Gold in them thar' mountains!

Hello Readers,
You've head me talk about looking for gold, so here's what we know about the process (which is very little as we keep learning about how the equipment to use and even just how to look for it)!

Basic Equipment for creek/river/water gold panning -- which means you sit in a stream (mostly on a stool or bench) and you use the water to wash away the mud, rocks and silt to find gold -- which is usually in small wire shapes or "pickers" which are flatter and look more like nuggets??

• Pans -- see the green roundish bowls
• Scoops -- to get at the dirt and rocks
• Buckets to carry all the "found dirt & rocks"
• Oh, forgot to mention --- boots to keep your feet dry!!!
• There are additional items you can get to speed up the pan process -- like a sluice, snuffer bottles to suck up the small gold pieces, a classifier which sifts out the big rocks, etc.

 Here we are with Brad, Mickey and Darrel finding their spots in the stream.

Darrel at work panning

Processing the dirt from the stream beds to find that gold

Susan even had hip waders -- so I can get deeper in the water!

NOW comes the Dry Washing for gold -- that takes a dry wash "sluice" type device -- probably has an official name but it looks similar but uses a "leaf blower" to power the shaker to sift the dirt away from the gold -- you then look through the "ribs" of the tray to find the gold.

So you dig for dirt -- hoping gold is hiding in it -- then you classify it, but separating the big rocks and debris and then you run it through the "dry wash" conveyor belt.

Darrel and Brad setting up the "dry wash" tray and hopper -- my terminology is probably incorrect but that is what it looks like to me!

Both process are similar but I can tell you I enjoy the "water" hunting much more than the "dry" hunting -- you aren't nearly as dirty when you are using water!

As I said, we are still learning and it is definitely a process -- but lots of fun and the scenery is beautiful!

So now you know how we spend our days!  We aren't getting rich but we are enjoying ourselves and that counts for something!

Love to you all,

S & D

Over the Mountains....

Hello Readers,
Been a little while since I've posted some updates -- we headed to Windsor, CO to see Darrel's brother, Mike and wife, Johnette -- we traveled a really nice Colorado Hwy 285 and was able to skirt around Denver fairly easy to head north on I-25 to Windsor.

I didn't take pictures until we were ready to leave -- as we visited, saw Mike's and Johnny's girls' families and did some errands/chores while we caught up.   They have a beautiful house but with the haze from the forest fires in California and west, we had difficulty seeing the mountains from their deck.

Boys will be boys!!!

 Susan & Johnette -- yes, Susan got her hair cut short in Windsor!!!!

 Darrel & Brother, Mike acting a little more normal

The girls get in a funky greeting pose, egged on by the brothers!!

I finally got pictures of our campsite at Ute Bluff Lodge and some of the campground area.  The summer full timers are starting to head out over the next couple of weeks.  Believe it or not, we have 5 more weeks here in Colorado before we head to Arizona.

Here's Zoe and you can see we have the community area to the right in this pic

The bluff is to south of our RV and there are sites along the front of the bluff.

Ute Bluff Lodge has rooms, cabins and RV sites -- this shows the "lodge" rooms and is further west of the community area that we are next too.

Front office are the has a circular drive.  It is a nice office area and Christian and Maggie, owners, have their home in the same building and a 2nd level.

Rec Room is nice a spacious, with Potluck dinners on Tuesday thru the summer -- I think the last one was August 14.

Ok, if you look closely you can see the back end of Zoe thru the trees -- the community area has a Teepee and a campfire burn pit -- plus an area for outdoor games -- horseshoes and a bean bag toss.

This is the front of the Teepee -- you can see the fire pit just in the bottom right of the pic.

Zoe stretches out along the fence line of the community area -- today we had the awnings out, which is rare as the breeze generally is too strong for them to be out.

We see the foothill mountains to the east and north as well -- one day Darrel and I are going to hike the bluff and head up the mountain until we reach that top....

As I sign off -- plan to post about gold panning --- when we hike to top of the bluff behind the campground, we can see the most amazing views!!!

From the mostly happy campers,

S & D

PS  We miss you all -- and appreciate your prayers for our safe travels!

Ute Bluff Lodge, South Fork, CO

Hello Readers,
We have been busy with lots of activities and have some pics to show you.  I haven't taken one of Zoe in her new location, mostly because I don't think about it until I wish I had one to put in the post.  But I do have some pics of things we have done and seen -- so I'll try to add captions under the pictures so you can see what we have been experiencing (and not necessarily in the order we've done them??)

