We hit the road this morning 6 minutes ahead of schedule. I think Randy must have been camped out in Rick's driveway - there was no way he was going to be late this time!
We have made excellent time on this trip - thanks to Rick's utter and total disregard for speed limits, we have made the trip in 5-1/2 hours as opposed to the usual 7 hours.
Lots of construction sites up this way... but for a change, we didn't stop at any of them - we're on a mission!!
Rick has his "Lucky Relic" hanging from his mirror, now. Every now and then, he reaches over, with his broken arm, and strokes it a few times whispering "my precious" or something like that. Oh yeah, did I mention that Rick managed to break his wrist a few weeks ago... apparently he fell out of his bass boat in is driveway. Fortunately, it's not his huntin' hand. It is interesting to see somebody drive on the interstate at 80 MPH, with one hand in a cast - stroking a piece of brass junk, while texting on his Blackberry.
The gauntlet has been thrown down for best find of the trip ... the kitty is another heavy one - $5 per person! I really feel bad about taking their money, but if they're willing to give it up, I'm willing to accept it. Lot's of big talk going on this morning during the ride, don't you know. Rick and I had a side bet for $1 for first minie ball - and when we headed into the field, we were both simultaneously digging our first bullet within 10 minutes... Rick got his out first (I think it may have been a shallow one), so he got the $1 bill.
However, the magic-mojo rule of metal detecting applies even in Virginia - If you get out of the car and find something right away, give up, go back to the car and call it a day - you ain't gonna find nothin' else!
Yup, it was a rough day, it seems the field we've been waiting to get into has been hammered pretty hard. To make matters worse, it's really dry here, which makes digging and discriminate-depth a real problem. We each got a few bullets out of it, and Randy and I got a 1/2" iron case shot or two, but other than that, we didn't do very well. To add insult to injury, Bill was told by a land-manager of a nearby farm that there were some large plowed areas we could hunt in some key areas. When we arrived, it became clear that there is not a square foot of land much anywhere that doesn't have a crop on it!!! The local farmers have planted an unusally late crop, fence to fence, in order to try to take advantage of the high corn and soybean prices... it's going to be difficult to find a place to hunt, now!!! We actually saw corn planted on a big flat rock today! Over 2 thousand acres of land to hunt on, and we can't hunt any of it.
So, over dinner tonight, we discussed plans "B" and "C" and so on. We've got some ideas, but it is going to take some driving around, some tricky permissions, and a lot of luck. We're all a bit discouraged right now, but we shall "endeavor to persevere".
Dig-it!