Visiting electronic MEGA stores  is just the tip of the astonishment of a visit to Las Vegas, especially after having spent the last ten months and most of the last five years living in a little town in southeast Mexico.

The hotels, casinos and public buildings that line the strip of Las Vegas are something you will see in few other places in the world. On the weekend these days you wouldn’t guess the United States is in a financial melt-down or that Las Vegas is leading the country in bloodletting real estate values to the tune of nearly 50%.

The streets are lined deep with awe struck tourists; Senora Vivavaz and mi included. It is Main Street adult Disneyland, overpowering eye candy in every direction.

We haven’t spent a lot of time in the downtown area.  We are staying out on the north end of town which is comprised of miles and miles of sandy brown, ‘tile-like’ roofed houses – rows and rows and rows of them; some strip malls and an occasional wayward casino complex. We miss the variety and color of Mexico up at this end of Las Vegas– as to the strip we need to go back to put that into proper words.

Two weeks ago we had opted to drive at night from Capitan, New Mexico to Las Vegas to avoid the heat, and to drive with a somewhat better qualified group of drivers (the scary life-threatening novice drivers tend to avoid night driving).

We arrived at the Hoover dam area at about 4 AM local time. This time of year both the Arizona and Nevada sides of the dam area are on the same Pacific Daylight time.

It is eerily peaceful at that hour. Even the security checkpoint that was so bothersome when we went through at a more respectable hour a year or so ago was a breeze to gain passage.

The air was refreshing at that hour knowing full well we better enjoy it now because in a few hours, post sunrise, the heat of a blast furnace would be on.

Normally the bridge around the dam is chaotic during daylight hours; it was even before the start of construction of the bypass bridge that began shortly after 911 and may actually be finished by next year.

Whatever you might say about the abyss above the border of the country we live in, you have to give them their due for the technological marvels found there (here). We have been going over Hoover dam every year since before the 911 tragedy. In Late September 2001 we missed the dam entirely because we were diverted to Laughlin as any sized truck could not drive around the dam itself at that time.

Large commercial trucks still cannot drive on the road that circles around the top of the dam. However truck drivers will soon have a great view of the dam from their perch atop the soon to be opened bypass bridge.

The peaceful, amber lit, early morning drive around the dam cried photo op. We pulled out at a place where we were the only car to park; a circumstance that you will not find during a day passing.

Here are some of the photos I took that predawn morning. I hope you take the time to look at the enlarged option photos. I am so engulfed in lightning fast internet speed that I might not be accounting for the large sized photos. Even at that they don’t do justice to having been there – but you will get the idea. Aside from technological feats beyond the planet like landing people on the moon and roving cars on Mars etc. this has to be right up at the top of the list of earthly technological feats.

The idea of building a bridge across the Colorado river starting on either side of a rock sided canyon is easily as mind boggling as the construction of the dam itself. See what you think.

Hoover Dam By Pass Bridge at Night (ENLARGE HERE)

The Road Snakes Around the Dam (ENLARGE HERE)

Hoover Dam August 2009 (ENLARGE HERE)

I am glad I have been able to see the many stages of the construction – pretty amazing stuff. Stay Tuned!