Yes my friends, I took the damn dam tour. At the Hoover Dam there are several tour options. I opted for the most expensive and extensive tour. We got a tour of the penstocks that carry water from the lake through deep underground tunnels to the powerhouses, the Nevada powerhouse, the upper inspection galleries, and the stairway to heaven. Words cannot describe how impressive and awe-inspiring this dam truly is. Photos can’t do it justice either. One must go and experience it in person.
The transmission towers actually lean over the canyon walls so the cables can run unobstructed down to the powerhouse.
Transmission lines run everywhere! Back before the grid was setup, each line ran to a different community or power district that was promised a cut of Hoover Dam’s power. Not as efficient as today’s system!
Yes, that is a LOT of power lines.
We got some sweet kids hardhats to wear on the tour so we’d be easily identifiable in case we wandered off.
In one of the access tunnels from the elevator shaft. It’s blasted through solid bedrock.
Inside one of the penstock galleries.
The throbbing, pulsating pipe that carries some of the water to the turbines.
Inside the Nevada powerhouse. That’s a whole boatload of turbines!
The tour guide told us a little bit about how the turbines are serviced.
Art deco touches abound inside the dam. This is the original entryway into the dam for tours. Now only the most expensive tour option gets to walk down this hall.
Inside one of the inspection galleries.
This photo is shot looking straight down. 100 feet below is another inspection gallery.
A window to the world. This is the upper Arizona inspection hatch. It was also a source of air when the dam was more actively curing and cooling. Big fans were fitted further back in this passageway to move air through the structure.
Looking out the access hatch downstream to the new bridge, power houses, and overflow discharge.
Looking straight up the dam face. It actually curves inward as it goes up because the dam gets thinner.
A photo of myself from the outside looking in.
I wonder how many people drop cameras over the edge.
I was a happy engineer!
Looking back down the tunnel.
Another corridor leading to the staircase to heaven.
I was excited to be on the damn dam tour.
Super excited!
An inspection point between two concrete pour blocks. This is the worst place in the whole dam. The blocks settled a couple inches out of alignment. Every other block is nearly perfect. Not too bad considering it was built in the early 30s!
They monitor for earthquakes and seismic shifts.
Looking down the staircase to heaven. Down goes to Arizona. That must make Arizona hell…
Up the staircase to Nevada.
The inspection points.
Exiting through the elevator that comes up the middle of the dam.
The copper-clad doors of the elevator.
Out on the sidewalk in the middle of the dam.
The big, heavy brass doors outside the antichamber of the elevator.
The building in the middle is the new visitor center and elevator complex.
It’s a looooong way down!
I love these leaning transmission towers!
The close powerhouse is the one we went into.
A new bridge was built when the parking garage and museum took out the old original road.
The Winged Figures of the Republic on the dedication monument to the dam.
Nevada time on the clock.
The grand entryway to the old elevator.
Arizona time.
The water level was pretty low.
Looking back into Nevada.
Nevada on the left, Arizona on the right.
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DVB,
Dam! That was good! Electrifying I must say! Best retention story I’ve read all night…bar none!
Nice work and keep on engineerin’…and stayin’ super excited! Like all of those electrons! Most importantly…did you get to keep the hat?
Now I’m super excited…I’m going to check out the Chitwood covered bridge next!
Seriously…thanks for the tour. And “Go Beavs!”
Concrete is cool…and cured!
Michael Ely aka: gotwood4sale
’77 Oregon State University Forest Management graduate
{With the economy the way it is now I wish it had been some engineering…or “Poultry Science”!
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Michael,
Those are some dam good puns!
Cheers,
Douglas
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Edge of my seat…The hat?
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Still on the edge of my seat…from elsewhere on your blog: “early phase conceptual complex system design trade studies methodology.” Really? There’s actually a method for that? Does it come packaged as a creme or an aerosol?
Joking of course. You know that. I don’t even know you, but your sense of humor is disguised as well as Benny the Beaver’s front teeth. Hard to miss.
Us forester/lumber types are pretty simple…or at least we think we are. Sorry. It doesn’t take much to get us going…something as simple as “Board feet and Scribner rule” usually does it. Your admirable endeavors at OSU reminds me of an early scene from the movie “Sometimes a Great Notion” when logging family patriarch Henry Stamper (Henry Fonda) teases/taunts his long-haired college educated son to “go ahead, tell us some ‘trigonom’ ” or something like that. Good movie. They got it mostly right. Read the book. I recommend it. Kesey captured the time and flavor of coastal Oregon perfectly with that tome. I don’t read much, but that one has stayed with me solidly since I read it well over thirty years ago.
