or not, they were two Chippendale dancers (I'm not making this up...I never have to) who worked at a club in Vegas.
Being curious, I climbed on top of the rock to recoinnoter...and then compelled by my boyish inhibitions, also jumped off the rock. Plunging into 52 degree water at first simply shocks your body, then your muscles tighten and your heart beat quickens (seriously, it does) and by sheer survival mode you scramble toward land. It was exhilirating and quite stupid, but man was it fun. I was glad I did it.
We headed back, turned our kayaks in and then headed on to our final adventure for the day. Growing up, I have read about Area 51, the most famous top-secret military base in the world rumored to have spacecraft, aliens, and other top-secret military technology. So being as close as we were to it (129 miles) we decided to go check it out for ourselves. Using internet sources, we headed into easily the most desolate place I have been in my entire life. I thought West Texas was bad. At one point we passed a sign that read "Next gas 150 miles." Finally, after two hours we reached The Extra-Terrestrial Highway, highway 375.
Near the famous "Black Mailbox", which is now white, we pulled the car off the road and took some pictures. The mailbox was covered with names, mostly things like "The Truth is out there" and "Joey and Melissa were here." This is basically as close as you can get without men in guns showing up, so we felt content to park and take some pictures and look for UFOs. This place was so quiet it was eery, although it had a stark desert beauty that almost made us forget we were UFO hunting.
We sat on the hood of the convertible while I drank some Tecates I'd bought earlier and watched the sun set. All we saw in the course of our UFO hunting trip were some distant headlights. But the moonlit convertible ride back was something to remember and the trip up to Area 51 was very memorable.
We finally slept having again, been up for something like 19 hours on three hours of sleep. Yaaaaawn. I'll save you trouble of reading about our last day, day four because all we did was swim and go see Phantom of the Opera. Friday we head back to Shreveport, road weary but excited. Saturday night I'll be back at the piano like none of this even happend...(sigh).
That's the story of my life...
