Sunday July 24
Sunday July 24 is our last day on our trip. Scott packs up and I head across the street to Herkimer Diamonds with the girls to begin mining. It is still very humid and we are not well prepared for mining. We scrounge up 3 pairs of gloves and end up buying 3 pairs of safety goggles for mining. They give out hammers when you get your tickets. The girls and I watch a 20 minute video that shows the best ways to look for diamonds (which are actually double terminated quartz crystals). The video makes me think there are lots of diamonds out there and we will easily find some. My luck was such that I did not find any diamonds. Lexi found many by looking on the ground and picking up the shiny objects. Isabella and Scott (who joined us shortly after we started- he didn’t need to see the movie) found their diamonds by using their hammers and smacking rocks that they thought might have diamonds in them- based on having lots of hollow spots.
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| Searching for Diamonds |
After a few hours we gave up this endeavor due to the heat and humidity. The entire time we are there, a few professional miners are under tarps sorting through debris, looking for diamonds. I can’t imagine making a living doing this, esp. with the luck I had. We take our finding to the store and return our hammers. Scott’s finding is the most impressive and a staff member believes they might be worth about $4! All that work for $4. We take a look at the huge diamonds on display and decide to purchase a specimen for Dad’s collection. These diamonds are highly referred all over the world, especially in China and Japan. We have a quick lunch and head Home.
The girls are so excited to be getting so close to home and on this travel day, ask us several times, whether we have crossed into VT or NH yet. We stop at Hogback Mountain for a bathroom break and visit a gift shop and have an ice cream. We had stopped at the same spot on our way to NY at the beginning of our trip but you couldn’t see across the road, much less the gorgeous view from this building. On this trip, we are not using the bathroom in the camper (since we won’t be dumping it again until we go camping and no trips out are planned until Labor Day weekend) so we have to plan our stops better.
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| Where are the diamonds? |
The girls just about jump out of their seats when we hit the NH border. We make plans to get Chinese food for dinner and get a little extra so the Tanguays can have dinner with us. They can’t wait to see friends. While Scott gets Chinese food I run and get milk and bread to get us through breakfast. The house looks so nice when we get home. Obviously Dennis had mowed recently and everything is green. Inside we are greeted by Welcome Home Bakers sign which the Tanguays have colored and put pictures of most of the attractions we stopped to see. Also there is a big pile of mail for me. After a short visit and promises that the kids can get together soon (tomorrow), the girls climb into their own beds in their own bedrooms. We all sleep well.
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