Being a native of Tillamook I would recommend this book too…”The Adventures of Dr. Huckleberry”. It’s an account (biographical) of a young doctor from Chicago coming to the Oregon Coast in the 1920’s or so if I remember right. It was printed by the ‘Oregon Historical Society’. In particular, his account of a large male Chinook salmon returning to the Kilchis River to spawn during a flood is memorable. Evidently the salmon, because of the flood, was swept out of the river channel and was trying to get back. The ‘old highway 101’, the only highway back then, just north of the Kilchis River bridge was elevated on a rock fill a few feet above the adjacent barb wire ringed pastures and the MacAdam surface was under a foot of brackish floodwater. The large, and focused, salmon made a run to get over the road fill just as a Model-T was slowly being driven through the shallow floodwaters. You guessed it…the salmon collided with the car’s front wheel and knocked it off the road. Dr. Huckleberry’s account of the episode was better than mine…but you get the drift. This flooding is still a common occurence there…especially at high tide. I know. I managed to dry out after many Tillamook County floods in the late ’50’s and early ’60’s.
And drying out is not as simple as you might think. Each ‘soaking to the bone’ required a partial cord of tight-grained and pitchy Douglas-fir firewood roaring, crackling, and snapping away in our adequately sized, and purpose built, fireplace. Nowadays this drying ritual would most likely be judged as some form of child abuse. Not back then! I miss that ol’ fireplace…unencumbered by the DEQ. Nice and dry…and warm.
And bonus…the occasional chimney fires were a hoot! When you’re a young (and toasted) schoolkid there’s nothing quite like answering the front door and finding the firemen from the Tillamook FD standing there on the front porch being illuminated by the red lights on their glistening and rain drenched fire engines. Thank God for porches and firemen…and old growth firewood.
Anyway. I told that salmon story to a lumber customer of mine years ago here in the Chicago area. His father listened on the side. After I was finished his father told his son the story was “just salesman BS…don’t believe him son”. I’m not that type of salesman…or person. I’m honest (not a good character flaw when it comes to lumber sales!). His accusation really hurt so the next time I made a sales call to this customer I brought in the book and urged him to show that passage to his father. He did. He told his son that he was “mightily impressed…by the story and my honesty”. Thank you Dr. Huckleberry! And thank you Oncorhynchus tshawytscha!
How do I find your Quartzville adventure? I read it and had a story to tell. Imagine that! I started a post and diverted to my on-line dictionary to look up a word and my post vanished because I didn’t ‘minimize it’ or as us old timers say I didn’t ‘squirrel it away’. I tried searching, backtracking really, without any success.
Time to wrap this up and get that Medicare recommended amount of sleep! If only they knew! Ha!
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Yup there sure are some methodologies for early phase conceptual complex system design trade studies. And I’m working on developing a new and improved version. It might not be as sexy as tromping around in the woods but it pays the bills.
I’ll have to add that book to my list for pleasure reading post-graduation. With some of the epic rain we’ve been having in Oregon lately, Chinook migrating across the highway might be happening again soon.
Cheers,
Douglas
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“…it pays the bills.” That’s good. I wish I could say the same about the lumber business here in the Chicago area. It’s been in the tank for nearly six years now. At least anything relating to new construction that is. My business, unfortunately, was pigeon-holed in that market. Lumber for stairbuilders specifically. Not even treading water now.
But we’ll survive. Toughest part of this economic tailspin is how to advise my older boys to assess and take on the world. Tough to send ’em packing in any direction. Somehow we manage to keep funding their education (retirement fund running on vapors now). They’re probably best sitting at the base of the Ivory Tower. Ha!
My younger daughters…we’ll see. Prosperity…where are you?
Wallet thinner than an anemic oil slick,
Michael
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That would be one of the reasons I’m in grad school rather than looking for a job. At least I have some sort of income, unlike many of my friends who have moved back in with their parents and are still looking for work. Regardless of the economy, academia will live on. Not that I particularly want to stay an academic forever.
Cheers,
Douglas
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Perfectly logical to me. In fact that is what I’ve been telling my sons. And if they need to move back in with us that is fine too. My 21 year old has been trying to find his way, being in the shadow of his older brother. He’s tried skydiving a year or so ago…what a parental nightmare. But you know what? It helped him. He accomplished something that no one else in our family has even attempted. The end result is that he moved along toward adulthood, in a good way. I supported him. I just hope he’s got that out of his system. How many times does it take to personally understand gravity?
