Crater of Diamonds State Park - a Day One

This morning I had to go to the Welcome Center to register since I got in late last night. I took my "Diamond finding tools" so I could start my adventure. My tools consisted of a kitchen colander, a kids shovel and sifter combo, a garden shovel, a pair of gloves, a towel in case I had to be on my knees, and a pail.



The path to the center is right beside my camper and it is beautiful. It is only 2/10th of a mile.



I asked to stay 2 more nights but my campsite was taken. I can stay one more night and I only have to move to the next campsite. I sure hope the wifi reaches there. I am spoiled here. My senior discount doesn't apply to weekends so the site is $30 plus tax. It costs about $8.50 to look for diamonds. So I payed it all and headed to the Diamond field.



It was not exactly what I expected. It's a big field that they plow up periodically to help uncover diamonds.

Needless to say that the kids shovel did not come out of my bag. The gloves were useless since you spend a lot of time rinsing rocks and mud in a long trough. And I never used the towel since I just leaned over and shoveled dirt into my bucket. No one mentioned my kitchen colander but it was the only one in use. This is what you are supposed to use. But mine worked fine.



Once I dug up the dirt, I shoveled some of it into my colander and shock it in the water to try to clean off the mud.








I had to squish the mud between my fingers since I didn't have the proper tools, until I just had little rocks/gems left. Then you sort through each rock and took out the ones that looked promising.



Notice that there is at least one sparkling thing in this batch. I did this over and over for about 2 hours and went inside to have my "finds" inspected. No diamonds but she did tell me what kind of rocks I found. I don't remember any except for volcanic rock. She gave me tips for finding diamonds so I went back later with Seymour and Zooey - yes dogs are allowed in the mining area - and I found another sparkly thing. Again, no Diamond. Only 2-4 diamonds are found most days and I think that they are tiny, but the hunt is fun and relaxing and the other people are nice.

It got extremely hot in the field this afternoon. It was 91 but no clouds. I am hoping that tomorrow morning is cooler. The hunt will continue!


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We Made It!

After nine hours of driving we finally pulled into the State Park just before 6 PM.

The office was closed but they had my name and my site number on the bulletin board. When I found my site, it was the most perfect one in the campground. I am next to the trail to the Welcome Center and the diamond mining area. I am across from the restrooms, laundry and trash bins. And there is Wi-Fi in front of the restroom area. Tomorrow I will take pictures and write a better blog. Tonight I am just using my cell phone.
I talked to some people who have been here before. They have never found a diamond. They say it is backbreaking work. I don't think I will mine very long tomorrow, maybe a few hours.
I am very excited to be here. More tomorrow.


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Location:Crater of Diamonds State Park

Fogged in

Woke up this morning to thick fog.



I was hoping to leave by 8:30 am this morning but may wait a little. Driving in fog on the freeway isn't my favorite thing. Can't wait to get to the Crater of Diamonds State Park this evening. This will be another thing marked off of my bucket list. And the park seems to be dog friendly!


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Location:Dixon, TN

What a Day!

Last night I checked Google maps to see how far it was to Crater of diamonds State Park. Since it said it was about 450 miles I decided to take it easy this morning.
I went out to breakfast, did laundry, and went to a few stores to find diamond mining tools. Then I put the address in my GPS and started out. Unfortunately, the GPS said the park was over 850 miles away. What? Which was wrong? Google maps was wrong.

Since I had to be there tomorrow afternoon, I had to drive as much as possible today. Of course there were road construction sites all along the highways. I wanted to get through Nashville so I didn't have to deal with rush-hour in the morning. I finally got into - yes another Motel 6 at 9 PM tonight. I still have about 425 miles to go tomorrow. So much for moseying on home. The good news is that I fiddled with my light switch during one of the construction delays and got my Dashboard lights to work! That almost makes up for the crazy drive today. Almost, but not quite. We will probably leave by 8:30 AM tomorrow to get to the park by about 5 PM. I guess the diamond mining will start the next day. By the way, Zooey seems better this evening.


