Dad Continues His Reign of Awesome

Last week, I posted a bunch of pictures on Facebook from high school, early college, and my trip to Egypt. The pictures were on my Dad's computer, and the pictures of our trip out to the Western US in 1999 were on there as well. Since there were so many, I asked Dad to Snapfish the pictures so I could put those up when I had time. He finally got around to it, and told me he was "being selective" rather than posting all nine million photos available.

Things to know about Dad:

1. He is Clark Griswold when it comes to trips.
2. This West trip was most exciting for him because there was the potential for: trains, steam trains, coal trains, old mines, tin ceilings, and dams.
3. He loves knowing how things work, and if possible, taking them apart.

As a result, some of the photos he "selected" were a little...interesting.

Dad and I had a discussion about this photo, to wit:

Me: Okay, in the photo you called Arizona9, what the hell is that?
Dad: That, of course, is a giant turnbuckle from the first bridge at that site. You can just barely see the start of the bridge in the background.

"Of course."

On the other hand, it should be noted that Dad and I pretty much have convos about stuff like this on a routine basis, so there's that. I mean, I recognized it as a bridge part but couldn't come up with the word "turnbuckle."

This is a giant irrigation apparatus that Dad liked. As a nerd, I do also find this cool, because a.) someone said "I have a desert I would like to grow some stuff in. How can I make this happen?"...and then did it, and b.) this thing was seriously SO gigantic.
Dam turbines in the Glen Canyon Dam.
He also included a lot of great family type pictures like this one of my brother, sister and me on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, but somehow, the weird pictures are just as good.