April 15th The Epilogue

Just because we left Heathrow for Portland didn't mean the adventure was over.  We arrived in our driveway at 11:30pm Sat only to find that Clarence's keys (house, truck, garage) were missing.  We dumped out both backpacks on the front porch and were searching through everything with flashlights but no luck. They must have fallen out somewhere between home and Colchester, UK during the last couple of weeks. What to do? All the neighbor's lights were out. We went to a 24hr cafe to get something to eat. I called my sister who lives 60 miles away but has a key to our house. Her phone was off or she was out of range. I left her a message. We went back home and dozed in the car in the driveway. I left another message for my sister. At 7am Sunday we drove to my sister's house to try and get a spare key.  She wasn't home.  I left her another message. Drove back to Oregon City and called a locksmith.  $229 later, we finally got into our house at 9:30am on Sunday. My sister finally called back.  She was out of town, and out of cell range, visiting friends and our extra key was on her keyring. We have now been up for 39 hrs and are a little rummy in the head. This last little episode was just an exclamation mark ending for our latest fantastic detecting trip. Thanks to all who came along through this blog. It was a blast!

April 13, 2012

Our final day of detecting.  The rain held off till late this afternoon.  We went back to a farm we had been to a couple of days already these past couple of weeks. The soil is the sticky clay that sticks to your shovels, detector coils and boots.  However, each time someone has found something really good there.  By the first hour this morning, Clarence had found one teeny tiny milled silver and I had found two milled silvers.  I also found two interesting lead tokens, buttons and some modern trash.  I did better today than I had the last three or four days.  The odd thing is, all seven of us had hit this same field before and there were still good finds to be made.  It all depends on turning left or right at any given time. We came in at 2pm to clean out the van, wash mud off detectors and boots and get stuff packed up. With all the borrowing back and forth, it's time to figure out who belongs to what. Our tour operator will come by at 8pm tonight to pick up all our finds, photgraph them, submit to the museum for identification and export approval . Export licenses will take about five months so we pick up our finds on our next trip.  It was a great trip, really fun group, lots of laughter, joking, teasing, Bailey's and Advil. We will be back March 2013.
Pedometer stats (half day): 12,296 steps = 5.43 miles

April 12, 2012

The two of us came in after lunch today to catch up on some rest. Not much interesting in the finds dept after that crazy day yesterday.  I found a pretty little watch winder, one of my favorite things we find here, plus a few buttons, chunks of lead and a couple of interesting doodads.  Tonight, the hard core guys will be picked up at 8pm and we will all go to one of the local pubs for dinner.  Mindy usually cooks fabulous dinners for us but she gets a night off tonight. We are staying at a place called Rye Farm.  It is an actual farm with a flock of sheep and lambs right outside our door. This particular building was once a storage area for farm equipment. The owners converted it to a vacation rental for the Londoners who want to get out of the city. Clarence and I are staying in the one bedroom handicapped accessable unit. We're beginning to understand why they gave the old folks this unit. We have floor to ceiling windows facing the fish pond with lots of semi-wild coots and ducks and three guinnea hen who like to come up and peck on the window in the morning. Mindy and Sarah are sharing the other one bedroom unit with two twin beds next to us.  Upstairs, the three guys are sharing a two bedroom unit with the largest lounge area.  We had popcorn and movie night up there last week.   All units have a full kitchen, leather couch and TV. We combined the small table and chairs from each unit and set them up in Mindy and Sarah's unit.  That is where Mindy fixes us hot breakfasts and dinners each day and we all gather. Right next door is a neat old barn that the owners have set up for us to clean our metal detecting finds and set them all out to look at and ID the unknown pieces we dig up. The barn is the first stop when Mindy drives the van in so we can leave all our wet and muddy rain gear and boots out there.  There is an additional refrigerator and freezer out there for us, also. After breakfast, everyone makes their own sandwiches for lunch and we pack them in the cooler for lunch in the field. Such is life on a metal detecting tour in England.
Pedometer stats (half day): 10,214 steps = 4.51 miles

April 11, 2012

Today was a Triple Gold Day!!! Unfortunately, none of them happened to be found by either of us. Mindy found a Celtic quarter stater this morning.  That woman can cover more area on a field that anyone I have seen.  Just before Clarence, Mindy, Sarah and I were piling  the van for an early ride home at 6pm, Jim was yelling "Gold, Gold". He had just found his very first gold coin and what a nice one it is.  Before the 8pm final pick up for the three hard core guys, Jim was again calling "Gold, Gold".  Mike and Ron just looked at him in disbelief.  What?  Again? Seriously? In the same area of his gold coin, he found a gold puzzle ring.  These are three gold bands interlocked that are worn stacked together.  They are modern but gold is gold.  Jim worked hard for both pieces of gold.  He stayed in that one spot all day and didn't even come in for lunch.  It sure paid off for him.  We were all there after lunch, bottomfeeding where Mindy had found her gold this morning. Jim was the only lucky one to find gold at the end of his coil...twice!

