TSA of Hoover Dam -- The Corkscrew Security Caper

Back in LA we were on Randall Time.  We arose early, reloaded the Great White Sienna and headed east with Hoover Dam as our first target.

Great breakfast place in the middle of nowhere

One of the things Twiggy and I often discuss is why we can stumble into any random restaurant on the West Coast and get a good breakfast, but we have no luck after searching diligently for years on the East Coast.  We have yet to find a place we would even look forward to going back to for breakfast in Westchester County or even in NYC for that matter.  Diners just don't cut it.  Yet we fall into almost any place west of the Mississippi and one can get really good breakfasts -- omelets with fresh spinach or avocados or, as you get closer to the coast, fresh crabmeat, different variations of Eggs Benedict, etc.  Simple but good.  

Our long-held beliefs were confirmed when we stopped for breakfast at a random place chosen from Yelp in Hesperia, CA.  Hesperia is in the middle of nowhere.  And the restaurant is in the middle of nowhere in the middle of nowhere...it is located in a residential district across the railroad tracks from an industrial district.  Given it was Sunday morning, when we pull up, there is a crowd loitering outside waiting to be seated.  All I can say is that the food justified the crowd.  It wasn't gourmet, it was just good, simple breakfast food at a reasonable price.

The family at Hoover Dam

After breakfast, we continued to Hoover Dam.  On the way there, we had to pass a checkpoint where we stopped and actually conversed with a military person who stopped us, looked us over and decided whether or not to let us pass.  After he made a snap determination that we were probably not trouble, we continued on another mile or so and parked in the parking structure a short way uphill from the dam.  We walked down the hill and headed into the visitors' center for a tour.  Our bags were scanned and I was stopped by the TSA-like security because I had a corkscrew in my backpack, which  I had thrown it in there because I knew I couldn't take it on the flight to Hawaii and I had forgotten about it.  I was informed I either had to schlep back to my car to stow it or surrender it to them never to be seen again -- they would not hold it until we finished our tour even though it wasn't very crowded and there were probably not many more coming through that day.  

In the power generating area of the dam

Now obviously a 99-cent Liquor Barn corkscrew is a dangerous weapon especially in such a vulnerable place as Hoover Dam which is 660 feet thick of solid concrete built into solid rock.  Really, what was I going to do -- shiv a docent?  

Anyway, we took a tour of the dam which includes going down 750 ft. or so in an elevator to a level just above the river where the water is released through turbines which generate electricity.  The inside of the electricity generating portion of the dam is quite impressive and, having been constructed between 1931-1936, it has that art deco feel much like the Golden Gate Bridge.

When we were here six years ago, the Tillman bridge (Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge) was under construction about 500 yards south of the dam.  You could tell then it was going to be an impressive structure simply because of its height over the bottom of the gorge (it is the second highest bridge in the United States) and the distance of its span. It has been completed and is a spectacular structure, especially as viewed from the observation area of the bridge.

After our tour of the dam, we walked across it and then headed on to Williams, AZ.  

First impressions:  

1) Since we came here in 2007, six years after 9-11, there has been a massive increase in security around the place, notwithstanding the mis-application of common sense noted above.  The dam is as fortified as the State Department Building in Washington with car barriers at each end, a physical inspection (stop and greet of each car going to the dam for a tour), magnometers, and x-ray machines for people wanting to take a tour.  Either there are threats that demand this level of security -- in which case we are in trouble; or the government has lost all sense of proportion and the security apparatus is growing out of control -- in which case we are in trouble.  Conclusion: we are in trouble.  

2) The effort to ensure equal access to everyone impacts everyone.  As I observed at Mt. Rushmore, the inclusion of large subtitles on older production movies shown in the visitors center's of all these Federal Government run places is really distracting and takes away the enjoyment for those of us not hearing impaired.  There has to be a better way.  

3)  The Hoover Dam was completed two years ahead of schedule and under budget (while having to build entire manufacturing plants of historical scale on-site, developing new technologies and building entire towns to house the workers and their families).  Why do modern day government-run engineering projects go so far over schedule and over budget?