We're BAAAAAAAAACCCKKKKKKKKKKKk

December 15th, 2008 58* cloudy

Well we arrived in the desert on Sunday afternoon after a short trip from Needles California. We picked a spot here in the BLM grounds near the front, and have a huge yard all to ourselves. Crowds seem to be quite a bit smaller this time but we are also here earlier than before. Downtown is like a ghost town and not near the vendors as before. The weather has been not so nice to us, last week it was in the 70's all week and the day we get here the high was 58* and it isn't even suppose to hit the 60's until we leave. Last night it actually rained here and the rain brought a smell out of the desert I had never smelled before and hope I don't have to again :) . I have to say though that I love being back here even though the weather could be nicer, I have so missed the desert and I don't know why I just have. First thing I found was a crystal when walking the dog and I had found several of them last time, I have looked for more but so far no luck.

First thing sunday after getting here we went into town to look around and found diesel for $1.97 and as cheap as $1.93 we found later! Glad to see that. One thing we needed to do was replace our batteries so we were in an rv store here and they had what they called seconds and it was suppose to be only damaged cases on them and perfectly good batteries. Sounded like a great deal, the normal price was $219 and these were only $75.........hmmmmmmmmm oh well, we bought 4 of them. Turns out they should only be $2 batteries so I took them back this morning and returned them and bought some brand new ones. Now we are back on schedule. I am tired of lifting batteries in and out of that damn bay all bent over. I have them charging now so we will see what happens in the morning with them.

One of my things to do when I got here was to do some gold hunting with the detector. We stopped by a gold store and the guy told us the general location of a GPAA claim which I am a member of so I can hunt there. We searched for it and found several other claims but not that one. I since got one of my buddies on the Detecting forum to scan me copies and email them to me. Turns out last night I was almost hunting on one of them back in the desert. I drove back about 5 miles and the claim is another 2 miles or so farther back, so I will check it out again. Last night I went back to late and didn't have much time to hunt as it was getting dark. I also now know where the other claim is we were searching for so I will hunt that one before we leave. All I found last night was a .45 caliber metal jacketed bullet and a piece of a lead bullet.

Hey Patti, your friends are back ! :)









Check out this crazy beetle I found. I have found a couple of them and the weird thing is when you muck with them then stand on their head! They are about an 1" to 1-1/2" long. I poked it with a stick :)









Someone has to much time on their hands as they built this pyramid of rocks that stands 5' tall!









And this is what the desert floor looks like here, its not sand as one would assume you would see in the desert. It is mostly lava rock.









Well, that is enough for now!