Wednesday, April 24, 2024

A Nice Visit to Boulder City, Nevada


Tuesday, April 23, 2024
If you are a long time reader of this blog, then you know that our frequent trips to Las Vegas are all about family and food and not at all about life on the infamous Strip.

So with that in mind and with Andrew at work and Kevin in school most of the day, it would be a good day to get out of the house and reconnoiter other areas of the Las Vegas Valley.

Before going any further I would be remiss if I didn't mention that today was . . .

My namesakes Feast Day

In Barcelona, Jordi is Catalan
for George

Thank you to the European League of Football's Barcelona Dragons for this cool graphic.

Damn, I knew that it was
too good to be true

I posted this photo a few days ago and, as it turns out, the story that this Scotsman was the inspiration for the Batman/Bruce Wayne comic book character was 100% apocryphal.

But it sure was a good yarn.

Let's get back on track, Jenn, Laurie and I opted to drive about 30 minutes to Boulder City to explore, shop and have lunch.

Boulder City was the town created to house the over 4,000 workers who built the Hoover Dam in 1931.

This was at the height of the Great Depression and desperate men and their families braved the desolation of the Southern Nevada desert to build the dam in brutal, dangerous and, at times, deadly conditions.

Today, Boulder City has about 16,000 resident souls and the town has a definite artsy feel to it that we enjoyed immensely.

We arrived and immediately got into our combined but differing exploration modes.

The first of many statues we would
find in well placed public spaces

We lucked out as it was only 86°F today.

"Eggcited" 

I get it.

Mysterious Lady about to
cross the street

The Grind served me a buttery
croissant and a solid cappuccino

Artsy Mason jar metal lids were the one
signature non-edible item at the Grind

Boulder City has murals!

The family on the left represents all of those workers and their families that had to endure the hardships of living in "Ragtown" as the living quarters were called.

The tall man on the right is Frank Crowe, the Superintendent of the Hoover Dam's construction.

We passed on buying any plants here

Lots of odes to the Hoover Dam
workers are to be found

Dueling Eagles

Beer Zombies?

Not a fun job at all, but necessary

This is a statue of a man in charge of sweeping out the outhouses and keeping them supplied with toilet paper.

To many, small, undesirable jobs were not demeaning, just a
source of much needed income during hard times to support a family in great need.

A feather of unknown origin

A small but colorful mural

Oh, I just had to go in here

Interesting way to market these
three mystery books for sale

Trudging on . . .

I do not know

Appropriate in front of a nice
looking wine bar

Zoltar is better than even the
famed Eight Ball at predictions

We would have a good lunch here

It was reviewed positively by Guy Fieri
on his "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives"
TV show

Back on the art trail

No, not art, just someone in, I'm
guessing a really hot uniform at work

More Dueling Eagles

"Puddler's Break"

A puddler was the nickname for the men building the dam that directed buckets of concrete over empty forms, released the concrete and then used their shovels and feet to spread it around.

Or you could just bounce
on a big rubber ball

Madonna and Child

Desert Fish

This Puddler could, for sure,
use a spa tonight

Suddenly, THERE IT WAS!

Absolute, mostly ceramic treasures fit  for any shoppers wants and needs.

I liked the turtle

The two Native American
mannequins were not for sale

We came away with three more
ceramic bowls and tiles for
Laurie's needs in the back yard

Area 51 is not too far away, so this
store was a natural in Boulder City
 
Don't you just hate it when you
have to fight off an angry bear
with your frying pan?

Nice fountain, no water

One of childhood's simple pleasures

Interesting antique store mural

I could have used a frosty beverage
right about now

Part of a mural in the
Boulder Dam Hotel . . .

. . . more of the same mural

To be clear, when they started the dam building project, it was called the Boulder Dam. In 1947, it was re-christened the Hoover Dam.

The Boulder Dam Hotel houses
an interesting museum covering all things
things about the five year construction
of the dam from 1931-1936

A typical Mess Hall setting for
the dam's workers

A random flash light and a
Boulder City Fire Department badge

Some of American history is not
covered in glory, here is an example

Dynamite is potentially
dangerous, correct?

Tough times being dealt with
by tougher people

They had much desired
jobs at the Boulder Dam site

Like I said, TOUGH TIMES!

Not fun but better than
starving to death

Salt Tablets were a staple during
two-a-days at St. Francis H.S.
back in 1964

Not good.

Holy Mother of God!

Danger was a constant companion

I completely back the strikers cause

Treacherous

Black Canyon is the site of
Boulder/Hoover Dam

A vintage, mangled Auto Club of
Southern California road sign

Solid construction techniques I'm sure

Old school washing machine

Iron Fist can mean dictatorial,
if I'm not mistaken

A Six Companies, Inc. check for
$0.70 USD made out to R.P. Horton

Six Companies, Inc. was the joint venture of construction companies that built the dam.

The ID badges are for Bureau of Reclamation project's office workers.

I could have used a rest
room right about now

It was a good, free museum worth the thirty minute viewing. Glad I toured it.

A dancer loose in the
Boulder City streets

A wise owl indeed

So true

Football, football, football . . .

Big win for the Cheyennes over the
Pumas last weekend

Good game coming up in
Sweden this weekend

Of course, Costa Rica will be
getting into the act in just two weeks

A first for the Dolphins but
not a first for the IFL

Back in 2008, when I coached with the Catania Elephants, we opened the season in Milano against the Rhinos.

The Rhinos had as 51 year old starting Linebacker whose 17 year old son was Milano's starting Tailback. In a nail-biter of a defensive struggle, we eked out a 47-40 win over the Rhinos.

We faced a similar Father-Son duo in Sweden in 2010 while coaching the Hässleholm Hurricanes. Playing for the Carlshamn Oakleaves was the father of one of their players who had never played football before our game. He suited up merely to give them another body as, even with him in uniform, they only had 14 active for the game. We won 32-0 on that day trying to keep the score down as much as possible.

On May 4th, the University of
Southern Oregon Raiders will host Japan's
Kwansei University Gakuin Fighters
in a game of American Football

A highly fascinating match-up in my opinion.

Now for some updates from the world of Camarillo Cosmos track . . .

This coming Saturday, Mary will be competing in the Ventura County Youth Track Conference (VCYTC) Junior Varsity Finals.

It was announced at their practice on Monday night that Jacob has qualified for the VCYTC Varsity Finals in two weeks in all five of his events! He is the only athlete on the Cosmos Boys 11-12 year old team to accomplish this feat.

To qualify for Varsity Finals, one has to run or jump to one of the top nine seasonal marks in the VCYTC rankings of the dozens and dozens of athletes competing in Ventura County at the various age groupings.

Here is the lists of where Jacob ranks in his individual events.

He ranks 9th in the 200 Meters
with a best time of 29.90

A Number 2 ranking in the 400 Meters
with as time of 1:06.26 is really good

His best Long Jump mark is good
for 4th in the rankings

He will also be competing as a member of the Cosmos' 4 x 100 Meters and 4 x 400 Meters Relays at Varsity Finals.

So True

With that in mind, we present you . . .

. . . the Greatest Soccer Player . . .

. . . and two Greatest Track Athletes
that we know

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