Nancy didn’t find enough rubies to get decked out in leather. She “only” came out of the Sheffield Mine with 16.5 carats. They are currently soaking in a acid bath (Diet Coke) to remove the dirt she didn’t wash off on the sluice.

She sat on a wood bench for 5 1/2 hours and sifted through four buckets of dirt. (Them’s pails to you Northerners.) Her fingerstips are swollen and cracked.

OTOH, I floated down the Nantahala with hardly a care and only an occasional burst of energy. Class III rapid at the every end was a BLAST.

Hooked and already planning to attack the Ocoee River next.