Saturday - Colchester to Portland

I haven't said much about our detecting companions for the second week. We were joined by five guys from New England and what a week it was. They were all experienced detectorists making their first detecting trip to England.  Two joined us and three were at the other house. Clarence and I have never laughed so much or so hard as we did that week. Dinner most nights resembled a vaudeville show with singing and comedy. When we got together at lunch time, in the field, it was the same but with all five guys contributing.  We should have known the first day when someone taped a penny to the bottom of one guy's detector.  He couldn't figure out why he was getting the same signal all the time.  Our thanks to Jim, Joe, Nelson, Mike and Mark for making it a memorable week. We would love to take you up on your invite to hunt in Mass. with you sometime.

It was an uneventful (that's a good thing) flight to San Francisco on Sat.  No problems in Customs, even with bringing in our finds from last Fall.  We always worry they are going to search all our luggage but that has never happened. I slept through most of the flight to Portland.  We picked up our car and pulled into our driveway about 11pm.  From the time we were picked up in Colchester Sat morning, we had been traveling for 22 hours that day. We noticed the grass needed cutting, tulips are about to bloom, and there were plenty of tall weeds in the flower beds.  With nothing in the house to eat except crackers and a jar of peanut butter, we watched the evening news and collapsed into our own bed. 

Back to reality...there are piles of laundry on the floor but I really just need a nap.  It will take a few days to get back in the right time zone.  England is eight hours later than Portland, which is enough to throw a person off kilter. We still start laughing thinking about the antics of our hunting companions.  We have our reservations in for next April for another two week trip. Looks like I will have to wait until then to find my Colchester gold coin.

I am amazed at how many people are interested in things we do.  We know we are fortunate to be able to enjoy each new adventure together. It was a pretty good way to spend our 24th wedding anniversary.  And to think this all started from a blind date.  Who knew???  Thanks for following along.  Until next time...

Week Two - Friday

As I predicted, there was no time to write before we left England on Saturday.  However, we did have a full day of metal detecting on Friday, our final day for this trip. It was another 8am - 7pm day. Once again, there was no rain but plenty of strong winds.  Clarence and I were on "the button field", just across the road from where the Gold Roman was found last week. One of the guys with us found a silver Roman coin, his first, and it was a great way to end his first England hunt.  Clarence and I found about a hundred buttons, mostly common four holers, but a few good ones, too.  I found another livery button and a military button.  Clarence found a vessica seal (for sealing wax) and three interesting tokens from businesses in Colchester and London. He didn't know what they were until we were cleaning up our finds that night. We had no time to research them so that will give us something to do when we pick them up next Spring.  Oh come on, you all knew we were going back next year! Next Spring will be another "Barn Hunt" for two weeks in April, 2012.

After cleaning the finds, having a wonderful roast chicken dinner with our hostess, and getting a hot shower, we got to work breaking down four detectors and gear and getting two and a half weeks of dirty laundry packed again.  We packed and re-packed to make the 50# limit before giving up at 12:30am. We just decided to pay the extra fee and get some sleep before the alarm went off at 6am. When we got to Heathrow, the airline scale said we were two kg under on one bag and one kg over on the other.  I asked the person at the desk if there was any room for grace and she replied " I didn't see anything".  Thank you, United Airlines!

This has been a great trip.  We're glad we decided to stay for two weeks instead of one.  Clarence found his Saxon sceat and I found my silver Roman on the second week, so it was definitely worth the extra effort.  Saturday will be a very  l-o-n-g plane trip but it will be good to be home again.