Abbey Lives

It’s been years since I read Edward Abbey but I remember being very influenced by “The Monkey Wrench Gang” in the late 70’s and “Hayduke Lives” in the 90’s. His characters live in a desert set more towards the Four Corners area but some of his descriptions are based on the Valley of Fire and Mouse’s Tank. If memory serves, eco-terrorism in the western desert and the destruction of a huge bridge are at the center of the plots. Well it looks like life imitates art.














Yesterday the enormous construction crane and cableway system being used to construct the new bridge over the Colorado River at Hoover Dam fell down in high wind gusts. I had taken some pictures of the project when Howard and Joanne were here earlier this year.






This is going to have some long ranging effects for Las Vegas. The bridge, to be completed 2008, was to be a quick way to Arizona. This would make” just over the bridge” a new suburb of Vegas. Estimates now delay completion several years.
Developers stand to lose millions, whole projects will fail, and thousands of people will not move to the desert.


Abbey just sat up and threw away the cap on another bottle of Jim Beam.















Here is a slightly different view of the "Hoover Dam."







Bob