We flew out from Bismarck, ND, to Vegas on Wednesday, September 9, in order to attend yet another in a string of Carr reunions.  This one would be extra-special:  Barb’s father Cliff was turning 90 and two of his siblings — Evelyn from California and Joe from Idaho — attended.  We spent the first night at an east-side hotel/casino, and then gathered with the other attendees to move into a large multi-dwelling residence on the west side of Vegas.   We had used the same place two-times ago, so we knew the commodious property would serve us well:  large equipped kitchen with multiple ovens, comfortable seating everywhere, gazillions of bedrooms and bathrooms, a swimming pool and a pool table and a large poker table.  Everything got used.  Perfect for a reunion with 38 attendees.   Folks took turns preparing meals, with Dan taking responsibility for the BIG meal on the day of the official birthday celebration.  Two prime ribs, baked potatoes, vegetarian squash-pasta, and salad.  After the birthday cake, everyone gathered around the huge high definition TV to watch the slide show Barb had put together featuring pictures of Cliff from childhood to the present.  He was in the Navy, a farmer, rancher, pilot, father of twelve, ran a trucking company, built the Carrington Livestock Auction in ND and ran it for many years, ran a dude ranch in Minnesota, sold real estate in Las Vegas, and became a skilled woodworker.  He is on his computer every day playing chess and is the first person we know to have upgraded to Windows 10 (which is something we would not have done until forced to).  He has been writing short stories for a number of years and has self-published a few of them.  Quite a remarkable guy!

The nine siblings kept track of the food expenses, with the contributions equalized at the end.  Audrey had primary responsibility for securing the venue.  The reunion was a four-day get-together, so everyone had an opportunity to partake of some of the famous madness on the strip.  We had gone to one of the Cirque de Soleil “Zarkana” shows a month ago, and so only went to the “Bodies” exhibit at the Sphinx.

Very successful reunion.

Oh, and we sold our Camry to Audrey since we had purchased a (very) used Chevy Tracker to pull behind our camper.  We flew back to Bismarck on September 13, a visit that was covered in the previous blog.   To learn what we did AFTER Bismarck, tune in next time.