Shasta Dam and more goodbyes

This morning started with a full table - full of food and people and cheer. After breakfast we headed out to tour the Shasta Dam. I was so excited because Shasta Dam is a hydroelectric power plant just like Hoover. 

We had arrived at the Hoover Dam after the last tour had started (and I wasn't too upset since the Hoover tour was $30 per person.) The Shasta tour is free! (Note the tiny sliver of green grass area under the ends of the 5 silver pipes - more on that later!)

And it was definitely enhanced by having been to Hoover. We were able to incorporate what we knew of dams from our time at Hoover to better understand Shasta. We also pulled from Jo's knowledge of electromagnetic power-making that he studied in Challenge B this last year. I was pleased that he asked good questions to our guide. I was also pleased that when she called on Kik & Sy to help her up front and tell the audience what they learned, they spoke up loud and clear to the entire room without fear - a skill I attribute to years of Foundations presentations. 

Anyway... Security was pretty tight. You can take a cellphone/camera and your car keys. We entered through a metal detector and had to show the guard our camera worked - I chose to take a selfie with him as my proof. (: Ha.Ha 

Shasta is the 2nd largest dam in the U.S.  Apparently, dams are rated in cubic feet of concrete. So although this is significantly shorter than Hoover, because of the amount of concrete used, Shasta is 2nd and Hoover is 4th. 

This also opened up questions of math & physics - with Hoover being an arch dam (where the shape contributes to holding the water back) and Shasta being a curved dam (where the concrete itself holds back the water with little help from the shape.)

We also added to our learning from yesterday when we learned that the dam went from being 160' low last year to only 19' low this year. Amazingly, 18' is the most water increase for one day! 18' in one day! Days like that enable hem to say that they are a flood control dam, not just a hydroelectric plant or a reservoir to irrigate much of the farmland from here to Bakersfield! Ok. Enough of the lessons learned. 

(Ok. Remember that green grass area from photo #3 - This is it! It's huge.)

Turbines

Train tunnel that became river diversion that became storage warehouse. 

See the black smoke from the trains then partly washed off by the river running through here? Now it's plugged, so nothing runs through. 

All the places we've been on the lake. 

After the tour, we returned to the Moore's home where they had food ready for us AND aunt Kay had finished our laundry! Hey seriously blessed us! (Thank you Moore's!)

At this point it was time for goodbyes. Not only to Dan and Kay and Robin, but also to all the animals: their dog Lucy AND the horses and goats and dogs and frogs, every animal that lives on their street had to be bid farewell.