Digging to China

We took a little trip up to Quartzsite for one last look at the gold mining that has taken place this winter.  We saw lots of holes that had been dug.  It was amazing how big and deep some guys had dug.   We zipped up there in a rental car.  Our truck is still in the shop taking more than the one full day they said it would take.   At least they agreed to pay the extra rental car days especially since we had to keep the car over a weekend. 

We are pretty well packed up and ready to start traveling.  Just going to get the rig washed before we leave and I do have to work up until we leave.  The weather up north doesn't look to inviting yet and its hard to believe we will be at our new summer job in three weeks.  We will be keeping a close eye on the weather as we start to travel.

Two Weeks Notice

We are enjoying the beautiful weather and beautiful flowers here in Yuma while we can.  We plan to leave here around April 2nd.  We have been getting everything ready for travel and have discovered some major issues with the truck.  We are replacing, batteries, vacuum hoses, the main radiator and adding more fuel filters and having the exhaust system worked on and that's not really all it needs.  There is another very minor leak that will need to be fixed eventually but it can wait.  Needless to say the truck is ten years old and needs some attention but mileage and engine wise it still has a long life.  So we figure its worth putting the money into it.

The RV is doing ok but needs to have the faded decals taken off and a new clear coat put on which is really just cosmetic.  The rubber roof however needs to be recoated but we would really like to have the rubber roof removed and the new spray on roof put on which is like the stuff they spray in truck bedliners.  Its supposed to last longer than the RV will and won't get holes poked in it.  All it takes is money!

Senator Wash

One of the areas we like to go out and do gold prospecting is called the Potholes.  It's on the California side of the Colorado River.  When we are out there we can see Senator Wash.  That's the blue water that you see in the picture.  Senator Wash is just a little dammed up part of the Colorado River.   People like to camp out in this area.  There is no electricity and you have to have water on board your rig.  Most people have solar panels or generators for power while they stay out here. 

The potholes area is full of old and new gold claims.   You have to be careful that you're not claim jumping.  There are claim posts all over the place -- like the one in the picture.   We didn't have any luck finding gold the last time we were out there.  When we were leaving the area we stopped and talked to some guys that were working on a claim.  We asked them if there was any secret to knowing where to dig.  They said that the gold was just in little pockets and not very deep.  They use a power drill (it looked like a powered ice augur) and drill down and try to find the pockets of gold.  Hmmmm
so many tools you can buy to find gold.