16 Diamonds?

     We arrived at Murfreesboro early enough to drive through the town and check out the crater of diamonds state park.   Checked out the gift shop and I purchased a hooded sweatshirt.  On the way back to town we checked out a campground.  It seemed that Ruthie was developing a cold so we decided to stay at a motel.  We went to the local grocery store to get some tv dinners and treats.   We stayed at the Queen of Diamonds as they had good internet service and who knows maybe it will bring us luck.
     The internet service turned out to be a problem,  I couldn't connect to their WiFi.  They reset the router and took out all the phones, they did it again.  Then they decided they had this problem before and to try in front of the laundry room to make sure it wasn't my computer.  It wasn't!  Ended up moving to a newer wing of the motel where they had WiFi and hard wired service.  A little problem with the wired one.  They thought it was on a lamp, but that turned out to be a phone plug in that didn't go any where.  We found the internet plug on the opposite wall from the table,  after doing some furniture moving I was all set. 

      Dec 11th   It dropped down to 17 degrees last night, so with Ruthie's cold the hotel was  a good idea.  We thought we would delay our fortune hunting while Ruthie recovered, we would wait and check on the mail,  and work on the blog.  At friend Louise's suggestion Ruthie started drinking some emergen-C to fight her cold.  What's good for the goose is good for the gander so she insisted I start taking some also.   She mixed me up a dose and  she reminded me to shake my bottom as I was drinking it!   Made it real difficult to drink, sometimes I just don’t know what she's thinking.

   So what do we have here?  
     Well we learned this and many other interesting things from Steve our room 50 neighbor.  I came  back from a errand and Ruthie and Steve were sitting in rocking chairs enjoying the sun.  These are the seeds of the Sweet-gum tree and they came be painted and used for crafts, christmas tree decorations and sold to tourists as porcupine eggs.  The town he is from planted a lot of them because the leaves are beautiful.  However a few years later they ended up having them removed because of this nasty little seed.  ( reminds me of Stewartville MN and their street lights.  Sometimes it is hard to foresee the consequences of our decisions. ) Try stepping on them once.  They are about the size of ping pong ball.  A good neighbor he helped me repair our camper light, he worked for the state of Arkansas inspecting school buses.  He also pointed out mistletoe hanging in a nearby tree. 

      Dec 12 Wednesday  4:48 am 18 degrees, significant because that is what it was when we left MN to get away from the cold, at least we don’t have to shovel our way to the trike.   Ruthie was feeling a little better so we went for a walk of the downtown area, lots of interesting shops.  Walked the downtown area.  One of the shops was the Moonshine trading post. 

     We liked it enough to rent a shelf to display Michelle's bandana's  They are right above the good fresh egg sign and two below the sweet tea.
     Mail continued:  Checked with the local post office still no package for us.  Now it has been seven days for a two day package.  Called Norman, the lady we talked to now was the one that had been on a cruise and she didn't know anything about it because the other lady only works on Saturday and evidently they never talk.  This is getting to be trying.  to be continued.



 

  Dec 13,   This was to be our day for fortune.  We headed to the Crater of Diamonds state park  It is the only diamond mine in the world where the public can hunt for diamonds.    We rented the basic diamond mining set.  A shovel, two screens and a pail.  We started where the 40.23-carat Uncle Sam diamond, the largest diamond ever unearthed in the U.S  was found.     A ranger came by and teased us with some diamonds and gave us a little history.  The crater came from a volcanic eruption over eighty million years ago, that brought the diamonds to the surface.   A local farmer found some diamonds and sold the land it was mined commercially for a few years and then the state turned it into a state park.   Now it looks like a very rocky and barren 37 acre plowed field.  We tried the dry screen sifting method with no luck,  Then we tried the pan washing method until my hands got cold washing the dirt.  I never thought I would be doing this,  rockiest field I have ever seen  I stopped to warm my hands and wander around the field.  We spent four hours there. 

   Usually we share a meal , however Ruthie made a declaration that she was going to have her own meal tonight, looks like working in the field has worked up an appetite.   We ate at Rattlers a local cafe  named after the football team.  If you want to have some fun stop and get the owner talking lumber, electric power or politics.    We stopped at candle shop on the way home, had to have something to show for our days work.

Crater Map

 
Dec 14   It is time to move on, no mail arrived, sure glad we didn't wait in Norman for it.  We didn't have far to go to our next stop in Texarcana and the temperature at risen to 68 it got to 73 that day and we only seen one motorcycle it still surprises us we arent seeing more cycles.