I suppose I owe you a bit of an explanation as to why I’m on your blog. I regularly contribute posts as ‘gotwood4sale’ on a website’s message board devoted to high school baseball, in fact it is the ‘High School Baseball Web’. This site has around 15,000 members concentrated primarily here in North America, but also sprinkled around the globe. I’ve heard that major league front office types frequently read its content, always looking for a lead on the next phenom. I became a member back in ’05 when our oldest son was deciding where to go to school and play baseball. It is an excellent source of information. Both sons are pretty good players, but small compared to what most coaches are looking for…6′-2″ and 200 lbs. plus. And I always thought it didn’t matter what your size is to play baseball. There are exceptions of course, but a sturdy horse is what they want to tether to their foul post. Sorry…I’ll climb down from my soapbox.
I’m closing in on 14,000 posts on that site. I seldom discuss baseball, but rather contribute stuff like what I’ve written here. Some hate it, considering it a diversion, while others like it, considering it a diversion. I’m the resident ‘lighthearted guy’, not bashful about being labeled somewhat eccentric. Striving to be ‘not average’ is my aim, bouncing boredom is my game.
I discovered, after rudimentarily mastering the computer and keyboard, that I really enjoy writing. I thought about it…I hadn’t done much writing since college except for filling out paperwork while working as a forester for the Oregon State Forestry Department. I liked writing. I liked the stimulation of being creative. So I wrote. And wrote. Taking a chance on whether people on a baseball website would tolerate my nonsense, let alone like it. I’m happy to say I’ve developed some good personal friends here in the Chicago area and established many ‘cyber friends’ elsewhere. Our common bond? Not being average. Being humorous and lighthearted.
I respond mostly to what others have posted…smart alecky at times, but always, always, good natured. I certainly want you to know that. I post a lot of pictures humorously related to my post or comments. Remember…I literally type with only one finger. And a picture is worth a thousand words. My finger is grateful for my ability to post pictures.
Yesterday someone had posted this in the site’s non-baseball forum where I’m a regular denizen…
“Shoplifter Injured In Augusta, GA”
Orville Smith, a store manager for Best Buy in Augusta, Georgia, told police he observed a male customer, later identified as Tyrone Jackson of Augusta, on surveillance cameras putting a laptop computer under his jacket… When confronted the man became irate, knocked down an employee, drew a knife and ran for the door.
Outside on the sidewalk were four Marines collecting toys for the “Toys for Tots” program. Smith said the Marines stopped the man, but he stabbed one of the Marines, Cpl. Phillip Duggan, in the back; the injury did not appear to be severe. After Police and an ambulance arrived at the scene Cpl. Duggan was transported for treatment.
The subject was also transported to the local hospital with two broken arms, a broken ankle, a broken leg, several missing teeth, possible broken ribs, multiple contusions, assorted lacerations, a broken nose and a broken jaw…injuries he sustained when he slipped and fell off of the curb after stabbing the Marine.
Now that was a well-written Police report.
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In response to reading that I envisioned one helluva’ curb to bust someone up that badly. Of course the curb had nothing to do with Tyrone’s injuries. But I was taking the tack that it indeed was the curb. I began searching for a picture of a man standing at the base of a dam looking up as if it were an extremely high curb.
That’s when I ran across the picture of you. It stood out. It was the one labeled ‘A photo of myself from the outside looking in’. I clicked on it and up popped your website…topped off with a panoramic view of a beautiful subalpine glade. Embedded in that photo was ‘Not Your Average Engineer’. What a combo! I was hooked. Discovering that you were ‘marooned in Corvallis’ merely set the hook. I wasn’t kidding when I said I admired your energy and your willingness to use it (your blog is evidence of this). Remember, I’m honest. Quite frankly our country, our world ,needs more people like you. You, and your generation keep it up…we’ll be all right. Thank you. Seriously…avoid average. And have fun doing so.
So that’s my story…and it isn’t finished yet. I have to ask my wife if this hook through my lip is ok. Is it too hip?
Putting the pliers back in the toolbox,
Michael
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Testing…Testing…Testing!
Trying to figure out what Douglas’ HTML tags and attributes are capable of doing. This is just a test of the Emergency HTML system.
Whoa!
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Wow…that was a mess! Let’s take a stab at this again.
makes things bold like this and more!
cites things like this and more!
codes things likethis and more!makes the opening scene of the Wizard of Oz quite memorable… don’t you think?
makes things kinda’ squiggly like this and more!
does this to aword!makes things do this and more!
How’d I do ?
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Code.
Ok, ok.
I figured out .
seems to do the same as .
I’m not sure exactly what
does. Is that some sort of code violation?seems to do the same as .
