Grandma's recess: Another day at the diamond mine

“Is that all, y’all?,” asked the young store clerk. You know that you are in a different country when you are in Arkansas, y’all.

My turn in the picture

We were up and at ‘em early today and out the door by 9:30 a.m. and headed back to Crater of Diamonds (I noticed today that there is no “the” in the name) to once again seek our fortune.

This time we left behind all the screens, buckets and shovels and just hoped that with a bright sunshine we might catch a glint from a 14-carat diamond sitting on the ground. So we walked the 37-acre crater for more than three hours and found nothing more than a few more pieces of quartz.

Oh, and a couple of plastic gems that some joker probably left on the ground to get some Yankee excited when they stumbled on these huge gemstones. Well joker, if you are reading, it worked but only for a second.

Joan searching for a diamond in a haystack

We spent some time looking through the diamond museum and Joan got to look at what is called the “World’s Only Perfect Diamond” which was found here in the rough, cut to perfection and is now on display.

Joan’s comment: “If I found that diamond, the only place it would be on display is on my finger.”

After touring the museum and gift shop, where amazingly they don’t sell real diamonds but giant fake ones, we went outside and had lunch on a picnic table.

The 'diamonds' we found

We drove to a small .2-mile trail in the park that advertised a “wildlife blind” but after sitting quietly in the blind for about 30 minutes we realized that we had only seen a butterfly and a moth so we abandoned the blind.

Next we headed to an ancient Native American village – Ka Do Ha – which is a series of mound dwellings that date to the year 1000 AD. At $8 a head it was a little pricey for the offering, but we were here and had a couple hours to kill so we went.

The mounds and the fake skeletal remains in the excavated tombs were very interesting to see. The real bones had been buried on Native American land in accordance with laws respecting the ancient rights and sensitivity of Native American people.

They also had a tilled up field where you could hunt for arrowheads and pottery shards – “Finders – Keepers” we were told – but we pretty much exhausted our interest in searching through dirt and mud over at Crater of Diamonds.

A quick spin through the gift shop which we escaped without buying any moccasins or Indian dolls.

Then it was off to the bank – Diamond Bank – to grab a roll of quarters so that we could do our laundry in preparation for ending the trip and heading back home.

We returned to our trailer, Joan did the laundry and then we headed out to do a little shopping, fuel the car for the trip tomorrow and grab and pizza and chicken wings for dinner in our shack. We got the pizza and wings at “Simple Simon’s” which is a chain down here.

One of the things we noticed is that a lot of things have the word “Diamond” in their name, which is obvious. What is amazing is that the real gold – or diamonds – in “them thar hills” is related to the businesses who trade on the tourists who come here to mine – and mostly not find – diamonds.

Replica skeleton in excavated mound burial pit

We enjoyed our three days here and this very nice park, but are ready to move on.

On another note, we heard rumors that there was some big election yesterday, but from our isolated, non-connected electronic world you’d never know it here. But someone did tell us that the guy who was President, is still President and that Congress is pretty much the same as it was on Monday.

To the victor goes the gridlock, I always say.

If you are a praying person, I would offer up for your prayers my son William who suffered a low sugar episode today and could use some healing. Pray for his mother also who is dealing with this in California.

Scroll down for a few more photos from today's adventure.