Not my weekend
I only get to go out for a couple of hours on weekend mornings. Saturday morning: went to nearby wading beach to try out my new water machine (used Stingray II); second time I've used it and couldn't get it to work, just made a continuous noise (later, when I had time to look at it, figured out that I had disconnected a ribbon cable when changing the battery); then went to my favorite local beach but couldn't find a place to park because they were having a surfing festival so I parked about a mile way and hiked in, but the crowd was so huge where I wanted to go that I had to work the fringes only; found a couple of bucks and right when I was giving up for the day met up with a guy who was rigging up to start hunting with his Excalibur with a 15" coil...told me about all the gold he'd found (I know when I'm outgunned...kinda took me down a peg after my recent encounters with the guy who was hunting the beach with a Garrett ATS (70's vintage???) and a hand rake, or the guy with a Lone Star and a plastic colander, or the guy with a Harbor Freight 9-Function (well, he did have a scoop). I guess (with an F5) I fall somewhere in the middle and am not King of the Beach after all LOL.
Then today, back to the wading beach with the functioning Stingray. Hadn't noticed before how slimy and disgusting the stagnant water there is...I went in to shin depth for a while (didn't find a single target) but no way would I ever swim in that noisome, polluted slime. Then onto the wealthy local beach, scene of one of my best-ever finds (gold ring with Isle of Man gold coin) back in the day...couldn't find anything but kelp, and a quarter, and a penny. I insist on a dollar a day if humanly possible so finished off at a nearby school, picking targets amongst the F5's EMI falsing. Well, I did find a wheatie (at a school that is likely not 15 years old so no silver potential) so that's my high note for the day.
This after being run off a school yard last week by a government worker who apparently suffers from an unhealthy obsession with crabgrass cultivation.
But next week is another week. I set myself a goal of making this my biggest year ever in terms of clad value (next year we move from California to Texas and my whole mode of operation, if any, will be different) and so far I have exceeded my monthly goal every month including July. I'm expecting great things next week. But I'm staying away from that guy with the Excal.
