Texas Here We Come!

On October 1st Margaret & I will pack up the Camry and head South. We haven't seen Ryan Pedee, our 3rd grandson (good going Jason) since we were at his baptism in May. Jason says that he is growing like crazy. Last I heard he was around 14 lbs. Being that he is almost 6 months old he's probably doing neat things like laughing and holding his head up to observe his surrounding. Andie said that Ryan is starting to get a bump gums possibly his first tooth.

Because we a driving this time and not flying we are trying to come up with things to do along the way. So far we plan on stopping in Kentucky to explore a few caves near Mammoth Cave. That area of the country is loaded with limestone caves.

After tending to our bruised arms and sore legs from climbing around the caves we head West to Tunica Mississippi, which is 20 miles south of Memphis. Why you ask would anyone go to Tunica ? Tunica my friend is the 3rd largest gambling area in the United States next to Las Vegas and Atlantic City. There are 9 casinos spread along the Mississippi River. All gambling has to be on water, so all the casinos are floating barges anchored to the shore. We were there last year and thanks to Margaret's comps we will be sleeping in a FREE room. It happens to be behind the furnace in the maintenance building, but free is free.

When we were returning from a visit with Allan & Margie in Houston back in the middle eighties with the kids, we were trying to come up with a place to stop and stretch to break up the driving. We found this park in Arkansas where the kids could look for real diamonds.

The Crater of Diamonds State Park is an 911 acre Arkansas State Park situated over an eroded lamproite volcanic pipe. The park is open to the public and, for a small fee, rockhounds and visitors can dig for diamonds and other gemstones. Park visitors find more than 600 diamonds each year of all colors and grades. Over 25,000 diamonds have been found in the crater since it became a state park. Visitors may keep any gemstone they find regardless of its value. The crater itself is a 37 1/2 acre plowed field. It is periodically plowed to bring the diamonds and other gemstones to the surface.

On the way to visit the Texas Pedees a couple of years ago Margaret & I stopped again to try our hand at searching for the allusive 20 carat diamond or anything that looked like a diamond. It was very romantic. It happened to be February 14th. Valentines Day. What better way to finish out the day than to find a diamond for your sweetie. I could say it was a beautiful day. Reality check, it was February in rural Arkansas, it had been snowing and raining for weeks. The field where you allowed to look was a large mud pit. I happened to have my boots and they were covered in primordial mud. Anticipating that we would be going to the park, my dad made up a couple of sifters to sift the soil and have that raw diamond pop up. How are you suppose to sift thick gooey mud? We got there late in the day so I didn't have much time to prospect. I may try it again this year. I think October will be a better month than February.

If anybody has any suggestions of things to do & see between Toledo and Austin via I75,I65,I40 & I30 Nashville /Dallas route I'd be interested in hearing from you. You can email me at dragonfly1947@yahoo.com.