adventure time!

Last weekend was fun in that I got to do something I've wanted to do for ages.  On Saturday,  Blair, Matt, ATM & I drove a couple of hours over to Murfreesboro, Arkansas to try our luck at Crater of Diamonds State Park.  I was SO excited about this adventure that I went ahead & purchased some boots that I've had my eye on for some time.

It was a mild & sunny day, perfect for soaking up vitamin D.  The park is not really much to look at:

So, here's the deal: you can walk about to see if you can spot a diamond on the surface or you can put some of that good earth in a bucket and sift it through water in a trough.  What you should have left in your sieve, if done properly, is gravel.  You sort through that gravel for diamonds and other goodies like amethyst & quartz crystal, and pretty rocks.

ATM:

We'd gone right after a heavy rain.  Apparently, dirt does not stick to diamonds and the rain puts them to surface, so I tried looking for diamonds just laying about.  No luck.

Here's Matt, doing all the hard, dirty work.  Blair & I supervised and talked to this real nice fella named John from Minnesota.  He came all the way down to Arkansas to find his gal a diamond, which is really sweet of him, if you're into that sort of thing.

Blair + ATM going through the gravel:

Boot rinse area:

So, even though we didn't find anything, I bagged some of the gravel (you can take up to a 5 gallon bucket home to sort through at your leisure) to use for my succulent plants back home.  Before I threw them in the pots, I decided to go ahead and go through it:

I can't be sure that I found a diamond, but I found something.  It is so sparkly + shiny, especially when compared to a bit of crystal:

I'm pretty happy about this find, even if it turns out to be nothing.  Might even be a piece of glass!  I suppose if I ever return to the park, I can have someone there identify it for me.  Unless one of y'all know.

I've never been to Murfreesboro, but I'd like to go back to try to dig for gems once more (it takes a good hour to sort out exactly what you're doing and what you're looking for, but I can get right to it next time) and check out the thrift stores of that small town.  I have a feeling that there may be some big scores there.

We rounded out the afternoon by getting supper at Rattler's Den.  We totally picked that restaurant because of it's name & because we'd heard about their chicken fried steak.  It was shockingly good.  Here is my brown & white dinner, in all it's splendor: