We had gone to Carrington for Barb’s high school reunion, but that was not our only experience in the neighborhood.

Barb’s sister Audrey flew in to Bismarck from Colorado and joined us for the Carrington visit.  We stayed with Barb’s brother Tim, who lives just a few miles north of Carrington.  And we enjoyed seeing Tim’s three sons:  Preston, Tyler and Austen.  Barb’s uncles Joe and John were also briefly back to their old stomping grounds.  Barb’s brother Hugh stopped in briefly on his way to Minneapolis from the oil fields of western North Dakota, accompanied by his girl friend.  Barb’s friend Monica, occasional guest on Tusen Takk II and another graduate of Carrington, drove over from New Rockford, where she has been helping her mother recover from a stroke.

When the reunion was finished, we joined Tim on an expedition to his cabin east of Carrington at Lake Juanita.  On the way back we stopped for lunch in the wee town of Grace City, a town so small that it lost in 1991 its consolidated school to a neighboring village.  The halls contain large pictures of the most recent graduating classes; in 1990 there were four and in 1991 there were five.  We were inside the school because the building has been made available and the old school cafeteria has been converted to a cafe gratefully patronized by the small community.  (The food was good.)

We also went on an expedition to see the farm and the large house where Barb and so many of her siblings were raised.  And we visited the Carrington cemetery where for genealogical purposes Barb had me photograph many tombstones for Carr, Hoffman and Lange.   And of course we visited several times the renowned Chieftan, the iconic restaurant in Carrington.

On our drive back to Bismarck I got some pictures of abandoned farms and of ducks and pelicans and swallows.

After returning to Bismarck, we also visited other areas in the Dakotas, but that will be covered in our next post.  Stay tuned!