Day 13 (03-Oct-13) Las Vegas (62 miles)

Being quite nonplussed by Q's "Viva Las Vegas baby!" exclamation of yesterday, I quickly began to realise this was entirely due to him having been a good student of Simon's. Had I only realised that Simon had been passing subliminal messages to Q throughout the holiday, I would have surely put a stop to the madness. However, as it was too late for any such measures now, I simply had to pretend all was normal and ignore the weird utterances from both gentlemen, even if it meant being woken up at 06:30 hrs by Quentin dancing through the room. While he checked for any tatoos, missing teeth, unwanted breast implants, and four-legged guests, I chose to attend to e-mails and write this blog. After 10-15 minutes, Quentin returned to claim nothing untoward had happened to him, though I have yet to here Simon's side of the story - assuming he is still in the hotel and can account for his whereabouts last night.

We assembled in the lobby at 08:00hrs (waiting as ever on Simon, who despite having more gadgets on his personage than Inspector Gadget, seems unable to set an alarm on any of them). We then drove the short distance to Hoover Dam, a marvel of engineering, enterprise, ingenuity, endeavour and shear hard work. While parts were closed due to the US government shutdown, the dam itself is state-run, with walking access provided across the old road running across the top of the dam and various vantage points either side. The dam is truly iconic, and was instrumental in taming the Colorado, while at the same time provided a means to irrigate the vast, and otherwise arid, south western US states, and generating electricity for over a million households. The facts and figures regarding the construction of the dam almost beggars belief; not least the feats of the 5000+ workers that toiled to first divert the Colorado river through four tunnels around the construction site, and then the construction of the dam itself. 

More spectacular views of the dam are provided from the walkway across the new Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman memorial bridge situated a short distance down river. The bridge, opened in 2010, and carrying US 93 across the Colorado, was the first concrete-steel composite arch bridge built in the USA, and took as long to complete as the Hoover Dam (5 years). The bridge has a length of 1,900 feet (579 m) and a 1,060 ft (320 m) span. The roadway is 900 ft (270 m) above the Colorado River and four lanes wide. It includes the widest concrete arch in the Western Hemisphere and is also the second highest bridge in the USA, with the arch 840 ft (260 m) above the river. The views from the walkway going north over the bridge, to the Colorado river below, are quite dizzying.
 

Suitably impressed, we head back to the Hotel to attend to a few more chores, expend more energy in the gym and then set off again at 17:30hrs for an evening on The Strip. Simon acted as tour guide, providing a first-person account of life in the many different casinos, as we trudged through each to take in the sights and sounds, and gork at the multitudes that had descended on this small piece of Nirvana. It was a most enjoyable evening, and  was reminiscent of life in Dubai in many respects – minus the gambling of course. It was also evident from Simon's many anecdotes of long, intoxicated, nights, spent at various clubs, bars, dens of inequity and other questionable establishments, that he had 'donated' a sizeable chunk of his estate to the alter of hedonism down the years. Even a few of the wretched homeless that we encountered knew him by name!