Darrel is the big fisherman of the day!

Susan gives South Fork bear a quick hug!

Darrel & Susan selecting their Aspen trees for walking sticks

Jim & Susie showed us where to find them -- they are from TX & stay in our campground

Cave in the mountain side in the Rio Grande National Forest

Darrel & Tom drywashing samples for gold

Madonna taking a break from setup

Tom & Darrel metal detecting -- they found a 1983 penny!!

Quartz fields where we were looking for gold

Gotta' be careful where you walk -- cactus abound!

Darrel tries to metal detect some gold

Darrel hiked all the way to the top and declared it Mount Pender

Up the trail to the Turquoise mine

Lots of Aspen as we search for turquoise

So you can see we've been exploring the area and having lots of fun!  The weather has been awesome, cool at night and warm (close to hot) days!  We had rain on Thursday (8/16) and overcast but Colorado needs the rain, we don't complain.

Thanks for reading and check back for more "exploration" in Colorado!

Love to all,

S & D

Traveling thru OK, TX & NM to CO

Hello Readers,
Here's a quick post to let you know we have arrived in South Fork, CO thru Oklahoma, then Texas, then New Mexico from Yukon, OK.

Oh, side note:  I was driving to the next available Rest Area inside Texas when it was CLOSED so the next one was the Information /Tourist Center so I'm thinking OK, this can work -- but it was not easily accessible so I am driving through Amarillo at lunch time -- Lucky Me!!! Darrel is reading the map and says, do you see Loop 335 and I say yes, right there so I swing the truck and trailer over 2 lanes to exit!!!  Exciting!!!!  But it did make the loop around downtown Amarillo.  I finally got to pull over near Dumas, TX and I said, once again, "I'm done"!!!

We overnighted at Clayton, NM and the best thing I can say about our stay was the 87 Diner which was a fantastic place to eat.  The campground had 50AMP service and an OK shower house but the amenities were few.

The next morning (Aug. 3) we traveled a 1,000 foot elevation increase over 80+ miles so it didn't seem to much of a pull (past the Volcanic Mountains) -- I have pictures that I took hanging out the window -- seemed the best way since you don't pull over with Zoe!!!

We gassed up at Renata, NM and then climbed into and thru Trinidad, CO before turning west on Hwy 160 at Walsenburg to head towards South Fork, CO.

We arrived in South Fork by 2:00pm (MT) as we changed to MT in Clayton, NM.  So gained that hour of drive time.  Of course, we arrived in rain from Monte Vista, CO (about 30 miles out), nothing new for the traveling Pendergasts!  Darrel drove the entire way, Happy Susan.

I'm hanging out the back window this time -- so you see the front of Zoe

So we are here, and I'll post another update of our location for the next 2 months.  We depart Oct. 1 for Congress, AZ.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy catching up with the....

On the Road Pendergasts

Catching Up - Oklahoma

Greetings All,
I have been so remiss in posting and the only excuse I have is that we have been busy -- so that I don't write one long blog post, I am breaking the last almost 3 weeks up into several posts -- here goes with after leaving Topeka....

We headed to Yukon, OK to see Ryan and family in Edmond, OK (Yukon is west of OKC and about 30 mins away from Ryan's family home).  We had a nice concrete pad, shower house and pool and 50 AMP service so 2 A/C would run in our RV.

We had a great visit, headed to a really cool museum in Shawnee, OK, played with the grandkids -- Aiden had receive a magician's kit full of "magic" tricks for his birthday and sister, Reilly was a very good assistant during the shows, and during all the "practice" sessions the next few days.

We explored their neighborhood and checked out the pond for a fishing trip the next day.  Grandpa and Grandma brought the "bait" -- wriggly worms and Aiden was a great fisherman that day catching three fish. 

On our last day they visited the RV park we stayed at (Mustang Run RV Park) to see our "home" and we explored the park.  The temps were hot in OK but we had a really big storm come through on Sunday night and it wasn't too bad for a couple of days.

 Grandpa, Aiden, Reilly, Grandma          Grandpa & Aiden (back patio)

Grandpa & Reilly (back patio)

After saying good-bye on Wednesday, August 1st, we departed August 2nd for Clayton, NM half way point on our journey to South Fork, CO. 

Stay tuned for additional catch up blogs .... but it is growing late (and I am now on Mountain time, so lost a hour of sleep somewhere along the road) -- headed for bed.

Love to all,

Gypsy Susan & Darrel