The highlights:
1. Cancelled? AGAIN?
2. Yes! We got on this plane!
3. I threw away so much gold! NO!!!
4. Cancelled? AGAIN?
5. Yes! We don't have to spend the night in Chicago!

Yeah, not our usual flights out and back. We literally ended up criss-crossing the country getting out to Tucson. And then a near-repeat experience on the way back. We almost left airports to go home 3 times, and 3 times almost had to spend the night in a hotel in heartland cities. We came within 5 minutes of leaving the Tucson airport when they announced the plane had been fixed. A once full flight was half empty because some people had assumed the worst and left the airport, some right before the announcement! The trip out took 23 hours instead of 8, and the trip back took 19 hours instead of 7, due to all the weird problems.

During the actual vacation, it was very nice, 65-80 degrees with no rain. But, I threw away so much GOLD! :angry: There is a town called Silver City in New Mexico, where we spent the first day before heading over to Tucson. There, I was at William Randolph Hearst's abandoned gold mine in a small canyon, but I didn't know it was a former gold mine. I went for the silver lying all over the ground. When I split open some rocks, all this ugly brownish-yellowish stuff came pouring out. It was all over the rocks, too. I cast most of the rocks away, because they were filled with this weird dirty stuff. I kept only one rock. Later, at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, I saw a display case with native gold. "Hmm...that stuff looks so familiar...Sh*t!" Yeah, I had thrown away $100s, perhaps $1000s worth of native gold! :o So all I have left is the few ounces or so from that one big rock I kept. Of course, it was filled with gold, and there is a huge gold stain on my grandma's driveway where I cracked it open.

Lesson: Know what native gold looks like, as it is not shiny like finished gold. If you live in AZ, NM, CA, etc. get off your lazy ass and get to Silver City ASAP! Like every other rock contained gold! I passed by so many covered with that yellow-brown dust-like powder. Get to Silver City, then take route 15 to Pinos Altos, stop at the remax sign on the left, and scoop up every rock in sight!

I threw away so much gold! :angry: