Eureka!

On 12-29-09 my brother, his son and grand daughter, and me, did a little prospecting in an area that has proven in the past to have had gold. We were not disappointed. We panned for the first time in our lives and actually discovered two very tiny, almost microscopic, granules of gold. Which means of course that had we desired to dredge, dig and destroy this pristine, priceless area for the chance of finding a thousand dollars of gold, who knows what we could have come away with.
This area was once inhabited by a sizable Native American village, it had also been mined many decades ago--maybe even during the time when the village was occupied. Who knows, the miners may have been responsible for removing the village dwellers. The point here is one of perspective, our journey is about finding true treasure, and my brother and I found it in the beauty and grandeur of the area, not in the possiblity of finding gold at the expense of the environment.
For all you hard core prospectors we apologize, but for my brother and I there are more important things in life than gold. About one week ago we watched a National Geographic television program about gold prospecting and it showed a half a dozen young men in the Amazon completely destroying about a half acre of priceless rain forest habitat for less than a thousand dollars of gold; not to mention the excessive danger to their own health from the chemicals they used.Yes, these guys needed the money, however, that does not diminish that fact that they caused a great deal of harm to themselves and others for a pittance, even for them. All this because human beings have an insatiable appetite for life that always results in a shortened, regretful, unsatisfied life.
Those few individuals that learn to live in harmony with all that is around them are the true successes of our time.   
For obvious reasons there will be no pictures of this trip.
Desert, here we come!