Losers Can Be Winners!

El Dorado Mine

The last few weeks have been busy. A group from our campground decided to drive about 30 miles south of Boulder City to Nelson and tour the El Dorado Mine. Mining in this area began around 1850 and continued until WWII when the mines were closed to divert resources to the war effort. Early on the area was referred to as Techatticup. This was the Indian word for hungry. Local Indians would come into the area asking for food. Miners would show them pieces of quartz (an indicator of gold) and offer to trade them food if they would show them where the quartz could be found. 

While we were there, Ginny considered the
purchase of a new RV & truck rig

The El Dorado mine was one of the richest mines in the area producing millions of dollars of gold, silver, lead and copper. 
In some places the tunnels of the mine stack one on top of another to a depth of over 400'. The area was so remote there was little if any law to be found and the area became quite ruthless. At one point there were 3 owners of the mine and the day after the discovery of a large gold deposit, 2 of the owners died of strychnine poisoning.....one of those things that make you go hmmmmm!


The process of extracting the precious minerals from the ore involved crushing the ore, then making it into a slurry where the gold & silver would actually rise to the top of the mix and be skimmed off, before being poured into molds forming dore (pronounced dory) bars. The remaining slurry was then dumped out onto the ground. As a result the entire area in and around the mine has a thick layer of discolored soil. An entrepreneur has approached the current mine owners and is proposing to scrape off several feet of the discolored soil and process it to extract more gold. This could be a lucrative endeavor.

Barb, Joan, Ginny, Don, Bill & Steve
But that's not all. Look way back in the tunnel and you
can see the ghost of one of the mine owners!

The current owners are working hard to preserve the history of the mine and surrounding area by bringing in and displaying all types of artifacts and memorabilia. They are also working to document stories and histories about the mines and the people who worked and lived here. If you ever get the chance to visit, it's well worth the trip. And there are even tales of ghosts in the mines that appear in numerous pictures taken during the mine tour.



We've taken the jeep out a couple of times and shared some of the views we get during our volunteer job with other co-workers. This pic was taken at the intersection of AR70A & 70B; 2 roads that run along the 'spine' of 2 ridges just east of Hoover Dam. From this point you can proceed further along the mountain spine to an abandoned mining area. Or just turn around and enjoy the view of Kingman Wash, the new bridge across the Colorado at the dam, or Boulder City.

We also hooked up with Chris & Leslie, RVNomads2Too to take a short off-road drive & hike down to the Colorado River downstream of the dam. We may get to spend more time with Chris and Leslie as they are considering volunteering here at Lake Mead.



After a good follow up appointment with my cardiologist, I was given the 'green light' to return to normal activities without restrictions. Joan and I left the doctor's office and drove to Palm Springs, California. I was playing in a softball tournament there that weekend and we wanted to visit our friends Dave & Maxine of Wandering Wingers fame. On Friday we drove over the mountains from Palm Springs to Aguanga, CA and spent the day at their Jojoba Hills SKP park. Very nice! One of the topics we discussed was our summer job for 2015, working for an engineering firm 'inventorying' BLM back country roads in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. We told them about our friends Jim & Barb, Jim and Barb's RV Adventure who would be working with us this summer. After a great late lunch in Temecula we headed back to Palm Springs.

Check out the area just left
 of the light post in the outfield

Saturday morning arrived full of promise and fun as we headed over to The Big League Dreams Sports Park in Cathedral City. Big League Dreams parks are complexes that create replica fields of places like Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, etc. On Saturday we played all our games at Fenway. We lost all 3 seeding games and ended up seeded last in our bracket. As we were in between games we spotted a very large unique aircraft landing in Palm Springs, Air Force One. 

LVSSA Raiders

Sunday we played our 1st game at 7:30am in Yankee Stadium. We won! And we won the next 2. That put us in the winners bracket. Now we had to wait for the top contender to win their way out of the loser's bracket. We played our 4th game of the day (7th of the weekend) at 5PM against one of the teams we lost to on Saturday. We ended up winning the game 19-0 to win the tournament. Never give up!

One afternoon we decided to stop by Southwest Diner, one of our favorite eateries in Boulder City and a Diners, Drive In and Dive location. And who should we see out on the patio....none other than Danny Koker of Count's Kustoms & Counting Cars. Joan used all her womanly wiles to woo him into a picture.














And 1 final picture of Joan and her birthday cake prepared by our boss Joseph! Thank You Joseph,,,,it was great!


That's it for now. Stay Tuned. More to Come