Standing on the Edge of the Hoover Dam

On our second day in Vegas, we got up early, spent a bit of time looking at that amazing view out of the hotel window, then got back in the car to drive the 30 minutes or so to Hoover Dam.

(Which, by the way, my mind keeps telling me to write as Hoover Damn. If I do that at any point in this post, please know that I DO know how to spell it, it’s just that my mind keeps trying to trip me up at all times. If you read it as ‘Hoover Dayum!”, in a southern accent, it makes it more fun. Not that I would know, obviously. Ahem.)

This is a trip we’d also done last time we were in Vegas: we actually stopped off at the Dam en route to the Grand Canyon, on the day we got engaged, but the visitor centre was closed at the time, and we had a really long drive ahead of us, so we didn’t stay long. This time, though, as it’s so close to Vegas, we figured it would be a shame not to have a good ol’ look at it.

Since our last trip, the new Hoover Dam bypass – or the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, to give it its full title – has been built, and the bridge is probably the best place to see the Dam from, so we stopped off there first and climbed up what felt like a millionty-one steps, under the burning hot desert sun:

There was just one problem, though. Well, other than that someone neglected to snip the white corners off that road sign, and I was wearing exactly the same outfit as in this post, which loses me serious “fashion blogger” points. Other than those problems, I mean. See, this is the bridge we were about to walk across:

And this is Terry, who gets really bad vertigo when he tries to stand on very tall bridges, especially ones that shake every time a truck passes by (which is aaalll the time on this particular bridge):

(Oh yeah, and that’s a selfie stick he’s holding, for the Go Pro, which he carried everywhere with him, and which is therefore in almost all of our holiday snaps. He says the video will be worth it, but so far all I’ve seen is a lot of shots of me looking at my phone, then turning round and going, “You better not be filming me, Terry, I’m not even joking…” )

He was pretty scared, and couldn’t walk too close to the edge at first, but he made it all the way to the middle (we decided not to walk right across because it was just SO HOT, and we still had the Dam itself to walk across), and even managed to peek over the side by the end: yay for Terry!

 

(Strangely enough, I don’t feel any fear at all with bridges, but show me a ferris wheel – even a small one – or a cable car or whatever, and I will cry hot tears of terror. Which is why we didn’t go on the High Roller back in Vegas…)

Of course, Hoover Dam is well worth the effort, because… well, I mean, look at it. Just look at it:

 

It’s one of those “I can’t possibly put this into words, so you’re just going to have to see it for yourself,” kind of places. Such an amazing feat of engineering, and, as I said, it’s only about 30 minutes outside of Vegas, so worth a visit if you’re ever in town. (Lake Mead, which the Dam contains, is also beautiful – a true oasis in the middle of the desert, and so surprising when you come across it after miles of dry, dusty scenery!)

As for Terry, having successfully conquered his fear of heights at the Dam, he then went on to face them again, by riding the SlotZilla Zipline at Fremont Street, back in Vegas:

(That first photo is pretty classy, I know: it’s just there to provide scale. And also boobs, obviously.)

He’s a braver man than me, that’s for sure. Here’s a video to prove it:

You have no idea how many times I had to correct ‘Damn’ to ‘Dam’ in this post. In this SENTENCE, even. I hang my head in shame…