Here I am back in the hotel room in Murfeesboro, Arkansas after spending the day at Crater of Diamonds State Park. I am tired, hot and very, very, very dirty, but had a wonderful time hunting diamonds. Did I have any luck? You guys just didn't concentrate hard enough on Diamonds for me. No diamonds were found. I did find several pieces of shiny quartz and a couple of small pieces of glass.
It was the process that was fun though. In loading the pictures taken today, something happened and I lost some of them. Oh, well, I'm not a very pretty sight at the moment anyway. In one of the pictures, I was "sluicing" or washing my dirt looking for any diamonds that may have been dug up and not visible on the surface of a clod of dirt. It was a hot day, but I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible and did some of the washing of dirt in a small sluicing area that was down close to my "dig" site and in the shade. I even took a short nap on the bench of a picnic table after eating my lunch. Tomorrow it is only supposed to be in the mid-70's so those digging tomorrow should have a better day than I had today.
There was a young family with 4 small boys at my shady sluicing area and the smallest one was a hoot. He was maybe 2 1/2 years old and had a plastic colander with holes in it. He found that if he put it into the washing trough and picked it up, water would pour out all the holes and make a big splashing sound. He was cracking up. Into the water went the colander,up it came, water splashing everywhere, and the little boy just giggling. He did this over and over until his Mom turned to see what was so funny and stopped all his fun. I was enjoying his antics. Someday, he may be a world famous geologist and it all will have started at the sluice box at Crater of Diamonds playing with his colander in the water.
Crater of Diamonds State Park, Murfeesboro, Arkansas.
Crater of Diamonds plowed field where you can find diamonds by spotting them just lying on top of the dirt, by dry sifting the dirt or by sluicing with water. This picture was taken about 8 AM and only a few people were out on the field. I was in the far left corner in the shade of the big trees in an area where several decent sized diamonds have been found, one last June and one last week. By noon, there were many more people on the field. I hope they had more luck than I did. I know they didn't have any more fun than I did. Some people come and stay a month in the RV/campground and hunt diamonds every day. It is great family fun at the park. Ed Hilbush, you are just lucky you didn't have to haul all my diamonds home for me.
My finds were glass and quartz. I was pretty sure that was the case, but it was worth having my suspicions confirmed by the park staff.
Tomorrow we head toward Camden, Arkansas, working our way east.
If you have been following this blog, you know that I am obsessed with "rocks". We left Texarkana, TX this morning on our way to Natchez, MS to go down the Natchez Trace which is both historic and beautiful. About 30 miles east of Texarkana, I told Joe, "You are lucky I'm not going to want to go to Crater of Diamonds". It is in Murfeesboro, AR which was about 80 miles out of our way. Joe, being the kind and generous man that he is, said, "Do you want to go"? That is like asking a mouse if he likes cheese. I love Crater of Diamonds!!
Yes folks, there really is a place in Arkansas where you can find diamonds. It is the only public diamond mine in the world. For a small fee you can look all day in a plowed field and actually, if you are really lucky, find diamonds. Some are small, but some are in the 5-6 carat range. There is one diamond found a few months ago that was over 8 carats and is now being cut by a diamond cutter in Little Rock.
Today on the way to Crater of Diamonds State Park, I was acting like I was carrying on a phone conversation with a diamond at the park, asking where he was located and telling him I would bring him cake and something cool to drink if he would let me find him. I also told him to round up all his friends, whether small or large, and bring them to the party. Of course, this was a silly, make-believe conversation, but now I wonder because I felt like the diamond was in the far left corner of the field under a tree. Joe and I stopped by the park this afternoon on the way to the motel and I was talking with 2 repeat visitors to the park who have found diamonds at Crater of Diamonds in the past. They said that diamonds have been found in the area of the park I was describing to them - the far left corner under a tree. Half the problem with the park is that there is so much land to look through and a diamond can be just anywhere - on top of the soil, under the soil, to the right 10 paces or at the far end of the field on the right - in short, you don't have a clue where or if there is a diamond that will be found that day. Which way do you turn when you enter the field? If you go to the right and don't find a diamond, you will always think, I should have turned left instead. After my mock conversation with a diamond today, I at least have a direction to head when I enter the field. That has got to be a head start on the hunt, don't you think?
