Sept 19-26, 2011: North Dakota and Las Vegas
Click on the thumbnail for a map during this time period
Robb Gathering
Mike Robb has tragically been diagnosed with a recurrence of the bladder cancer
for which he had surgery about four years ago. The news brought all of his
children (and grandkids) home for a weekend, during which many fine meals and
adult beverages were consumed.
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Mom, Mike and Zona, and their kids and grandkids
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Jon, Cole, Cathy and Katie pose with Mike
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Mattie proudly displays a new toy
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Mattie, Susan, John, and Oliver pose with Mike
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Mom with greatgrandkids Cole, Oliver, Katie and Mattie
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Susan and John and Jessie ...
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... visit with Mike
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Mike's brother Floyd toasts with the special drink he has just made for everyone
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Away from the bar (resting her new knee) Barb also enjoys the concoction
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Erik's wife Cindy busy in the kitchen
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Mom and Barb at the conclusion of one of the feasts
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Auntie Jessie, Mom Cathy, and kidlets Katie and Cole ham in up
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An extreme panorama showing the interior of the new Great Room
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Lake Isabel
We also took advantage of the fine weather one weekend and went out to the lake
in order to button things up for the season, including the daunting task of
getting the dock out of the water. (Breaking ice in the Spring would
destroy the dock were it left in the water.) Daunting, because this
year the unusually wet summer conditions had filled the lake all the way up to
the bulkhead and hence there was no room to store the dock out of the water in
the sand below the bulkhead. Cathy's Jon removed the heavy iron legs
of the dock, and lake-neighbor and friend Marvin drove the pickup that was used
to pull the dock up over the bulkhead and onto the lawn. Later, Zona
took grandkids Cole and Katy for a ride on the four-wheeler, with Cole doing
most of the driving!
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Panorama of the lake front behind Robb's cabin
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Jon bringing one of the heavy dock legs to shore
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Pulling the dock out onto the lawn
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Scene after the dock was up on the lawn
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Katie, Zona and Cole on a beautiful day at the lake
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Visit to Las Vegas
During our last week in the States, Chuck stayed in Bismarck while Barb flew out
to Las Vegas. There, she visited her dad Cliff and her son Jeff.
She and Cliff stopped in to see his friend Ernie who is a retired pilot and an
avid model plane builder and flier. He showed her his work on his latest
plane and then also showed her many of the other planes he has built and flown.
Cliff's friend Frank was convalescing after a fall at a facility bout 20 miles
away, so Barb drove Cliff out so they could visit Frank a couple
of times. During one of the visits Barb finally met Frank's daughter
Sandra and her husband who are boaters and interested in cruising in the
Caribbean. They had just returned from a two-day, 1,000-mile trip finding geocaches in three states around Nevada. Barb had never heard of
Geocaching, but soon was investigating it at
www.geocaching.com. We discovered that there are caches everywhere.
For example, Chuck discovered there was one just across the highway from Zona's
home, on the campus of the University of Mary. He also discovered that
some of them are not easy to find. We also discovered that there are some
in the south of Spain, but as it turned out our schedule there -- where we went
next -- did not give us the chance to look for them.
Speaking of Spain, we know we are behind on our log. We'll get
caught up soon, when we return to the boat in a few days.
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Barb's father Cliff attended a seminar on commodity trading and bought a book by his trader Carley who was one of the presenters
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Barb's son Jeff and his new dog Scruffy
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Ernie showing us the progress he has made on his latest plane
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