<Squiggly it is with .
did just what it said it'dthink aboutdoing.seems to do the same as .
Now I have to figure out all of those other things.
"Blessed be the novice, for he shall always have an excuse."
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Whoops! Still solidly a novice. Please have patience with me. It might help to hum some Muzak© if you think it will help. “We Are Family” would be a good choice.
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Haha play with the HTML all you want. I haven’t experimented with it much yet.
Which photo exactly led you here? The photo sounds familiar but I’m not quite sure which one you’re referring to…
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Which photo? The sixteenth one from the top of this dam blog, not including the video.
I did a Google© image search for: ‘looking up at dam’ and the photo of you appeared on page 10. You’re the third photo…the Junior Dam Builder plastic yellow hardhat firmly on your noggin.
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Come to think of it that photo of you is strikingly similar to this one
: https://www.myconfinedspace.com/wp-content/uploads/tdomf/30368/clown-sewer-untouchable.jpg
Evidently that photo was taken from some sort of scary movie that I’ve never seen, but I have used it before on the baseball site. Some people told me that it frightened them and creeped them out.
The photo of you obviously is not creepy, but the two photos do have somewhat the same layout and thus appear similar. That’s why I clicked on yours…it reminded me of the other. And that one elicited a strong response from some members on the baseball site.
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I put on my yellow plastic thinking cap. Here’s that picture of you:http://www.douglasvanbossuyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/IMG_8415-640×480.jpg
And the other one:http://www.myconfinedspace.com/wp-content/uploads/tdomf/30368/clown-sewer-untouchable.jpg
Huh? Similar?
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It’s a spitting image of me!
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There is a resemblance without question…keep it under your hat!
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I mentioned the book and the movie Sometimes a Great Notion earlier. Here’s a link to the movie…http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/movies/Sometimes-a-Great-Notion/28387/1724206623/Sometimes-a-Great-Notion/videos. I hope it works! Enjoy!
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I will have to search out a copy of that book at the next library book sale. The book sounds like a parallel of some of the goings-on in Philomath lately.
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It really is a good book.
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In my effort to locate a copy of Dr. Huckleberry’s book about his time in Tillamook Co. I stumbled across your website again. Evidently I had mentioned ‘Dr. Huckleberry’ in a previous post here and as a result that comment showed up on my search.
Since I’m here I may as well bring you up to speed and fill you in on what I’ve been up to lately, I’ll keep it brief so here goes. Top of the list and actually the only thing on the list…
I tossed out a half bag full of rock hard ‘Kraft® Jet Puffed Marshmallows’ today. That’s it. I’ll probably wander over here again before the decade is out. Take care…and stay well clear of average.Either side will do.
Craving S’mores
Michael
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Howdy Michael!
It looks like some 3rd party sellers on Amazon have used copies of the book for sale:
Talk to you in another few years! 🙂
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And a hearty howdy to you as well Douglas…not the average engineer!
Thanks for the link concerning the good doctor’s biography. I will purchase a copy to replace the one I loaned to the wife of a friend who happened to be from Bay City. Unfortunately they got a divorce and apparently Dr. Huckleberry was not discussed during the settlement discussion. So thanks again.
I traipsed around your site a bit and I see you’re in Golden. You’re in the shade of those big mountains now…none of those Chitwood hillocks to bother with. And the rain…not nearly as much of that either. A good combo for 4WD’ing and motorcycle riding. Enjoy.
I read you are trying to step on the soil of every country before you get called home by the big guy. I’m pulling for you to accomplish that. And thinking of international travel…I’m picking my youngest son up at O’Hare tonight. He is into geology and hydrology.and he just spent a week or so high in the Andes with one of his professors collecting data on a river which is in the Amazon watershed. One day they took a hike up a little higher to 13,700′. He has a ways to go to beat his dad,..14,196 Mt.Yale in the Sawatch Range five or so miles west of Buena Vista. That was nearly fifty years ago. Unless I can drive to the top of a higher mountain Mt.Yale will be my personal best. I’m getting a lot closer to being called home than he is!
And one of our daughters is interviewing at Regis University in Denver later this month. She hopes to land a slot at a good Physical Therapy school. She will always have a couple of Guinea pigs to practice on when she comes home to visit her parents. I knew my wife and I were good for something.
I had best wrap this up…I’ve got a tub of water waiting in the kitchen and we’re going to start bobbing for stale marshmallows soon. We live a quite simple life considering that we’re holed up in a close suburb of the Windy City. Life is not so simple in the city sadly. I’ll check in again whenever and however Dr. Huckleberry urges me to do so.
For now just call me Bob,
Michael