Everyone think DIAMONDS all day tomorrow and maybe I'll find one!! I've been to Crater of Diamonds several times before and not found anything, but there is always tomorrow, so concentrate hard for me.
I'm not sure that we will end up doing the Natchez Trace, but I do know that we will still be going to Anniston and Taladega, Alabama. This diamond prospecting adventure will change the route, but we will still be going there.
Since Joe is not interested in "rocks", he will probably work on the car or come back to the motel. I will be working hard out in the hot sun, digging in the dirt and will come back tomorrow afternoon, hot, tired and very, very, very dirty, but very, very happy. Wish me luck!!
THE STEERING COLUMN
We've encountered thousands of people on this trip and have been asked many questions about our car and about our trip. We like to inform people about the car and to educate them on what it was like to drive a car in the early days. Most questions have merit, but there are a few that I want to pass on to you. I've heard educators say that there is no such thing as a dumb question. I personally beg to differ, but at any rate, I am going to present these to you, word for word just as they were asked of me, and let you be the judge.
A lady asked, "Was this thing made back in the "day" just to carry people around in, like a hearse"?
After telling a couple about our trip, the lady asks, "It drives and everything"?
A person looking at the back of the car saw my cautionary strip light and asked, "Is that
the way the lights worked"?
A man asked, "Does it have air-conditioning"?
A man looking at the speedometer sprocket on the front wheel asked, "Is it 3-wheel drive"?
Another man looking at the same sprocket asked, "Is that some kind of auxillary brake"?
A lady looking the car over, asked, "Do you have to wind it up"?
A man asked, "Does it burn gasoline"?
A couple asked, "What do you do if you get a flat tire"?
A woman asked, "Where do you buy tires"?
Another man asked, "Did you put it together"?
A lady about 20 years old asked where we were from and when we said Pennsylvania, she
said, "Where is Pennsylvania"?
A man asked, "Does this qualify as an historic vehicle"?
The primary annoying question that I get often from people who obviously have no appreciation for the historic value of the car or what it takes to restore and maintain it in this condition and the challenges in driving it ask, "Hey man, how fast will it go"? One day I was just tired of answering that question and without hesitation, I answered by saying, "One day I had it up to 70 miles an hour in my trailer". I don't think the word "trailer" fully registered in his mind, or he thought the E-M-F was pulling a trailer. He responded by saying, "Wow"!
.........AND THAT'S ALL PART OF MOTORING..........
Yesterday I headed out from Texarkana, TX in a rental car to visit family in North Louisiana while Joe did some maintenance and problem-solving on the E-M-F. It was the first time I had driven a car in over 3 months and that was the longest time since I had started driving in the early 1970's that I had not driven a car. Remember that Joe and I have been traveling at the speed of about 30-40 mph for our whole trip.
I found myself headed down the freeway with a speed limit of 70 and had been on the road some 30 minutes or so when I decided I'd better look at the speedometer because it felt like I was really speeding along. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! I was driving at the grand speed of 42 mph. No wonder everyone was passing me! My sense of speed was so attuned to our slow pace of 35-40 mph that at 42 mph it seemed like I was just flying down the freeway. I upped my speed to 60 mph and after another 30 minutes or so rechecked my speedometer and I realized that my speed had slowed down again and I was going about 50. It took me over an hour to get a correct sense of my car's speed. It was a very weird hour of travel!
I visited with my uncle and aunt and a cousin in Ruston, LA in the upper portion of Louisiana. If you think of Louisiana, you probably think of New Orleans, bayous and
Cajun cooking. North Louisiana is a different world. It is for the most part rural with only 3 towns of any size and chicken and BBQ are more common that Cajun cooking. Instead of bayous it is forest with oaks and pines and typically sandy and red soil. From time to time along the freeway I would get a glimpse of a pecan tree and once a pecan grove. They are large, stately trees and the nuts are absolutely delicious!
