Mini trip= sapphires,rubies, emeralds and gold

[John 'n' W.Va]

Went to visit an elderly woman friend in NC. She had an extra house on the property that we stayed in. It sat at the foot of the Smoky Mt. Mostly visited, but took a day to spend touring the mountains. While there we stopped at a gem mines to try our luck. For $25 total we could dig all the dirt we wanted and look for gems. These are the rubies, sapphires and emeralds in the ruff that we found.

[attachment 62409 7-11-07rubiesemsap.jpg]

The road took us above a 250 ft.falls. You can't tell the depth by the picture, but I am standing on the road looking down.

[attachment 62422 7-11-07fallncanyon.jpg]

Here is another falls. So you can see the size of this falls I got a beautiful woman to stand under it.

[attachment 62421 7-11-07womannfalls.jpg]

I took this while MDing in a cemetery. I am only joking!!!! I have seen red, grey and even black squirrels, but never white. It is not albino.

[attachment 62410 7-11-07whitesq..jpg]

I did a little MDing. Before we left she showed me the old homestead. Then show me an old toll road from early 1800's and the toll booth was on her property. I had no time to MD it. You can see where the old road use to go through her farm.

[attachment 62411 7-11-07oldroad.jpg]

We sat on the porch and watched the sun set over the Smokies. That's the gold.

[attachment 62415 7-11-07sunset.jpg]

 

[Uncle Willy]

Beautiful country. Been through it a time or two.

Bill

 

[awhitster]

I went through the Smokey Mountains myself once. You sure have some beautiful country up there.

 

[DavHut]

Amen to the beauty John - now for the detecting. Try to find out where the toll booth was and crank er up there. Them oldsters wont be around for ever

 

[draaiorgel]

Welcome back John,
We hope you and the Mrs had a nice vacation.
Hey, they're beautiful pictures m8, just loooooove them Smokey's. Yep the good ol' USA sure has a lot of beauty in it and so big as well. Man I could get lost there.
Nice that you found a great selection of gemstones, that'll give you something to do with your dremel on a dirty night.

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

[quote DavHut]Amen to the beauty John - now for the detecting. Try to find out where the toll booth was and crank er up there. Them oldsters wont be around for ever[/quote]

That is the shame of it all. They told me all of that when it was almost dark. I was leaving the next morning at daybreak. They thought it was funny. They said I can MD all I wanted and keep everything I found.

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

[quote draaiorgel]Welcome back John,
We hope you and the Mrs had a nice vacation.
Hey, they're beautiful pictures m8, just loooooove them Smokey's. Yep the good ol' USA sure has a lot of beauty in it and so big as well. Man I could get lost there.
Nice that you found a great selection of gemstones, that'll give you something to do with your dremel on a dirty night.[/quote]

Come on over and I will show you around. We will dig gems or I will take you prospecting.
I am going to throw them in the tumbler and see what they look like.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

That's some beautiful country side there John.
I would have to agree with you on the last photograph. Sunsets like that are pure gold. Often in the summer time, I'll go out and hunt after tea, down at the farmers market. It is in a reserve within walking distance of home. I just love watching the sunset through the trees as I detect. Because this is a dry dusty environment, is is usually spectacular, similar to what you have photographed. It's not real good for hunting though, as I can sometimes miss targets while I'm watching the sky.
Mick Evans.

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

n/t

 

[Uncle Willy]

You got any gold holes nearby John? Do you pan, dredge, sluice, or what?

Bill

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

[quote Uncle Willy]You got any gold holes nearby John? Do you pan, dredge, sluice, or what?

Bill[/quote]
There are some 3 hours away, but there are better ones 6 hours away. I use a sluice and pan.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Have you ever hit them? Do you have a classifier and do you do any mossing? I haven't been prospecting in ages and I really miss it. So does my wife, but then she misses everything that she used to be able to do, especially detecting. She loved that. But then she was my fishing buddy, hunting buddy, detecting buddy, prospecting buddy, and everything buddy. If I had of been a sky diver she would have been right alongside me. Sure hated to see her get cut down by MS. She was such a vibrant little thing.

Bill

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

The 2 legged variety John.
On a more serious note; as I hunt in parks, we have some very beautiful birds. Galahs cockatoo's, grass parrots,budgerigars,cockateels eta.
Some of the wildlife that I have encounted when riding home from work (5 miles out of town) on my pushy, was a large brown snake; I passed within a metre of it. It scared the daylights out of me and I him.My feet came up to the cross bar and he took off. Brown snakes are quite venomous, One of the ten most deadly.
I've seen plenty of kangaroos and a male emu with his chicks out on a friends farm. It's the male that raises the young in the emu world. As an aside,the junior world orienteering championships are in part, being held out on his property this week. It's 3000 acres, 27kms south of town. If you get onto goggle earth, then is on the south end of the range of hills to the south of town. Gold country there too.
Mick Evans.