Lauglin, Nevada.
To drive from Lake Havasu to Laughlin, NV you must drive through California. Just a short jaunt in and out but you get stopped by inspectors that check you car for something. Not quite sure what, I never asked, but when we drove up in our rental we got waved right through as did all the cars i saw at the checkpoint.
Then on to Laughlin with our outside temp gauge reading 100f, 111f, and finally 113f. Our air-conditioning worked overtime.
Laughlin stands across river from Bullhead, Arizona. The river in question, The Colorado.We had reservations at the Colorado Belle. A building with the appearance of a paddle wheel show boat on the shore of said river. A romantic enough picture compared to the other traditional rectangles on the river's edge. However, they had a slight issue. We arrived at 3:00pm, the appointed time for check-in. Apparently, the cleaning team had not gotten to our rooms yet. "please come back in 30 minutes". We went away, drank beer, watched many sea gnats zooming up and down the river, in 113f heat and sun and waited. A Half hour later, still not cleaned. A half hour after that... still dirty! Deb told me to go away since my fuse, lit by the heat of day and unrelenting sun, had just a tiny bit left. She got a room, a different room, then the one she wanted. I don't know and won't ask if she got something for our troubles but she did  not seemed pleased.
Of course, i didn't help much when i made her walk a mile+ to a restaurant. After the sun went down and the heat abated. Now only 90-95f but a dry heat! We did take the river taxi back to our hotel and slept. Spent nothing, not one penny, in the Colorado Belle. We showed them!
Up early and off to Hoover Dam. 70 mile drive, at 65 mph. Set your speed control, they will stop you for speeding even though nothing exists out there except cacti and tumble weeds. We stopped at Terrible's in Searchlight, NV a town with a speed limit of 25mph right on the main highway. Terrible's consisted of a McDonald's, a gas station and a convenience/souvenir store. Breakfast at McD's and on to Hoover Dam
To get to Hoover Dam you drive through cuts in the rock mountain. Not a straight route either,  but a switch back, steep, two lane affair. Of course, you passed by the security stop making sure you didn't have any contraband on board.  Once through this maze, you make one turn and the view sprains the eye with the enormity of the place. The Colorado River hundreds of feet below, sheer rock faces on both sides, Lake Mead behind and the Hoover Dam right there! Huge! Awesome! Immense!  Breathtaking!
We cruised through the Panama Canal. A monumental feat in it's day. Maybe, technically speaking, bigger than the Dam but you can't see the entire Canal in one place. The Hoover Dam stands right before you, all of it! Tons of cement and steel and rock. I have watched movies of people thrown from the top and either James Bond or Bruce Willis (or both) sliding down the face of the dam but when i looked over the edge it took on a whole different meaning all together. We took the obligatory tour. When i visited my daughter in Portland Oregon, we toured a dam on the Columbia river. Inside Hoover dam looked pretty much the same as that one. I imagine all power dams look the same inside. But outside...WOW.
The shores of Lake Mead show the lowering levels of water as the West continues a drought season. Our tour guide said Lake Mead would last several years even with the drought but thinks that the drought cycle will shift before the Lake dries up. If the Lake does fall too low, the Southwest and much of lower California will need a whole lot of candles.
After the Dam, we headed to Las Vegas and the Stratosphere hotel. We occupied our room immediately. Went to the Pawn shop "as seen on TV". Rode the Monorail to the High Roller, "The highest observation Wheel in the world". At 550feet it stands higher than the London Eye at 356feet. If you google "London Eye" you find three other ferris wheels larger than the "Eye" but smaller than the "Roller".
We jumped back on the Monorail after walking just a little further in the 100+ heat and returned to our hotel to lose our bankroll at the craps table. So much for winning our trip  costs in Vegas.
Our room came with a view of the "Strip" and unlimited access to the tower. Unfortunately, the unlimited did not mean "priority" in getting to the top. We waited with the masses for half an hour to board the speed elevator to level 108. Las Vegas at night glows with neon and LED and incandescent light like a jewel. We walked around the lower portion, enclosed, to take in the view. We could have gone up one floor and outside but, the wind and the heat, no thank you. Halfway around we found an interesting sight. We all know that the Stratosphere hotel sports some interesting mechanicals atop it's tower. We have pictures of us on a roller coaster that edged over the side of the tower. Since then, they have added a seat thing that bounces straight up a spire on the top and a ride that extends over the edge and shakes to thrill you. But this interesting sight we encountered topped all of those. For $120 you could put on a jump suit and parachute harness, get connected to a cable and jump out a door on the side of the tower and free fall 850 feet to a safe landing at the bottom! I have pictures and no words to describe it. Deb says her turned to jello  when she saw the jumper go to the edge. Our room lay to the right of this jump. As we drifted off to slumber land we heard one jumper scream "Geronimo" and pass by and another jumper scream like a baby all the way down! We couldn't stay up any longer since our wake up call would ring in four hours. Wrap up coming.