Desert Gold

Dave turned off the highway onto the desert road, though it wasn’t much of a road, more of a trail created by off road vehicles and jeeps, it didn’t matter, they were on an adventure today to try out their new metal detector. Armed with a stack of maps he had spent a great deal of his spare time studying all last summer Dave and his wife Robin were finally here to fulfill his dream of prospecting for gold in the Mohave Desert.

“They say people should tell someone before going out in the desert in case there is a breakdown or other problem.” Robin voiced her thoughts aloud.

“ Well there is not going to be a problem, we will be fine.” Dave responded.

There was really no one to tell, they came alone this year to Arizona, and were boondocking in the desert outside of Parker. The road was getting narrower and rough, nothing their Nissan Pickup couldn’t handle. Robin relaxed and enjoyed the scenery, taking a picture now and then. Traveling in the motor home she had learned to snap pictures doing sixty on the freeway, so this was a treat.

“How far have we come?” Robin asked as she realized there was no longer any resemblance of a road.

“Not sure, maybe 30 miles, probably far enough.” Dave answered as he dodged a large rock, he had already switched to four wheel drive a few miles back, “I think that will be a good spot over there.” He pointed to some huge rocks about 20 feet ahead.

The ground was hard and rocky hard to dig, but that wasn’t necessary anyway, there were small rocks all over and the metal detector signaled there was gold. It was good to have a new one so you didn’t have to dig the object up to find out what set off the alarm.

Robin walked around and took some pictures, the desert really was beautiful in a stark, barren way, and more colorful than she thought it would be, there wasn’t much besides sand and rocks and the occasional cactus. Suddenly she felt fragile, what if something happened to the truck, they would be stranded. That thought was fleeting when Dave shouted to her. She walked over to where he was happily breaking rocks with his hammer, a big grin on his face, “Look at this, we’ve found gold.”

She took the rock from his outstretched hand, the gold glinting in the sun. Robin got one of the five gallon plastic buckets from under the canopy on the truck, and took it to him knowing he would take some rocks home. He was in heaven, this was what he had been planning and dreaming about. He wasn’t thinking of being rich, he was just as happy when his old detector went off and he dug up old scraps of metal, in fact he had a bucket of such treasures at home. They both were quickly absorbed with the hunt for gold, and the hunting was easy.

They were staying close together since there were so many rocks and no need to wander very far. Suddenly Robin heard a faint buzzing sound, and it seemed to be getting louder but still not a loud noise. They worked on the rocks, each taking turns calling to the other, “Look at this.” It was exhilarating.

The buzzing was getting louder, “Do you hear that noise?” she asked.

“What does it sound like?” he responded.

“A buzzing sound, don’t you hear it?”

Dave said he heard something but didn’t know what was causing the noise and the buzzing continued to get louder. Suddenly Robin, without thinking, screamed “bugs!” jumped and started to run for the pickup, she turned and Dave just stood there, “Come on, it sounds like bugs, run!”

She ran to the pickup and got in on the passenger side and shut the door, Dave was just standing looking up to see what was causing the noise. She screamed at him to come and wondered if she should go grab him, but was afraid to get out of the truck. The noise was deafening.

A huge swarm of bees, as big as a house and about twenty foot off the ground, went over and flew on gradually fading away in the distance. Robin was shaken, too many “what ifs” were flooding her mind, what if bees had gotten Dave standing out in the open, what would she have done? What if the bees had attacked both of them and no one knew where they were and their bodies would never be found, just maybe their bones, someday, by some hikers or people in a Jeep. She had seen the movie years ago about killer bees attacking, maybe those were killer bees. Now her mind goes back to what she thought when they started out that morning, that the Bureau of Land Management advises people to let someone know where they are going in the desert in case they don’t come back.

Dave appeared to be unaffected by the whole experience, the bees were gone so he was back at the rocks like nothing had happened. Robin was afraid to get out of the pickup, though she felt a little silly, it was a traumatic experience. She did get out and after breaking a few more rocks they decided it was time to go, they wanted to get back before dark.

The next day they drove to the Bureau of Land Management office to report the gold and find out where to file, they could have a gold mine! The guy at the BLM was nice, explaining that the area where they found the gold, and Robin thought “nearly got killed by bees,” was a protected area with no mining allowed so no gold claims could be filed for that location.

Oh well the rocks would be great conversation pieces and Dave and Robin would, always, remember their exciting experience in the Mohave Desert.