Living the rich life now (well, on top of it at least)

[Newt]

It does but not a very large one.

 

Den - I bought a largish ford truck (7.3L diesel and geared for hauling).

[severus]

Nice rig, Newt.

 

Ah, gold panning. I did that a few times when I lived in Reno, on the Yuba River up in the Sierras. We never found any nuggets but plenty of "flour gold". The inner soles of the tennis shoes I wore just for that still glitter with tiny gold particles. We didn't strike it rich but rather have fond memories of the scenery and the experience.

[chesters1]

Ah - but the gold is heavier than the clay dirt so if you process to let the lighter mud flow away and only keep the heavier bits, you get gravel and gold.

 

The major mining in this area was hard rock mining but that mostly played out in the early 1800s. However, higher gold prices have made some areas worth working again but here is mostly hobby stuff where folks just enjoy getting some colour to show for a day's gold hunting.

 

if its an old working that had lots of different "claims" perhaps a wander round with a metal detecter could find those old prospectors stashes rather than doing the hard work yourself.

i can see theres not much gold the chaps price sign needs replacing ,not bad prices though for camping.

surprised you chose a 5th wheeler not a motorhome we saw some fine american ones when we lived in a rather smaller one (21ft) for a while.

we usually looked smug as we untied our honda 90 from its hitch on the towbar and disappeared off shopping (first thing we realised is you need a small vehicle in town) but one day a motorhome pulled up next to us and a few seconds later a Smart car popped out its bum and disappeared with us still undoing the straps

now fulltiming is becoming common (surprisingly few even in 2001) its not uncommon to see motorhomes with cars as trailers on an A frame.Its no doubt nice having a big camper but its a pain finding car parks without height barriers in some towns and then the prospect of a fine when you overlap 4 (or more) spaces

Edited July 24, 2009 by chesters1

[poledark]

Not sure whether you would mind me posting that pic Newt.

 

Don't get the gold fever Newt, I sensed trouble when you set off up the Appalachian trail Jan will have to keep you on a long lead......

 

Den

[chesters1]

we have a "vein" at folkestone found near 30 grammes (sp?) over the years i wont be showing our "claim " though other than wide shots ,peculiar beach it is.

not the fresh stuff but broken jewellery but its GOLD GOLD i tell ee

thinking about it theres several rings as well i'v actually found more gold not using a metal detecter than i ever did using one luckily that particular beach is infested with tons of iron pyrites and scrap to confuse detectors so its eyes only

Edited July 24, 2009 by chesters1

[Newt]

"Not sure whether you would mind me posting that pic Newt."

 

Not a bit Den.

 

Chesters, we looked long and hard at both options (caravan or motor home) before we decided on this rig.

[chesters1]

probably the best of both worlds ,we get the pickup dismountables over here not quite on the same scale but neither are our caravan parks

[Bobj]

G'day mate, regarding the panning; I did that for a year in the New England Ranges in New South Wales in 1972. The best part was I actually made wages on it...sapphires! Gold was a very poor byproduct, I think I managed half a gram of gold in the year, but about 49lbs of sapphires all up. Two interesting byproducts were spinel in crystal form (cubic) but never found any with colour, they were all black and about 0.5 of a carat and zircons, about the same size but full colour of red to yellow...and no value.

I well remember digging out the 'wash' until I got to the granite bedrock and in one morning getting 98 sapphires in 1 bucket load. Unfortunately, they were all small, with the average stone being about 1 carat. Managed to get a 5 carat stone that paid a week's wages.

All the best to Jan and well done on achieving your goal of the 5th wheeler.

[Newt]

Thanks Bobj. Not sure what sorts of stones they find around here. I need to ask around some day soon.

 

Meanwhile, I am beginning to enjoy the idea of being mobile. We have some hills around here and some serious climbs when we head West to the rockies so we decided to start with a truck that could deal with them.

 

 

And of course, to hang on to a way to fish when we got the urge.

 

 

No way to afford that while keeping a house so the house for sure had to go. We put our efforts in to what we enjoy. :D

[poledark]

Another question answered Newt I wondered about the boat, I seem to remember you can't tow it behind in your home state.

 

You are giving me itchy feet again

 

Den