October - Returning South - Part 2

As we headed south, we stopped and visited our friends Jan and Vinny Gaglioni, owners of Crystal Bee Supply, Peabody, MA. We use to keep Honey Bees in our early days. Jan and Vinny were our teachers and mentors when we first started the Hobby.

Heading south, we decided to go back to Ogdensburg, NJ for another visit to Sterling Hill Mining Museum. Due to the power outage on our first visit, we weren’t able to take the tour of the mine or see the mineral museum. We took lots of great pictures and here is a little sampling of what you can see – we do recommend you go if you’re in the area.

The Oreck Family (Vacuum cleaner Oreck’s) has a mineral exhibit in the museum that’s amazingly cool and extremely large. It’s the best exhibit that we’ve ever seen. (Above)
The Sterling Hill Mine is famous for the flourescent minerals show above. Sterling Hill and the Franklin Mines are now both educational based museums and the the main sources for flouresecent mineral mines in the USA . The mine is extremely deep (I think it is about 8 levels deep), but since it’s not a working mine, the mine has filled with water to within 50 feet below the main level. The water is extremely clear and the flooded passages can be seen clearly for a long way down. It’s strange to see a row boat tied on the second level (especially in a tunnel). After we left New Jersey, we went west to New York City. Yes, we have friends everywhere. Fred and Sherry Sztul invited us over for a couple of night to visit. Fred and Sherry are fellow RMHYC members and they dock their boat near us in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas. They treated us like royalty. We had a huge lunch the day we arrived and then we all went out to China Town for dinner and then over to Little Italy for dessert. The next day we went to Boynton Beach for Russian lunch to be followed by dinner cooked by Sherry. Everything was great and we look forward to seeing them in Marsh Harbour. As we headed south again, we remembered the great time we had at Cotton Patch Gold Mine so we stopped for another visit with our niece Lee Ann and of course, she was very interested in going back to mine with us. Another great day – and highly recommended good fun.
Returning to Green Cove Springs, FL in time for a Jacksonville Gem & Minerals Club Picnic and Tailgate Swap. Wilma and Dianna know the true meaning of Tailgate Party.

September - Road Trip North Part 1

In early September, Wink, Wilma and Sara the Boat Dog took a road trip north. Our first stop was Charlotte, NC where we visited with our good friend Nancy Burns. Nancy use to be Wink’s Assistant when we lived in Hernando, Mississippi and they both worked for Arkwright Mutual Insurance. Sara the boat dog enjoyed the green luscious grass on her small lake.

After saying farewell to Nancy, we went to our niece Lee Ann’s home for a few days. Lee Ann went with us the Cotton Patch Gold Mine east of Charlotte and we had a great day panning for Gold.

After leaving Charlotte, we traveled west into the Appalachian Mountains to hunt for Garnet, Rubies, and Sapphires. We accomplished our finds by digging piles of dirt and then sluicing the dirt leaving only the good stuff. We found a few gems that look interesting, but their quality cannot be confirms at this time.

From North Carolina, we traveled north to Ogdensburg, NJ to visit the Sterling Hill Mining Museum. We arrived on Wilma’s birthday, September 11th. The day was cold and rainy, but our silver lining was that we had the place all to ourselves. As we were working outside collecting rocks from the mining piles we would go inside to view them in a dark room since we were looking for fluorescent minerals. Due to the rain, the power transformer exploded so we didn’t have electric power to view our finds. Not to worry, those guys had battery operated equipment that we could use. The colors were incredible and the experience is unforgettable. Hey Girls, I asked for a big rock for my birthday and got about 150 lbs. worth. (Check out October’s Blog for more NJ pictures).
When we arrived in Derry, New Hampshire to visit the grandchildren, they had a cake and presents ready for a party.

Wilma traveled down to Massachusetts to visit with previous co-workers. In Waltham, she met up with Elaine Schoener (they use to work together at Arkwright Mutual Insurance Company). Wilma also met up with Christine and Jim Grinnell. (Wilma and Chris use to work together at Belmont Animal Hospital). Wilma also caught up with Therese and John McGuire but didn’t get a photo – sorry guys.

It was Apple picking time in New Hampshire, so we picked bushel of great tasting apples. We made Apple Crumb Pie, Apple Crisp, Apple Brownies, and more Apple Crumb Pies not to mention eating Apples.

Wink designed and built our grandchildren a new bed-bookshelf-desk combination where each child has their own desk and bookshelves on each side of the bed. Amber demonstrates her side of the bed. She calls her desk area her office, while Emma calls her area “the Fort”. Toni wasn’t left out; Wink designed and built her a desk to accommodate her needs for completing her college studies. Wilma was able to get the girls furniture painted, but was unable to get Toni’s painted.
Since we were in New Hampshire for early October, we decided to take a little trip into the White Mountains to enjoy the foliage. Toni’s father has a cabin up there and we were able to stay a couple of days touring and enjoying the colors. Wilma and Emma enjoy a Pajama night in the White Mountains. While site seeing, Wilma, Toni and Amber enjoyed an art festival; and Wink found an interesting Train Museum. The colors were brilliant and beautiful, but alas the cold weather told us to head south.