Day five was kind of a lazy day for all of us. Our gracious hosts, the Cross family, were going to take us to the movies, and we were going to take them to a nice place for dinner after the show. We started the day off with a little walk down to the lake made famous by Vernon and his Barbie fishing pole. The walk through the woods was nice and the day was warm and sunny, I could see the actrual place where Vernon blasts away at snapping turtles and ties into big bass with his pink wonder pole.
A nice morning for us with good friends. When we got back to the house though, Vernon wanted to go over and hunt an old school playground that was just on the other side of the street from his house. The place was all grown over with trees and bushes, and we hoped for a little silver. This was fun and we spent a hour or so finding "Modern coins". It was funny for me to feel the stuff we were finding was modern when buff nickles, war nickles, and wheaties were coming along nicely. Civil War hunting had changed my prespective a little I guess. I did find a silver St. Christopher there (Contest anybody?) and we had fun.
We made it back to the house after a little chat with one of the local characters that wanders the streets there mumbling to himself and acting very wierd even for this forum! I did not have any money on me to give him so we left him talking to his imaginary friends and got dressed for a night on the town. The movie was "Ten Thousand B.C." The theater was crowded with two other folks and the popcorn was good. I have never seen a DoDo bird with huge teeth before. Great adventure. The night was capped off with a nice dinner at an old tobacco warehouse that had been converted to a up-scale restaurant complete with live music. I told Vernon and the family to order whatever they wanted as long as the price was not written in cursive. My first east coast crab cakes were very good.
On day six, my son Rich drove down to Vernon's from Washington DC to visit and get in a little hunting as well. We had not seen him for a year and a half, and it was good to see him. Our day had been planned around a little mission involving MM and one of his sites we hunted two days earlier. There had been some other relic hunters on the land before we got there and they had not filled their holes very well. While we were hunting we had done our best to fix the mess that looked a lot like an artillery prep. They had dug holes as big as 2 feet arcoss, threw dirt all over the place and then just tossed the plug back in the hole, sometimes grass down or sideways. Our mission was to go out there with MM and give the place the respect it deserved with rakes and shovels. Rich went along too. It took the four of us about and hour to fix the mess, but we felt good about all the work. I only took one pict of a hole, and this was a better than most one.
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[attachment 86133 badhole.jpg]
After the hole fixin' it was time for some hole diggin'. This was a big site where the Union had camped at the end of the war, and the Confederates had camped of an on the early part of the war. I managed to dig up a bullet real soon and MM snapped this pic of me and my find.
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[attachment 86126 dc.jpg]
Rich was not to be outdone my Dad, and here he is digging up his first ever Civil War bullet, a genuine cleaner bullet at that.
<center>
[attachment 86131 richbilit.jpg]
We were hunting along some briar patches. I have heard tales of Brer Rabbit and the briar patch and stuff like that. but this trip was the first time I had the pleasure of meeting one up close and personal. What wild bunch of thorns and vines that would stop most folks cold and bloody!
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[attachment 86132 briarpatch.jpg]
I found this ball button at about 10 inches deep and thought it was cool so I took a pict of it.
<center>
[attachment 86127 ballbutton.jpg]
Rich was digging up a lot of stuff and I went over to see what he was up to. He held up this saddle buckle.
<center>
[attachment 86128 richbuckle.jpg]
Rich dug up a lot of history and it was fun to be able to share this with him. He is the only one of my three sons who likes to detect. We have had some great detecting adventures over the last 30 years. This was the first Civil War stuff we shared. Again, "Thank you Vernon and Greg for making this possible!!!
We hunted till dark and all left with some nice finds. I will post more finds as the weeks go on and as I clean up stuff and take close-ups, Another wonderful day in the fields!
More later DC
A nice morning for us with good friends. When we got back to the house though, Vernon wanted to go over and hunt an old school playground that was just on the other side of the street from his house. The place was all grown over with trees and bushes, and we hoped for a little silver. This was fun and we spent a hour or so finding "Modern coins". It was funny for me to feel the stuff we were finding was modern when buff nickles, war nickles, and wheaties were coming along nicely. Civil War hunting had changed my prespective a little I guess. I did find a silver St. Christopher there (Contest anybody?) and we had fun.We made it back to the house after a little chat with one of the local characters that wanders the streets there mumbling to himself and acting very wierd even for this forum! I did not have any money on me to give him so we left him talking to his imaginary friends and got dressed for a night on the town. The movie was "Ten Thousand B.C." The theater was crowded with two other folks and the popcorn was good. I have never seen a DoDo bird with huge teeth before. Great adventure. The night was capped off with a nice dinner at an old tobacco warehouse that had been converted to a up-scale restaurant complete with live music. I told Vernon and the family to order whatever they wanted as long as the price was not written in cursive. My first east coast crab cakes were very good.
On day six, my son Rich drove down to Vernon's from Washington DC to visit and get in a little hunting as well. We had not seen him for a year and a half, and it was good to see him. Our day had been planned around a little mission involving MM and one of his sites we hunted two days earlier. There had been some other relic hunters on the land before we got there and they had not filled their holes very well. While we were hunting we had done our best to fix the mess that looked a lot like an artillery prep. They had dug holes as big as 2 feet arcoss, threw dirt all over the place and then just tossed the plug back in the hole, sometimes grass down or sideways. Our mission was to go out there with MM and give the place the respect it deserved with rakes and shovels. Rich went along too. It took the four of us about and hour to fix the mess, but we felt good about all the work. I only took one pict of a hole, and this was a better than most one.
<center>
[attachment 86133 badhole.jpg]
After the hole fixin' it was time for some hole diggin'. This was a big site where the Union had camped at the end of the war, and the Confederates had camped of an on the early part of the war. I managed to dig up a bullet real soon and MM snapped this pic of me and my find.
<center>
[attachment 86126 dc.jpg]
Rich was not to be outdone my Dad, and here he is digging up his first ever Civil War bullet, a genuine cleaner bullet at that.
<center>
[attachment 86131 richbilit.jpg]
We were hunting along some briar patches. I have heard tales of Brer Rabbit and the briar patch and stuff like that. but this trip was the first time I had the pleasure of meeting one up close and personal. What wild bunch of thorns and vines that would stop most folks cold and bloody!
<center>
[attachment 86132 briarpatch.jpg]
I found this ball button at about 10 inches deep and thought it was cool so I took a pict of it.
<center>
[attachment 86127 ballbutton.jpg]
Rich was digging up a lot of stuff and I went over to see what he was up to. He held up this saddle buckle.
<center>
[attachment 86128 richbuckle.jpg]
Rich dug up a lot of history and it was fun to be able to share this with him. He is the only one of my three sons who likes to detect. We have had some great detecting adventures over the last 30 years. This was the first Civil War stuff we shared. Again, "Thank you Vernon and Greg for making this possible!!!
We hunted till dark and all left with some nice finds. I will post more finds as the weeks go on and as I clean up stuff and take close-ups, Another wonderful day in the fields! More later DC