We stopped at Lake Meade National Park because it fit our trip home, Since we are so close to Hover Dam a tour of the dam was a must.
Internet is really really slow. I have more dam pictures, I’ll go back and add them when I get a better connection.
We were at the dam at 8:00 a.m. visitor’s center opened at 9:00 and we were on the first tour of the day at 9:25.
More later. Back to try and update.
Here is one of the rotors out of a generator for a PM rebuild.
The dam has 17 generators.
This pictures is from the visitor’s gallery looking down the powerhouse.
One of the many tunnels inside the dam. There is a total of 9 miles of tunnels and rooms inside the dam. We were at an elevation of 705 feet above sea level and the top of the dam is at 1232 feet, so we were quite a ways down inside.
All the heights inside the dam are measured from sea level.
This is one of the inspection tubes that goes out to the surface of the dam.
This is a picture of the wood form that was used to this tube. Concrete was poured around this form and that the form was dismantled leaving the inspection tube.
This is looking out the end of the inspection tube towards the new bridge.
Another tunnel.
This is one of the passages that goes up and down inside the dam. I think the guide said one had 1400 steps and another has 1700.
Imprints of the wood used to form this tunnel.
Had to show more dam pictures. It is really cool dam.
This new bridge built after 9/11.
Parking garage and visitor’s center.
Bronze casting of the people who worked on the rock wall.
Today’s drive up to Virgin River.
Our campsite.
We went to Arizona Museum of Natural History in Mesa today.
This display covers three floors high and has a flash flood every 20 minutes.
Lots of hands on displays, this actual bone says:
These displays show how fossils appear in nature.
Numerous large animals.
The last thing we did was pan for GOLD.
Great museum and we had a wonderful afternoon.
We are getting some heavy showers this evening.
Today we took the tour of Spaceport America the private spaceport being used by
Google Earth view of the main terminal.
This view is from 32,000 feet showing the 12,000 foot runway. An interesting google footnote is these pictures were taken on December 14, 2013. There are newer pictures of Truth or Consequences, NM which is only a few miles west of here from April 1, 2015. I’d have to say Branson has some influence on where Google takes pictures.
This is where we walked into the hanger and into the visitor’s center. The visitor’s center had some new high-tech displays and information about space and the spaceport.
This is looking through a window down into the hanger and a mockup of the passenger space craft.
This is the admin and runway tower building, also the fire department of spaceport and surrounding area.
This is the hanger doors side of the building.
Here you can see the track for the four hanger bay doors on this side, there are four more on the other side of the building.
Hanger and admin buildings.
This is a really long runway, 12,000 feet.
Cool sculpture at the entrance to the spaceport.
The stars on the inside of the curve.
I’m glad we went.
It was nice museum with a lot of information about the area.
From long ago.
And not so long ago.
The classic Kid picture.
Not his original head stone put one that has been used for a long time. I has actually been stolen twice, thus the steel around it.
Part of the collection was a half dozen old vehicles, this is a 1950 pickup.
We visited 
Interesting day.
It is in one of the towns old and really cool homes, built in 1910 to 1912 it belonged to the White family until 1976 when it was given to the city. Most of the original photo collection has been moved to a new building next door. It does have some interesting bathroom sink fixtures.
The museum is just east of Tucson and is a history of aviation.
Starting with the Wright Brothers and continues into space.
They have several iconic B-52’s and they are massive planes.
This is one of the planes we flew on out of Danang, C-121.
I know a lot of these pictures of the same plane, however this may be the last time I get to see one of these.
We also flew on a P-3 nose number 31 and 32.
Ok, last picture of a P-3, I actually did pretty good and only took 200 pictures during the day. We took 3 one hour tours: 1 & 2 were walking tours through hangers and the third was a tram tour outside where many planes were parked.
One of the buildings was build by the
This painting on the wall shows what it was like inside the plane.
The gunner’s position under the plane.
The actual position.
This is 1943 Ford jeep, I had a 1942 one of these during high school. Note the gas tank under the driver’s seat.