Bill's Blog

Just South of Atlanta

"Somewhat stylized." 
It seems blank store signs are becoming a normal part of our landscape.

JC Penny may not be doing well, but they make a nice foreground.

August 14, 2012

Sam's Town, our favorite off-the-Strip Hotel. Ruth used to spend a month in the Fall and a month in the Spring at their adjoining RV Park doing a series of Art Shows. It hasn't hardly changed at all since then.

Sam's Town was one of the first hotels I stayed at that featured an indoor atrium.

Laser light show four times a day in the Sam's Town atrium. That's a wolf with glowing eyes at the upper right.

More of the light show. Lower left is an owl sitting on a "tree stump."

When you view this the eagle is flying across the rocks. Through the magic of digital photography you see multiple images.

Laser stars

The lasers intercept the fountains creating sparkling light effects.

Taa- daaaa. Not sure what Jodi was explaining but the show created a map of the US.

The grand finale. All in red, white and blue... very Patriotic.

It is not every day that you see the shadow of a Mountain Lion behind the Flag.

Fremont Street. Beef, Booze and Broads. A good summation of the area.

We attended the Blue Man Group Show. Amazing spectacle but no cameras during the show. So here is the stage beforehand.

Chandelier from the top.

The "new" East Cannery Casino Hotel. It's actually about four years old but it's been a while since we were on that section of town.

Indoor lights more commonly associated with Las Vegas!

August 5-10, 2012

So, here we are, early in the morning,
at the

Everyone knows the Dam was named after President Hoover and most everyone knows that at one time it was named the Boulder Dam

Most everyone also knows that the Dam straddles the Arizona/ Nevada border. There is a plaque in the middle of the Dam designating the exact border... you can stand with one foot in one State and the other in a different State.

Trivia #1

Here is what you probably don't know.

There are two Intake towers, one on either end of the Dam. If you look at the Nevada tower, all is well: it is just past 6:30am...

However, if you traverse the Dam and look at the Arizona Tower, there are no clock hands! Has time stopped in Arizona, could it be that time has no meaning in Arizona, or does it mean Arizonans have no sense of time?

A great mystery.

Trivia #2

Back "in the day," before the fancy visitor's center was built on the Nevada side, there were two Restrooms on the dam, one on either end. 

Women could only go to the bathroom in Nevada, while

Men could only go in Arizona. 

Is there some hidden significance to this? Did the architects attach great meaning to women only being able to pee in Nevada and men only in Arizona? What does it all mean?

Another great mystery lost to history. 

Bonus Trivia
(urban legend debunked)

Much is made of the story that engineers calculated it would take 125 years for the concrete in the Hoover Dam to fully harden, therefore there is still hot liquid concrete in the dam. Not true! The calculations were based on an early plan to do a "single pour." The plan was rejected in favor of one using blocks of concrete to improve strength of the dam. The concrete is all nice and cured! By the way, there is absolutely no evidence that any bodies of construction workers were accidently or purposely entombed in the blocks.

Now you know!

Click here for more information on the Hoover Dam.  

One of the centerpiece exhibits at the aquarium is the Golden Crocodile. Today he was dreaming of an arm snack, including watch

Fast little fish...

Jellyfish... lots of jellyfishes

August 7, 2012

August 2, 2012
Dallas, Texas