March 7, 2012

March 7, 2012

This is the time of the year when the IRS makes me do a lot of extra work. It is a very taxing effort, so I convinced Aimee I need a vacation. We left this morning for the long drive to the opposite corner of Arizona. In Phoenix we caught the Joshua Tree Parkway headed northwest through one of the more isolated parts of Arizona. About halfway along we ran into the Joshua forest. Since these strange trees are native to the Mojave Desert of California, I wasn’t expecting to see many here. Surprisingly there were thousands. Joshua Tree National Park has nothing over Arizona.

After driving another couple hours we made it to the border. When we hit the Welcome to Nevada sign, I asked Aimee what happened to Hoover Dam? On our last trip through we watched them building a beautiful suspension bridge as a bypass around the dam. Apparently they built high concrete sides on the bridge deck to prevent gawkers like me from slowing down to take pictures. We crossed the new bridge and didn’t realize it. On the Nevada side we took the first exit and wound our way back to the bridge. A short hike brought us onto a pedestrian crossing of the bridge. It provides a great view of Hoover Dam but from this vantage it looks smaller and less impressive.

A short drive later we arrived in Las Vegas where we spent the night at a casino hotel.