Harry Rhoades

russau;

     Thank you.  I’m glad you enjoy it.  I’ll try to keep from turning it into a diary and get too boring with the updates. riverrunner814;      Thanks, I can use it.        I’m having to change vehicles.  It’s getting to be a bit too much for these ole’ southern bones to sleep in this sub-urban with the temperatures dropping into the mid 20s at night.  Besides the back of this thing has ridges or something in it and it’s giving my back and other parts of my anatomy ruffles.  To say the least.  Maybe in the next update I’ll be in something that when I wake up I won’t be wiping icicles off my eyelids so I can see or having to jump up and run out to the back of my trailer and open it so I can get to my porta-potty at 1 or 2 in the morning.  Brrrrrrrrrr that seat is Cooolldd.  I also hope I’ll have some good news about prospecting.  Y’all take care now.  GOD bless.  Later.                                                                                                                            HarryHey Folks;       Sorry I’ve been so long in getting back to you, I’ve been a bit preoccupied with this new used RV I just got.  Had to dip into my savings that I was going to use to put down on property when I got to the end of my trip but I didn’t use it all so I still have a little to work with. Hey Grumps;      I’m glad you’re enjoying the trip.  At least from now on it won’t be quite so cold.  I just won’t be able to go a lot of places I would have been able to in the sub-urban. Hey MOUSE;      Thanks for the advice but my back doesn’t hurt as bad now plus I don’t get nearly as cold in this RV. 

Y’all take care now.  GOD bless.  Later.

                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                          Harry

 P.S. Now for another update.                                                                                                                          Harry

Hey Folks;

      I was really hoping to have some really good news for you this time but as fate would have it, or rather the ONE who controls fate would have it.  It wasn’t to be.  I had all the sub 30-degree weather these ole southern bones could handle so I went out and found me a cheep RV.  It cost me my vehicle and my trailer and a little money to boot, but it’s big enough to carry everything and still keep most of the chill off when the temp gets down in the 20s.  I spent a few nights in it in Hatch, N.M. while the money was being transferred from my bank to theirs so I could get the title and tag without having to have it sent to me somewhere.  Well today, Mon. the 28^th I got the title and went down to the DMV to register it and get my tag and guess what, the place was closed through Tue.  So I went back to the place I bought the RV from and let them do a few finishing touches and finally headed toward Hillsboro.  I was thinking, finally I get to do what I came to this area for.  Well remember what I said about fate.  Just as I turned of I-25 onto 152 the @$^$$#!*^^&* (explicative +++) thing backfired on me.  I thought maybe just blowing out some carbon or something after setting up for a while.  Well, just before getting into Hillsboro you have to go over a few hills.  I was sick Saturday and that engine made me look like the picture of health by comparison.  I didn’t think I was going to make it. 

 

     I finally got into Hillsboro, barely, and had to go all the way through the town to get to where the rock shop is that I was told about.  I pulled into the parking lot and after going back through the RV and picking everything up off the floor that I didn’t nail down before I left, I got out and went to the door of the rock shop only to find a sign on the door that said gone of vacation until the 15^th of Jan.  Bummer, what next. 

 

     The answer was soon coming when I tried to contact the place where I bought the RV to tell them what was going on with the engine.  No cell phone access, no Internet access and nobody home in the rock shop so I could use their phone.  That meant that I had to drive all the way back to I-25 intersection before I could contact anyone.  So, that’s what I did.  With the engine spitting and sputtering and coughing and missing and backfiring all the way down the hills till I got to somewhat level road.  And, it still acted up when I got to a stretch of road where I could accelerate.  So, now I’m sitting back in Hatch, N.M. waiting for the place to open tomorrow where they can find out what’s wrong with it and let me know when I’ll be able to get back on the road again.  Time will tell.

      Well, it’s three days later and I’m sitting in a cheep campground in Hatch, N. M.  The shop man at the RV Dealership checked out my engine, changed out a few things and said he couldn’t figure it out because he didn’t have the equipment to check it out thoroughly and sent me to a garage in Garfield, about 12 miles down the road, that does a lot of work for them.  I got there just in time to spend the night sitting in my RV at the shop so they could get to it first thing in the morning.  They adjusted the carburetor, changed plug wires, hooked up vacuum hoses, checked the compression on a few cylinders and said your good to go.  Their diagnostic equipment was their ears and the feel of the engine vibration.  The engine is running a lot better so far but I’m sitting here in this RV Park with an almost empty tank, low funds and it feels like my cold is coming back.  The only good news is the place that is supposed to forward my mail said that the package, (Mining Guide), I was expecting came in and they could get it to me in 2 to 4 days via U.S. Mail.  At least that’s some consolation.  I’ll have it when I start out again.  But, with the price of gas around here, I’m inclined to spend a little more time here till my financial funds catch up to me also.  I’m not sure but I might be here at least a month.  Talk about roadblocks.  Well, maybe something good will come out of this delay.  I’ll update you again when I have something worth reporting.  In the meantime, I would appreciate it if whoever reads this will bump it up so I don’t have to look so far back into the archives for it to post an update.  Thanks folks and thanks a lot for reading it.  I appreciate your interest in my trip.  Y’all take care now.  GOD bless.  Later.

