Jadz and I arrived Wednesday afternoon after an uneventful flight from Providence RI by way of Nashville TN. The landing was a bit bumpy but we survived. After a short ride on a shuttle, we arrived at Harrah's, checked in and stashed our bags in our room. We got a call from Ken Hamblin and met him and Debby and Richard and Stephanie in the Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill. Toby ain't goin' broke. From there we went to our meeting room that was already occupied by other arrivals.

Thursday Jadz and I walked up the strip as far as the Bellagio then back and through Caesar's Palace. We stopped in the Flamingo and ran a few bucks through what turned out to be an easy slot machine. Started with a buck and won 43. After the walk on the strip we again met Ken, Deb, Richard and Stephanie in the Diamond Lounge. After hangin' out there for a while we went to our meeting room and hung out with the guys. Later we all went to the local Outback Steakhouse for dinner. Jadz and I went out the wrong doors at Harrah's and had to backtrack to catch up with the group.

Friday after breakfast those of us that wanted to go to the Hoover Dam for a tour met and stuffed ourselves into two cars and two pickups. I got the pleasure of riding with Tom Lechowicz and his wife. I listened to classic country music out and back and by classic I mean 50's and 60's. I hadn't heard a lot of it in years.
We met up with the rest of the gang in front of, or rather on top of the dam. There we met Ken's sister Eileen who started us on a VIP tour of the facility. After an elevator ride down, she handed us off to one of the dam's engineers who picked up where Eileen left off. He gave us a lot of technical and historical information on the building of and operation of the dam. We went through tunnels, passages and air vents, looked up no longer used stairs that were unbelievably steep and disapeared in both directions. I guess we were all a bit tired after the tour except Ken who was probably wasted after he graciously spent his tour pushing Col Kelly around the dam.

Friday evening we all met in the Elko room for the reunion banquet. Pictures were taken, elbows rubbed and we all had a good time. A far cry from the mess halls of the 60's.

Saturday, Jadz was relieved when Lance Becker went to the Imperial Palace with me to check out the classic car collection. Almost all were for sale and still were when we left.
We looked aroud awhile and fought the foot traffic and split up at Harrah's. I met up with Jadz and met Ken and Deb in the Diamond lounge. We, me, Ken, Deb and Jadz struck out for the Bellagio to check out the buffet. We waited in line for what seemed like hours but was more like 25 minutes, paid our money and ate like, well I tried to get my money's worth. We stayed outside and waited for the water show which I thought was "way cool".

Sunday morning we met Ken and Deb and went to The Omlet House off the strip for breakfast. When we came back, we went to our room and got our stuff together for our trip to St. George UT. From there we were going to Zion and Bryce Canyons. On our way out we said our goodby's to Richard, Stephanie, Jack and Denise. We also found Lorraine Fraccola in the breakfast line after a bout with a 24 hour thing that kept her from enjoying the banquet. Her and Joe did get in a couple of shows before se got ill. We were happy she was feeling better.

All in all it was a great reunion where several people were first timers. With any luck, they'll continue to attend and pass the word. We really missed The Bob's, Roger and Bill Gallivan who couldn't make it this year.