Mystery Trip 2015: Dam!

The previous night we drove through Las Vegas (cruising the Strip) and bunked down in Boulder City at the Boulder Dam Hotel. Many celebrities stayed at this hotel soon after Hoover Dam (then called Boulder Dam) was opened. It was really cute and quaint and we had a delicious breakfast the next morning.

We made our way over to Hoover Dam where the plan was to take the tour in the morning as we had another (mystery) activity set for about midday. Even though we arrived about 15 minutes after it opened, the only tours left were later in the day. So we flipped the plans and booked the last tour and wandered around checking things out for a little while.

We walked out on the Memorial Bridge to see the view.

We were in two places at once - Nevada and Arizona.

Next we headed to the very tiny town of Nelson, Nevada, to take a tour of an old gold and silver mine. The mine owners bought a large piece of property with other plans (including rescuing antiques) and later discovered the mine. If you think your grandparents have tchotchkes, think again!

Aliens in one of the bedrooms of the main house.

The mine tour was very interesting. When they found the mine, many of the original bridges, ladders, and equipment were still inside. The mine produced silver and gold, and the tailings (materials left over after sifting out the valuable parts) are still there. They have sold them off to a guy who is going to re-sift for other materials people didn't look for at the time.

Back at Hoover Dam, we took the tour which included viewing the massive generators (one was being worked on) and walking through tunnels in the Dam. It was very interesting and definitely makes you feel claustrophobic.

We had to drive a few hours through basically the middle of nowhere to get to our stop for the night, and there weren't many options for food, so I convinced A to stop at In-N-Out since I keep hearing about it. Time to see if it's really all that. Two Double-Doubles Animal Style later, we agreed it was still fast food. Though it tasted slightly better than the competition.

By a twist of fate, the town we stopped in for dinner happened to be home to one of the Golden Nugget's casinos. The one which currently houses the Hand of Faith Nugget! So we got to see it after all. It's the largest nugget found in the world using a metal detector. It weights almost 60 pounds!

Up Next: Trees named after a Biblical story.