Well Every one it is Monday and time to fill you all in on the great outing down at Don and Jerries claim outside of Harper Oregon.
We took off from Aberdeen at about 5:30 in the morning Friday and headed south. We had a great drive down and the weather and traffic were clear. We hit Vale Oregon about 6 p.m. and Livy called to say they were about an hour behind us. We hit the desert and arrived at the camping site at about 8:30 to meet Don and Jerry who were waiting on us. Just about the time we were getting the trailer parked Dave and Livy pulled in. We set the trailer and My tent and Dave and Livy's tent and got to the important stuff of sharing stones. Don and Jerry had already done quite a bit of exploring and had a pile of goodies to show. Dave and Livy had brought along some of their recent cut and polished stones and we all drooled a bit over them. I only brought down one piece to show which was a carnelian hearted jasper ball. we sat and visited and watched the meteors over head for a short time then we all turned in for some needed sleep. The morning was crisp and clear. We fired up the coffee and broke out the donuts to get ourselves loaded for the digging to come,,lol. John and Thomas Thurman's nephew Chis went to do a quick explore of the creek bed next to camp. After that we got started unloading Dave and Livy's Quad for the days exploring. While this was being done Chris shared his creek finds with Jerry and Don and Livy and Dave. While this was all going on I took the opportunity to grab a camp picture. Which also shows the beauty of our location. And Of course a great shot of the most important and popular tent of the camp,,lol Which of course was located very much down wind. We loaded up the digging gear and headed up to the main pit first to do a little warm up digging. Livy had the first find up there. She found a desert frog hiding in the cool rabble on the pit floor. We worked the pit and found lots of great Eggs till about noon when we headed back to camp for a short rest and lunch break. We had already uncovered a lot of material and Thomas and his nephew Chris uncovered a large deposit of Eggs on the pit floor that yielded a great double for him to bring home. After lunch we headed out to a few other parts of the claim and did some exploratory digging and gathered another good amount of Eggs. the weather was hot and clear and the view around us as we dug was great. I wandered down to the thermal vent area and gathered about twenty pounds of Agate material and some obsidian to bring home. We all had such a good time digging and visiting and laughing the day flew by. Pretty soon it was time to head to camp for grub and relaxing After a fashionable meal of Dutch Oven chili by Don and Lasagna By Stouffers and other treats it was time to build a fire and grub on S'mores provided by Dave and Livy. Unfortunately my sugar was not right so I didn't get to enjoy that part. However every one else did and it was great. We talked and watched the stars and meteors for a bit and headed to bed. Sunday came just as clear and crisp as the day before and the coffee was just as welcome. We visited a bit then Thomas and John and myself and the boy's loaded up to head out for the long drive home. We had a good safe trip back and no traffic trouble at all.
I would highly advise any one who wants learn about Thunder Eggs and have a great time while doing it to go down to Don and Jerries claim for an outing. Don is a very down home type of guy and ready and willing to share his knowledge and experience with everyone. He is really helpful to those just learning. He always works real hard to make sure alot of Eggs are found. Every one had all the treasure they wanted and the camaraderie was unbeatable. I will end with a couple of pics of what we brought home and post more pics in the gallery. By TallTomSr