March 9, 2016—-Yuma, Arizona

This morning, via our left side bedroom window which is about 6 feet off the ground, we were able to watch our neighbor, Larry, getting his gold panning supplies and setup ready “for action.”  I haven’t felt like going over for a tour of his operation, so I just sat on the bed and looked over the back fence.

He had other people there to see what he was doing, so I didn’t feel like a “Peeping Raymonda.”  I could have called out the bedroom window to ask permission, but I didn’t.  When I feel like going to see him, I will “fess up.”

It looked like an interesting hobby.  Of course I have a lot of questions to ask Larry.  Several years ago when Bill and I were driving on the trails and gullies of Quartzsite, we came upon a professional gold panning operation.  It was quite a setup and we weren’t made to feel very welcome, even though the machinery was on public land.

Two years ago we were geocaching in the Plomosa area of Quartzite.  We were at the site of an old, rather large mining group.  We didn’t trespass their operation, but on down the road at another cache, a young man stopped to see if we needed help.  He said he is one of the caretakers of the old mine and they are allowed to hunt for gold there, but no one else is allowed to hunt for gold.  We told him we were looking for “treasure” of a different kind.  He was deer hunting, but before going on his way, he told us about an old miner’s rock cabin if we went on to the end of the road.  It was very interesting to visit, but we couldn’t imagine living so remotely all those years ago.

The afternoon was spent at the rec center riding their stationery bike.  Today I upped the resistance and made the peddling more of a challenge.  Of course, all of that effort called for a trip to In-N-Out for supper!