As I drove down the freeway, the exit signs were all towns that I remember and it was a real temptation to stop to see what they looked like after about 20 years. I especially wanted to stop in Gibsland, where Bonnie and Clyde, the famous bank robbers from the 20's and 30's were ambushed by police on a lonely back road and killed. Bonnie and Clyde had terrorized several states for a number of years and had eluded capture repeatedly. Near Gibsland is the little town of Arcadia that has always felt like it was stuck in a time-warp from the 40's-50's. It is now a hotbed of antique shops in the old buildings of downtown. I had limited time, so passed by both Gibsland and Arcadia but a piece of me really wanted to stop there.
Both my Mom and Dad were from little towns 10 miles either side of Ruston and had been high school sweethearts, best friends and soulmates all their lives. I only have my Dad's brother and his wife of that generation still living and it was great to see them both. I have many cousins - both first and second cousins, but only got to see one. It was a great visit though.
After about 3 hours, I turned around and headed back toward Texarkana, stopping about mid-way to visit my daughter and granddaughter in Shreveport. I hadn't seen them in about 4 years so that was a very special stop. My granddaughter, Maddie, is sweet and beautiful and quiet, loves to draw and to my surprise, loves ROCKS. I could teach her a thing or two about Rocks! When I said I could send her some, my daughter said, "Oh, no, not rocks!!" She knows my passion for rocks.
My daughter was busy changing the location of her business, Shreveport Princess Parties, and I spent this morning helping her with some of the set-up work for her new place while she painted walls and waited for building inspectors to come and waiting for the electricity and AIR CONDITIONING to come on. I had to leave about 12:30 and the inspectors had come and everything passed inspection but still no electricity or air-conditioning, but the promise that it would be turned on SOON. I hope so. It was hot and muggy outside and like a sauna inside the shop.
Tomorrow we head on down the road to Natchez, Mississippi and the Natchez Trace, a parkway that passes through some of the most incredible scenery and old southern plantations from before the Civil War.
Here we are in our antique dusters, goggles for Joe and vintage dress and hat for me
along with our car and map of our trip in front of one of the museums in Oklahoma City. It was so hot that day that the dusters stayed on only long enough for the pictures and then got tossed into the back seat. I wore the embroidered linen dress all day and the hat except while we were driving. Then the hat went in the back seat, too. Too breezy to wear it while driving and too hot to wear a scarf to keep it on.
We arrived in Texarkana , TX early this afternoon so Joe had time to get some parts to work on the car tomorrow while I head down to Louisiana to visit relatives.
To you, this probably looks like any old truck. To me, it means we are back in the South. I remember seeing "Elsie. the Cow" billboards for Borden milk products when I was maybe 5 or 6 in Baton Rogue, LA. Elsie looks the same and hasn't aged a bit, wish I could say the same.
I wanted to share with you some of the famous routes we have traveled on our trip. We have been on several portions of Route 66 in California, Arizona and many sections of old Route 66 in Oklahoma. Other portions of Route 66 are now part of Interstates. One of our tour days on the Glidden Tour covered the longest intact continuous portion of Route 66. It nearly shook our teeth out! If you plan to cross the country on old Route 66, use a modern car with good shock absorbers - you'll need it.
We traveled part of the Santa Fe Trail and the Cimarron Trail, famous trails where cattle were herded to railhead towns to be shipped to market before the turn of the century. When you are out on the back roads of America in isolated sections of the West in an open car traveling at a slow pace, you can really get a feel for the conditions the cowboys experienced - the isolation, the heat, the dust, the sameness of the landscape for miles. We didn't have to experience the dangers they did like rattlesnakes, crossing rivers on horseback, sickness and broken bones and attacks by Indians or rustlers, but we did wonder from time to time when we had no cell phone service out in the boonies how long it would take for someone to find us should we experience a breakdown and how long it would take for AAA to rescue us. We kept plenty of water for both the car and ourselves, snacks and lots of oil and a full tank of gas at all times. You just try to minimize your risks should something unexpected happen. We have been extremely lucky and have had no major problems with the car, no flat tires and no breakdowns.
We are now back in a section of the country that may be rural, but towns are closer to each other than in the West and there is a sense of safety in that. We will be traveling in areas we have traveled before from here back to PA. There will be some roads we
have never traveled before but the basic areas we are familiar with from other trips. This is good in some ways, but the excitement of always seeing a new vista and being in an area we have never seen will not be there. Oh well, as long as the wheels keep turning, I'm a happy camper.