Today was also prank day.  Clarence  had found a spun wire bracelet last Fall that looked very much like a Celtic arm torc*. We painted it gold and brought it with us.  Today at lunch, Sarah (a self proclaimed good liar) pulled it out and told Mike and Ron she had found it in another field this morning.  Mike was a little skeptical but Ron fell for it...at least until he picked it up.  It just didn't have the weight of a gold torc.  We all had a good laugh and I have the moment on video in my camera.  We all had a great day with lots of laughter.
Pedometer stats: 20,070steps = 8.86 miles
*see Glossary below

April 9, 2012

You see some strange things in the English countryside some mornings.  We were on our way this morning when we came a corner on the narrow two lane country road to find a car stopped in the lane ahead of us.  Running down the road toward us was a lady, obviously on her way to work.  She stopped and picked up a shoe, then ran toward us a bit and picked up another shoe. She waved at us and ran back to her car saying she had driven off with her shoes and specs on top of the car. People just stop in the road for whatever reason and no one seems to mind. Detecting today was a challenge. We are limited on the number of fields available as crops are going in and many fields have started tilling in this burned recycled waste from London. You can't go ten feet without digging handfuls of bits of cans and foil. Wait until someone cuts into their baked potato and finds a bit of aluminum foil inside.  Clarence and I basically didn't find much of interest today. I think I found enough modern English coins to make a stop at McDonalds.  Mike found the nicest fibular brooch I have ever seen.  Ron and Jim found some milled and hammered silvers today.  Sarah found a milled silver.  Clarence and I and two others came in at 6pm tonight, cleaned our finds and had hot showers. The three hard core guys stayed out until 8pm tonight.  We just had a knock on the door to say supper is ready so I will wrap this up. Tomorrow will be "the day" we hope!
Pedometer reading: 15,454 steps = 6.82 miles.  No wonder my feet hurt! 

Monday, April 9, 2012

It's Spring in England.  Cold, rain, wind, mud...just like Oregon.  Clarence and I had just hiked over to the same field where he found a silver thimble a couple of years ago when my detector decided it didn't like the cold and wet and just quit working.  We got to walk all the way back to the van and get the backup detector. The day went downhill after that.  The backup detector eventually did the same thing. This time Mindy had taken the van back to the house to start the beef stew we were having for dinner tonight. I walked across the road to one of the barns to get out of the rain and wind and wait for the van to return in a couple of hours.  Had a nice chat with the head worker for the farm and he even knew where Oregon was.  The land owner and his workers have always been very nice to all of us but I'm sure they are glad when we are gone so they don't have to keep an eye out for us when they are working in the fields. Clarence and I both called it a day after lunch and came home to nap and do some laundry.  It was a nice break and the nap was wonderful.  Obviously, there were no great finds made today by us.  One of the other guys got a hammie but it was slim pickings today. 
Pedometer stats:7582 steps = 3.35miles  It was only a half day today.

April 8, 2012

Happy Easter!  We started our morning with French Toast then loaded up and headed out to the fields.  Not much traffic this morning at 7:30. We did a drive to check out a number of our fields to see what the conditions were.  It is about two weeks later in the Spring than we usually come here.  Many of the fields are already being planted with potatoes and onions which means they are now off limits to us.  We can still detect fields planted with wheat and other grain crops. Most of them are just 6-10" high and we can still push our coils through with a little extra effort.  No hammies today and only a couple of milled silver coins.  We hunted until 8pm today and only got rained on a couple of times.  Most of the day it was like a misty fog, cold and damp.  We just finished a late Easter dinner of locally fresh made pizza.  Now we are thinking about hot showers and bedtime.  The long days are beginning to take its toll on all of us, but we come here for the detecting and we want to get as many hours in as we can. 

No pedometer reading today.  Somehow it got set on "pause" and didn't register any of the 23 miles I"m sure I walked today.  I will try again tomorrow. Thanks for checking in with us.