Gem mining and back into the mountains

Upon waking up on the farm. We went for a nice morning walk after breakfast around the farm. We got to visit all the animals, meat goats, milk goats, haired sheep (no need for sheering) pigs and chickens. 

(meat goats, keeping an eye on us as we pass by)

(chickens that gave us some beautiful unwashed eggs. Unwashed eggs, do NOT need to be refrigerated. That's great for bus life)

(the hogs, raised for the kielbasa and breakfast sausage we will enjoy over the coming days)

After coffee/tea and our walk, then a nice morning chat with our host for the night. We hit the road once again. This time with sights set on a place to park and work at, for, hopefully 4 days.

(mountains in the distance)

As we traveled through a small town called Hiddenite, NC. We noticed a sign for an emerald mine. We decided to stop in and try our hand at rockhounding. Emerald hollow was the name of this mine. The fee was $20.⁰⁰ per person and the shovels and buckets are included in that. We went out and dug ourselves a hole and found a bunch of quartz pieces and lots and lots of red clay. We mined the hillside and then also, mined the creek bed and edges. We had a lot more fun rockhounding than expected. 

(Carmen mining the riverbanks

(Carmen mining the hillside)

(the true rockHOUND of the bunch)

(mining results)

After putting the shovels to rest and a nice late lunch in the parking lot, we continued on down the road. We arrived to camp just after sunset. Along the drive we got to see the most amazing red sky sunset beging the mountains. It was something to see let me tell you, the mountains almost had a dark blue hue that contrasted so deeply with the rich dark velvety red sky. Sadly, due to driving and obstacles in the sight line, we didn't secure any photos of the sunset I discribe. I did however get a time lapse video just before the peak time (link below). 


(sunset snapshot taken from Alice)

We are looking forward to being stationary for a while. Having some things we would like to get finished up for the upcoming "Hippies by the River" music fest. Time to get to work...thanks for tuning in!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Returning to the blog, 10 month overview

Image
I'd like to start off by apologizing for our absence. We have been very busy traveling, working, exploring and meeting all kinds of new folks along the way. The blog will now be morphing into just that, more of a blog, rather than a chronological timeline of our adventures day to day.  (southernmost point; Key West, FL) I'll begin with a general overview of our travels over the past 10 months, then go into much more detail about the individual trips and lessons learned along the road in other entries as we go. There will be blog entries about ways to travel, food, entertainment and tips and tricks for traveling as well. (Alice with the little Key deer) Being I already have your attention, I'll begin the 10 month overview now. We left off headed to the Florida keys to vend the big pine key flea market. We did exactly that and met some amazing folks there, that welcomed us to stay on property with Alice in the future. I'm looking forward to writing...
Read more

Day 24 in St. Augustine, FL

Image
A beautiful day was in the forecast so we had a quick cup of coffee at camp and headed out for a day in St. Augustine.  Michelle found some cool yarn for sale on Facebook marketplace and it was on our way to st Augustine, so we made a stop there on our way.   Map of the area Carmen has several tee shirts from A1A Alehouse, from his Mom’s travels so we stopped there first for a late breakfast/early lunch.  Michelle had her favorite meal of shrimp & grits and a Bloody Mary. Carmen had grilled shrimp and a fried polenta cake with an IPA. We then took a short walk to Dog Rose Brewing and sampled some of their beer on a flight while hanging out on the patio. Flagler College which was originally a hotel.   Carmen taking a cigar break with the other old men.  A cool shopping area with a good variety of shops, restaurants and bars.  The oldest school ...
Read more

Day 22 set up at Lake George State Forest

Image
After a quite chilly night. We woke up and got a brisk start packing things into the Jeep for our move to Lake George looking forward to this being the end of the cold snap hopefully. The drive was a quick hour and twenty minutes but when we arrived at the free camp site (reservation required) there was a couple occupying the site already and had made themselves right at home with what little they had. We agreed to move along and leave them the site, continuing on we headed to the south end of the lake for a different site with a little more traffic from the state officials. Our new location wasn't free but close. At under 9 dollars a day to have a clean portable toilet and a pump well with non potable water available and other like minded campers nearby (much better vibes here than the free site with squatters) we were happy to call this campground home for our next three days. Here are some photos of camp and a fun time lapse video of the tent setup. Thanks for tuning in. Camp mo...
Read more