Sunday, April 15, 2012

Where Have We Been?

Is anyone asking this question? Sometimes time just seems to fly. I plan on writing the blog, but then before I know it, it is late and I am too tired. Or, Ed will be watching a movie and I can't write the blog and watch a movie at the same time, so the movie wins out. So here goes a quick view of what we have been doing for 7 weeks.
We left the Palm Springs Thousand Trails Park and went to Wilderness Lakes another Thousand Trails park. We arrived there on a Friday and on Monday Ed's back went out. It went out to where he couldn't get out of bed. For 2 weeks he only got up to eat and go to the bathroom. By the third week he was able to sit in a chair. We were beginning to wonder what we were going to do. I went to the manager to see if we could stay the 4th week and we were allowed to do that. By the 4th week, he was up and around but still having trouble. But at least I knew he would be able to drive. I know they say the wife should be able to drive the motor home, and if I had to, I think I could. But I really don't want to!

So for the 4 weeks we were at Wilderness Lakes, this is what we saw, cows. The park is right next to a very big dairy farm. We were told the smell would be bad and also the flies. Well, I guess we were there at the right time, because neither were that bad. There was some manure smell, but it just didn't bother us. But maybe when the weather gets hot, it could be bad.
You can see the campground in the background
There were a whole lot of cows



This was across from the campground, I was amazed at all the rocks

We were going to stay in California another 3 weeks at another Thousand Trails park. This one was a little farther south, outside of San Diego. But since we weren't doing anything, I couldn't see driving farther south just to sit in an rv park. So we decided to start making our way home.

We are now back at Verde Valley Thousand Trails in Cottonwood, Arizona. We were here in November last year. We had met a couple named Mike and Sherry. Mike wanted us to come back and do some more gold digging with him. So we decided to give it a try even though we didn't know for sure if Ed would be able to do it.

We took it easy but we did get out to do some gold digging. Mike thought it would be a good idea to dig this shrub out. But to get it out, you have to break up the rock around it. The idea is, the gold has settled around the roots of the shrub. This is hard work.


This was the shrub Mike wanted to take out,

Ed resting his back, as much as you can rest on rocks
Mike has a vacuum and you vacuum up the dirt and put it in buckets

As you can see, we got the shrub out, this is where I found my nugget

On the way home, I collapsed

After you get all the dirt out of your hole, well as much as you can fit into your vehicle, you take it to Mike's.  That's because he has a sluice box set up, which is what you run the dirt through. 
Mike's sluice box

Mike running the dirt

This is the water swirling and breaking up the dirt
In the bottom of the sluice box there is a piece of carpet that catches the black dirt and gold
Mike is panning it out

So when all is said and done, how much gold did we find. Well we did find some small specks but we also found a nugget. Now Ed has told some people I found a nugget and I think people imagine a real big nugget. Now to us this is a big nugget compared to what we have been finding. I was able to pick it up out of the dirt when I was digging. You don't get to do that often. So here I have shown you my nugget compared to a dime.
My nugget compared to a dime
also the rest of our gold

On a last note, we left Cottonwood this morning. We headed north toward Flagstaff. We weren't expecting this but we headed right into this storm. It was scary but as soon as we headed east we drove out of it. That was good except for the strong wind that was against us. Well we made it and I hope we don't have to drive in snow again.

This is what we were driving in, some places Ed couldn't even see the road

Once we turned east we drove right out of it, but we drove about 50 miles in it and that was enough

Well that's all for now

Bye  Ed and Lyn

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