While in Las Vegas, Pam Schwartz and I decided to take a bus to the Grand Canyon. The drive was about four hours. The driver gave us an epic and comedic account of the history of sites along the way. 46 minutes into the trip we passed the Hoover Dam.
The Hoover Dam has been generating power for the past 80 years. The 5000 man workforce had to reside in the middle of the desert and Bolder City was constructed rather than rely on Sin City 46 minutes away. If all the concrete used to build the dam was instead used to build a full sized highway, that highway could stretch from coast to coast. Work on the dam began in 1931 which was a year of record breaking heat. Daily, the temperatures rose to up to 119 degrees Fahrenheit. For much of the rest of the trip a movie played on the bus’s overhead screens. We couldn’t see the screens from our front row seats, so I kept sketching.
About half way through the trip the entire bus poured out and ate at an all you can eat buffet. The food was not memorable and there was plenty of it. When we poured back into the bus, the restaurant grew dead silent. With a four hour ride I probably had time to do a second sketch, but instead I watched the scenery fly by as we approached the vast Grand Canyon.