A Women's best friend

A Women's best friend Crater of Diamonds State Park, AR

Crater of Diamonds State Park, AR Diamonds are forever, or so the song goes….. Ann Marie has wanted to go the Crater of Diamonds State Park, in Murfreesboro, Arkansas for years… So we are here ! Very nice campground, wooded, sites are large enough for our home, but we are in bum f**** Egypt. No over the air tv, no wifi, 1 bar of Verizon, 1 bar of ATT, and no satellite because of all the trees.. Makes for very quiet days and nights……. Tuesday morning we headed out to strike it rich at 0800. We have our 5 gal bucket and my old army entrenching tool (shovel). $16 bucks to get in and we rent a sifting screen to sluice, and off we go into 37 acres of plowed up mud and dirt, looking for something “shiny”. Were told that at least 2 diamonds a day are found and they average the size of a paper match head or smaller…. ok, well… that should be a piece of cake, I’m glad I brought a 5 gal bucket. So there are 3 ways to “Hunt” for diamonds:

1. The slow-walker method, just walk up down the mud with your head down, and the sun behind your shoulders so you can see the shiny stuff (counter intuitive to us Army folks, ain’t no discharge on the ground…) Dirt does not stick to a diamond, making a sunny day after a heavy rain an ideal time to go diamond hunting. 2. If the ground is wet, shovel up some dirt in the bucket and carry it across the dirt and mud to one of the four sluice troughs, so you can sift the dirt out in water, to reveal that big ole diamond…or just play in the water and talk to the other “professional diamond “miners”… 3. If the ground is dry, find a spot in the dirt and sit your butt down, shovel and sift the dirt until your hearts content or you just pass out from the heat…. Day one—So at the end of day one, we spent 4 1/2 hours in the 98 degree heat, sluiced 4 buckets of dirt, walked allot, and found nothing “shiny”, except of some broken coke bottle glass, and a piece of quartz. The ground was still wet from a rain the day before but there was nothing to be seen. This turned out to be a lot of work, and we were wore out by the time we got home. Showers, clean clothes, and Tylenol were in order…. .. Day two—we decided no sluicing today. So we slow-walked for 3 hours. At the end of “our” day, I did find an interesting patch of “shiny” specks through some green dirt. Finally I see something “shiny” in a isolated patch of green soil. Green soil is a good sign!! There are just a few patches of green soil, and to me was to to distinguish green dirt from all the other dirt! I sat my butt (method 3) there for a while and was kind of excited about it, but only specs of shiny flakes. I started day dreaming of finding a huge stone and having it mounted to give to my wife….The sun was a scorcher ……..and started to wear me down, so I “marked” the spot so we could return tomorrow to dig it up and find the elusive prize….Showers, clean cloths, Tylenol , and beer were in order……
Day three– no diamond hunting for us today. Instead Ann Marie defrosted the fridge, washed clothes, and cleaned house. I washed both sides of the main awning, washed and waxed the front and rear cap, lubed the rubber seals around all the slide outs, silicone the awning arms and the steps. We grilled a couple rib eyes, had mushrooms and onions, carrots, and loaded baked potato. Man that was good. Then we went to the post office to mail a box. Hope I can listen to the game tonight, as we have no tv…..beer time. Day four. One more try to get the elusive diamond. We sat and sifted the dirt and walked the rows. Nothing, nada, zip. So when the temperature reached 95 degrees it was time to go and say good bye to the Crater of Diamonds Mine. Three times and we struck out so for now we mark this off on our bucket list. Maybe in a few years we will be back. Tomorrow we are off to Vicksburg Mississippi for a Cedar Creek Rally.

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