 

                                                                                                                             Harry

 

Hello Folks

     Sorry I’ve been gone so long I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and then spent a week on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere.  After spending a week in Murfreesboro, Arkansas waiting on my check, I went to the Diamond Crater.  I spent only a few hours there because the weather was, at least seemed like it was, getting colder and looking more like rain by the minute.  My frostbit fingers on my right hand were hurting so bad that I couldn’t stay any longer.  Especially trying to wash the rocks in that cold water. 

     When I left there, I headed south to Texas.  Went to Round Rock and sent an e-mail to Mr. Davison.  He works on Saturdays so it was Sunday before I got a response from him.  It seems the weather has been so bad there too and the Llano River was still so high that there was no way I could get to any place along the river to do any panning.  He recommended that I go on down to El Paso because the GPAA has no claims in Texas because there is so little gold to be found there.  I went by the only place on the Llano River that he said I could check out because every thing along the river is on private land and the few rocks I could go out on were barely sticking above the water and the places I needed to dig behind the rocks were so deep that I would be standing in water waist deep or higher to dig in the places I needed to dig.  So, I went on down and west to El Paso. 

     On the way there I ran into some wind or, I should say, the wind ran into me.  I found myself bucking headwinds up to 60 mph or higher.  I stopped in Van Horn to set out the wind and dust storm and sent an e-mail to Pete at the El Paso GPA.  He answered me in a little while and invited me to the meeting they were having that night.  I replied that I didn’t know if I could make it or not because I heard the winds were supposed to get stronger between then and dawn the next day.  As luck would have it, the winds died down and I was able to move on.  I made it to El Paso about 7:30 that evening and found my way to the place where the meeting was being held.  I was late but I was invited in anyway.  They had a lot of good food set out on a table and told me to help myself.  I had just eaten a little while earlier because I didn’t know that I was going to make it in time so I didn’t eat very much. 

    

     Pete drew me a map to the El Paso GPA site and the GPAA site that they go to all the time.  And, guess what, it’s not in Texas.  So I went all the way through Texas and didn’t even get my shovel dirty or my pan wet.  REALLY DISAPPOINTED!!!

     The place that Pete sent me to was a little place called Orogrande, N. M.  It’s about half way between El Paso and Alamogordo, N. M.  I spent a week on top of a hill north of the wide spot in the road mostly panning out the dirt that I had brought with me.  I discovered one thing.  I got a lot to learn.  One thing I did learn was that I need to find some way to move a lot more dirt than I can with only a pan.  I didn’t find much gold in the dirt I brought with me and what little dirt I dug there didn’t show anything that I could see.   The temp. is starting to drop down into the 20s at night so I guess it’s about time to move on. 

     Before I go though, I want to think Pete and his wife Martha and all those who came by and visited me while I was there.  I wish I could remember all their names, I would mention them here.  There were some very notable characters I met there and I’m really sorry I can’t remember all their names. 

     I left there a couple of days ago and am now sitting in a motel room in Deming, N. M.  I figured I owed it to myself to stay in at least one motel on this trip.  I lucked out.  It’s a good, safe, very inexpensive place.  Probably the cheapest place in Deming to stay.  It’s not often you find a motel worth staying in for less than $30.00 a day.  Tonight’s my last night though.  I can’t spend the rest of my life here.  I’ll be headed toward Silver City.  Somebody said there was a GPAA claim site in that area.  If any of you know anything about it, I would appreciate the feedback.  I guess that’s all for right now.  Hopefully the next post will be good news of finding some good gold so I can tell everyone where I found it.  Y’all take care now.  GOD bless.  Later.

                                                                                                                     Harry

Hey Folks;      

      A little P.S. to the post above.  While I was on the hill in Orogrande, I found a little rock while panning.  It was about the size between a marble and a pea.  It was a bright shinny greenish-gold color.  I walked a little ways up another, higher, hill to show a couple what I’d found and see if they knew what it was.  They weren’t sure and suggested I take it to one of the gold shows and show it to a geologist.  On the way back, following the same path I took up the hill, I came to the ledge I had to step down.  When I did, my rear foot sliped and then my forward foot sliped and I went down on my intellegence and my elbow.  Skint my elbow and am still picking small stickers out of my intellegence.  The worst part is, I lost the rock.  The only really bad part of the week I spent out there.  Oh well, maybe I’ll find another one somewhere and by then I might know what it is.  Y’all take care now.  GOD bless.  Later.                                                                                                                              Harry