For $15.00 they’ll give you a pair of tweezers and a wash table to find your fortune!

With our garnets safely deposited with Wells Fargo, we end the day with ribs, steak, margaritas, and friends!

Hot Dog looks like she hit the Mother Load! We’re rich!

After a 2 minute course in garnet mining, Charlotte looks like she’s been doing it for years!

Well, after sleeping the sleep of the innocent, I was up at 5:30 local time making my first cup of coffee and getting our trip log updated.  After an hour or two the little missus was up and we were ready for our next cup of coffee and visiting with our hostess Peggy Riggs.

With everyone wide awake and rested from a great night’s sleep, we headed out to Yellowstone and some of the sites Peggy wanted to show us.  The girls and I took our swimsuits and when we pulled up at Chico Hot Springs, we were in for a surprise!  It was a really nice little set up!  I decided not to go in.  I felt that one of us should sit at one of the tables by the pool and drink a cold beverage while acting as lifeguard for the rest of the crew.  Since neither of the girls volunteered, I reluctantly took the job on myself.  The pool was nice and divided into two sections.  In one end there was a wall with little gates that would allow water to pass from the end where the hot water came straight out of the thermal springs and mix with cold water coming from the river.  The water coming from the hot springs was so hot that Charlotte said she almost felt uncomfortable in it. (That means it was probably about 211 degrees.)  She is very cold natured!

They swam and soaked for about six beverages and then they were ready to eat a light lunch.  I was not that hungry so I just ordered something to drink.

After leaving Chico, Peggy took us to this place where you could buy a 10 or 25 pound bag of garnet-bearing sludge.  This is the stuff they pull out of a deposit known to have garnet stones in it and bag it up and let you sit there at a table with some tweezers, a wash box and sift and sort the bag of material for garnets.  It sounded like fun so we paid our $15.00 and got a 10 lb. bag of sludge.  It ws kinda like playing the slots with a pair of tweezers and a bag of mud.  Would you believe we found 3 garnet stones of over 6 cts. in weight?  We are leaving two to be cut by the gemologist.  We were told they would turn out to be about 1.5 ct. each after they were cut and ready to mount.  So we will be taking back two real live garnet stones to be mounted in another piece o

Charlotte enjoyed the 211 dregree “warm” water!

f jewelry.  So I am estimating the final cost of this adventure could go over $500 with mountings!  What a deal!

We finished up the day down at the Rib and Chop Steak House here in Livingston for another great filet.  The weather is so beautiful; we sat outside and ate while the girls drank some great margaritas.  What a good way to finish the day!