After a week of touring the Oklahoma City area on the AACA Glidden Tour, we are on our way home to PA. We are still in Oklahoma, having driven through open grasslands and cattle country. As we have traveled east, the landscape is beginning to look more like East Texas and North Louisiana - hardwood forest with mostly oaks and cedar and pines interspersed among rolling hills and pasture land.
People have asked us countless times about driving through the deserts and how hot it must be. I always have said it is no problem because we sit up high in an open car and catch the breeze as we drive along. It is very comfortable. It does get hot when we stop just as it does for someone driving a modern air-conditioned car when they stop. Driving in the South in summer and early fall is another matter entirely. I noticed a thermometer on a bank sign in a small town in southern Oklahoma yesterday that said 104 degrees. I can't say with certainty that the sign was correct, but I did see several others throughout the day with temperatures in the 98 degree range. Either way, hot in the south is hot and humid and not much fun. What breeze you do get coming through the car is muggy. We are drinking water constantly and I generally fill up a large cup at the service station with ice and just suck on chips of ice throughout the drive. Joe's preferred method is sipping iced tea.
We are in the town of Idabel, OK this evening and will head to Texarkana, TX tomorrow night. Joe plans to stay in Texarkana for a couple of days and work on the car, still investigating an oil leak. I'll rent a car and head down to Shreveport and Ruston, Louisiana to visit relatives. I can't wait to see them! Joe just needs some down time with the car to see if he can figure out it's problem and fix it. That's hard to do when you drive 100 miles a day or more. I wish I could spend more time in LA visiting, but I can't this trip. We still have a long way to go to get home by October 1.
MAJOR CORRECTION TO MY BLOG!!
In Mosquero, NM, Joe and I spent the night with Arlene and Robert Aragon, NOT Cordova. My apologies to Arlene and Robert. I don't know how I came up with the wrong last name. Arlene and Robert are two of the sweetest and most generous people we have ever met. We will be waiting to hear from you both that you are coming to PA to visit. I look forward to showing you our beautiful part of the country.
I wanted to post a few pictures from the New Mexico area after we left Mosquero. I think they can give you a sense of some of the beautiful area we went through and some of the challenges we faced.
One of our more challenging days. The grasslands were lush and sunflowers lined the roads. Cattle ranchers in the area had great pasture land. The road, however, was "interesting" in some places.
I think this is some of the most beautiful country we have traveled through. You can see the changes time has wrought on the land and you get a sense of what a small part we are in both the span of time in the universe and how small our everyday problems are when you look at the grand scheme of life.
On one of our back roads, we passed this abandoned tourist court. Times have changed and the old roads have been by-passed by new and more modern highways, but just think of the people that used to stay here and the stories of their lives. I always wonder when I see old abandoned buildings. There is certainly a history here, if only we knew. If I knew, I would record it for posterity.
When we got to Oklahoma City, the first order of business was to clean the car!! Remember all those dirt roads we traveled? Joe said the dirt was caked on like it had been "tarred and feathered". He was assisted by Glidden Tour Director, Jeff Lyttle. Jeff and his family and tour committee really put on a tremendous tour. There were about 130 cars in attendance - the oldest was a 1903 Cadillac Rear Entrance Tonneau, a really cute little car.
Sunday was an optional tour day which Joe and I participated in. The venues we visited were great but the roads were atrocious!!! We went to the Science Museum of Oklahoma and the 45th Infantry Museum. The Science Museum was a very "hands on" type of place. My favorite was the Infantry Museum as WWII history is very special to me because of my Dad's service. They had a fantastic collection of helicopters, artillery and tanks and planes - just an amazing place. I was fascinated by their collection of infantry ribbons, patches and other artifacts from WWI, WWII and the Korean and Vietnam eras.
More tomorrow about the rest of the Glidden Tour. It officially started on Monday and ended yesterday, Friday. They kept us busy from early morning til late afternoon and some evenings.
It has been in the low to mid 90's all week and the humidity steadily increased as the week went on. Most of the driving was in town several of the days and the buildings seemed to trap the heat and humidity. The roads were the worst we had encountered since Ann Arbor, MI and we have traveled a lot of roads on this trip. By the end of the day you were "beat"!