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Day 2 of Going Home

We left Mike and Lou's at about 10:30 yesterday morning. I took my time driving. Although we went through Pennsylvania, W Virginia and ended up in Ohio, I don't think we drove more than 200 plus miles. I did stop to get necessities twice and stopped for an hour at the Wheeling Island Casino -loved it and wish I had more time there.
We also stopped at the West Virginia Welcome Center. It was an awful place to walk dogs - between the truck lot and the car lot. They didn't even have a trash can for poop bags. I have to also say that I found the Pittsburgh area to not be dog friendly. I called a couple restaurants that had patios and they didn't allow dogs even on the patios. I have been spoiled by the Austin area.



At about 3:30 I started looking for campgrounds. It's surprising how few are here in Ohio - at least where I have been driving. So, once again my stop is -



The Motel 6 here in Grove City, Ohio is very pet friendly. They gave us poop bags (we had our own but that was nice) and dog biscuits.




As you can see next to my key, they are almost as big as the dogs, but Zooey took hers. I haven't looked to see what she ate of it, but this morning she has been throwing up. She seems okay right now. I will watch her. I am doing laundry and then we will head off. I actually made reservations to stay at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas for 2 nights starting Thursday, so we have 2 days to go about 440 miles. That should work. I have always wanted to go there and search for diamonds. I am going to try to buy some diamond searching tools at Target or Walmart today :-)


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Location:Grove City, Ohio

Remember When-

Sunday I drove to Monongahela to see my friend Pam and her family. Along the way I stopped at places from my past. This is the first house we owned when I was first married. I was always afraid that the kids would fall off of that high porch. To the right is the house Pam lived in when I met her. Notice the cobblestone street!



This is where my kids went to elementary school. It is now abandoned and was just sold. It was in the parking lot of that school that I learned to drive a stick shift. I went up and down the hills of the parking lot to practice stopping and going using the brake and clutch.




This was the hospital where both children were born. It was only a few blocks from our house. It is now an apartment for the elderly.




Things had really changed!

Then we went to Pam and Dennis's house and this is the first thing I see when pulling in their driveway-





Yep, their generous and sweet daughters bought their Dad a 1977 (1976?) Corvette a few months ago. Now that's a gift!

We caught up with life for awhile and their daughter and granddaughter came over. I was looking forward to meeting the new baby. They call her Lexi and she is adorable.




After continuing to eat my way through my trip with eggplant Parmesan, cheese burgers and pumpkin pie, I reluctantly headed out before it got too dark. Having no dashboard lights is a hindrance! I got back to my home base - thanks Mike and Lou for putting up with me, my dogs and my "stuff" - we watched football, I ate her yummy meatloaf, and we looked at the map to try to figure out how I will go home. I still haven't quite figured that out. But I know that I am going to miss everyone here!

I think that their cat Fred will finally enjoy having the run - or walk - of the house again.



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Location:Monongahela PA

Eating My Way Through Pittsburgh

Before I left my brother's yesterday, I asked if he could get me one more piece of Beto's pizza - and he did! I then drove to the flea market where my friend, Lou had a booth - and as usual I got lost. When I called her the conversation went like this.
"Okay, I am at the Library Fire Station and I can't find you"
"We are in the long building right beside it. Do you see a lot of cars?"
"Yes, but it looks like they are all for sale."
"Wait, you are supposed to be at the Castle Shannon Fire Station."

Well, that made a difference! I finally found it and it was a great flea market that is only held twice a year. Unfortunately by the time I got there, many people were packing up. I did find a few things I probably didn't need, but I wish I had been there earlier.

Then I went back to Lou and Mike's house and Lou and I decided to go to the casino. Neither of us won, but I did get some French fries with gravy in their food court. That is not easily found in Texas.

On the way home we stopped for necessities - ice cream, donuts and apple pie English muffins. The exciting thing is that I found a Maple donut, another thing I cannot find in any grocery store near my house. The only reason I can take a picture of it is because I haven't made my coffee yet this morning. Gotta have coffee with my donut!




Today I will be visiting my friend Pam's in Monongahela, which is where both of my children were born. I hope to take a picture of our old house and drive around a little.

Tomorrow I leave for home, but I still haven't figured out which way to go. I might set my GPS for less highways and see where that takes me.

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