[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Oooo, cool, gold panning! My Dad did this for a whole summer and loved it. But he loved the scenery, nature, the people he met in out of the way places, the camping, the lack of daily responsibility to others. Evidently the guy even enjoyed, in the end, the adventures of getting lost a time or two. He made enough to pay for his trip and live very simply for a few months afterward. He was educated as a geologist, but I don't think that gave him any advantage over anyone else. But he did work, work, work at it all day for three months. And if I remember correctly, the price of gold was high at the time.