Spencer Jack Selfie Sticking Hoover Dam

I do not know for sure, but it looks like I may be blog chronicling Spencer Jack's Thanksgiving Week Road Trip.

We will see if the photos keep coming whilst the boys drive deeper into the desert and further from civilization.

Whilst I was walking around Sikes Lake today the two photos you see here arrived on my phone.

I saw the first photo and wondered who took the picture. I could tell Spencer Jack had driven his dad to Hoover Dam, because I saw the Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge behind them.

The second photo solved the mystery regarding who took the picture.

I do not know how a selfie stick works. I have trouble enough taking one of those annoying selfie things just holding the phone in my hand, let alone at the end of a stick.

Seeing Spencer Jack and his dad at Hoover Dam had me feeling all dizzy at the rapid passing of time.

Way back in August of 1999, the summer before I moved to Texas, my Favorite Nephews, Jason and Joey, flew me to Las Vegas for four fun days of, well, semi-adult fun. Including driving out to Hoover Dam, where eventually we went swimming in Lake Mead.

During those four days in Vegas we had multiple mishaps, including being stuck on top of the Stratosphere Tower for hours due to a power outage. Which turned out to be sort of fun, until the lack of air conditioning had the over 100 degree outside temperature heating up the inside.

Long ago, before the era of blogs, I webpaged that trip to Vegas with Spencer Jack's dad and Favorite Uncle, Joey.

In my memory that does not seem all that long ago, flying to Vegas with my nephews. So much has happened in the years since then. Including Spencer Jack.

I suspect next I will be seeing photos of the Grand Canyon....

A Look At How Long It Took To Build A Bridge Over A Colorado River Canyon Compared To Fort Worth's Three Bridges Over Nothing

Today I continue my quest to get an explanation as to why it will take the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle four years to build Three Bridges Over Nothing.

Or, put another way, today I continue my quest to find out why it will be at least four years before the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle starts construction on the critically needed flood diversion channel which will finally give a  reason for the Three Bridges Over Nothing.

In my quest to understand how it can possibly take four years to build three relatively simple, relatively small bridges I have been looking at how long it took to build some other bridges, bridges that were actually built over something, you know, like canyons or rivers or both.

A  couple days ago I took a look at how long it took to build the Ganter Bridge in Switzerland. Steve A made an interesting comment about how long it took to build another bridge....

Steve A has left a new comment on your post "The Ganter River Vision Bridge Over Untroubled Water": 

They rebuilt the I-10 bridge over La Cienega Boulevard in 84 days after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. That is more comparable to the task that the TRV has except they had a lot more traffic to deal with in California. http://articles.latimes.com/1994-04-13/news/mn-45518_1_rush-hour

Today I decided to find out how long it took to build the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. I blogged about this bridge a couple times on one of my other blogs, one of which I screencapped above. From the screencap you may be able to intuit that this bridge crosses the Colorado River by Hoover Dam.

Construction on the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge began February 14, 2005 and opened to traffic on October 19, 2010, taking a bit longer than four years to build.

But, this was not a bridge built over nothing, it was a complex feat of engineering built over the Colorado River canyon.

This was the first concrete/steel composite arch bridge built in America. The bridge has the widest concrete arch in the western hemisphere. The bridge's four lane roadway is 900 feet above the Colorado  River. In the United States the only bridge higher is Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado.

It seems sort of obvious that the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge was a bit more difficult construction project than the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing, so I ask again, how can it take four years to build these vitally needed bridges that are key to the building of much needed flood protection in an area of the Trinity River which has been protected from floods for well over a half a century?

Protected from floods by existing levees the rest of America already paid for?