8 Saturday
Early start this morning. First a stop to view Lake Mead formed by the damming of the Colorado River from a lookout point on the outskirts of Boulder City and then further on we came to the security checkpoint which was in place just before the Hoover Dam. We were waved through, but the 4WD following us was stopped. It struck me that there was only a token effort being made to ensure that the bad guys did not get close to the dam and the authorities were simply stopping vehicles on the basis of profiles. So a good terrorist disguise would be a map of the US on the dashboard while asking how to get to the information center in an australian or kiwi accent.  It was quite hot at the dam, we drove across the structure and parked, then walked back to the middle of the dam to take photos.

The highway swings around to go over the top of the dam

We noticed that the lake level was quite low and I judged it was about 50 feet below the overflow spillways. Later, in in the town of Williams, one of the locals told us that it hasn't rained in the area for 9 months and as there hasn't been any snow over the winter months they are in the grip of quite a severe drought. From the Hoover Dam we climbed up out of the gorge and headed south east down highway 93 and parallel to the Black Mountains toward Kingman. Not far down the highway we pulled into a wayside parking area to view part of the Colorado River and found two American Indian women selling hand made jewellery which Sally took a liking for.

American Indian jewellery being sold

We joined Interstate 40 at Kingman and continued east paralleling the old historic Route 66. A few hours later at Ash Fork we turned off the interstate and went into the town to explore the historic parts that related to Route 66.  Nostalgia!

Ash Fork is almost a ghost town on a section of the old Route 66

We talked to a guy who owned a small café.  He was wanting to re-establish parts of the original town with tourism in mind.  Some areas of the town seemed quite deserted and a plaque near the old railroad detailed the towns decline since the Interstate system replaced Route 66 and the Santa Fe railroad was moved 10 miles north of the town.  We continued east on I40 and at exit 165 found our motel about a mile east of Williams. Checked in and as it was only about 2:30pm, went into the town to explore. Williams is also sited on part of the original Route 66 and lots of the history and tourist trade is based on this fact. Unlike Ashfork, Williams seems to be prospering. Early evening we were entertained with a bit of street theatre of a historic gunfight between two baddies and the local good guy.

Street theatre in Williams

The gunfight was played out as history said it happened and then again as popular opinion thought it should have happened.  The crowd, well satisfied, gave them a rousing round of applause, the actors collected their donations and we left to have dinner at the local steak house on Route 66 (ie the main road).