There Be GOLD In 'Em Those Hills

Jeff took Kent today, to the Bradshaw mountains, outside of Prescott, at Lynx Creek. There was 108,000 ounces of gold, taken out from that creek, back in the hay day. That would be, Holy moly guacamole. The two of them spent most of the day, panning for gold, with new pans purchased from Cal-Ranch. It was apparently, labor intense today, but there was some success! Kent found some gold! He found many small pieces of gold, and as you can imagine...excitement level, HIGH. After many hours of panning, Jeff took Kent to dinner, at the Red Robin. Talk about a great day for those two! Jeff took some pictures, of Mr. Kent, at work, on Lynx Creek. Pretty classic and absolutely adorable. 

Alamo Lake State Park

What a wonderful weekend! We needed this camping getaway, like nobody's business! After school ended on Friday, we got on the road. Destination...Alamo State Park. Distance...4 1/2 hours away. We arrived Friday night, around 8:30, at our perfect pull-thru site. It felt so great getting in our trailer again. We started a little fire that night, to unwind and enjoy the chilly desert air. The next morning, Jeff and I woke up before the sun, to watch the sunrise. Can't tell you how special and beautiful that was, and to spend that quiet moment (well, besides hearing the burros out there heehawing and all), with Jeff. I took pictures. We had our coffee by the fire. Mornings we used our propane fire pit, and evening we had big wood fires. Saturday we explored the Alamo Lake and it's surroundings. Checked out the funny "Wayside" Inn and cafe, that was seriously taken right out of the movie "Tremors!" A crack up! The Sonoran desert is so alive and lush. There are apparently lots and lots of wild burros out there (we heard them usually in the mornings and evenings). Jeff actually got to see a burro, while he was out riding in a wash, with his dirt bike. I was a little jealous about that! We really enjoyed just spending the day near our campsite, and Jeff was a happy camper, getting to ride the dirt bike all over the OHV trails. Good times. Sunday we took a healthy drive, to one of our favorite ghost towns, Swansea. Hadn't been there since before kids, so it felt great to be back. We noticed lots of improvements, with added signs informing us, what foundation or ruins of one, we were looking at. There's are these safety cages all over the open mine tunnels...THOSE are some of my favorite things to look at, in the deep, long, dark tunnels, going straight into the earth beneath me, created by men, in the search for gold. It's this whole fear thing, but exciting as well. When we were standing on the cages, my legs would seriously get rubbery and my stomach in little knots; but seeing our kids walking on those screened cages?! Wow. Brave little buggers. Curly was terrified, and didn't want anywhere near the cages over the mine shafts. Swansea is one of those ghost towns, extremely isolated and one amazing trek on a rocky, steep road going in and out of town. It's an adventure and a great one! When we returned back to camp, dinner was eaten, and a big ol' fire was burning in the pit. It was time to sit, relax, and eat marshmallows. Lots of them. Lots and lots of marshmallows. Maybe it was just Mommy that ate lots and lots of marshmallows ;-) Love those things and we only eat them when we go camping! We had a slow, enjoyable morning, of having coffee, breakfast, by the fire. Jeff took the dirt bike out one more time, before we had to load up, and roll out by check out, at noon. A great weekend, indeed.