Digging for Diamonds, Princess Style

So off we went to the Crater of Diamonds, which is about an hour and a half away from Hot Springs in Murfreesboro (which is very hard to say - try it).  The highlight of the drive was the deer that jumped directly in front of the car on the way into the park. 

The staff at the park couldn't have been more surly or unhelpful if they had tried.  No one can be that miserable unless they've taken lessons.  We weren't impressed.  The Kafe which they advertise is only open on weekends - you'd think their website would mention that.  One look at the crater made us decide to make other plans.  Picture a field of mud, with a few people knee deep in the furrows, digging through dirt with a trowel.  Most were wearing waders, rubber boots or weird bright yellow rubber clown socks over their shoes.  No one was smiling.  Based on this, we decided to go the easy route and buy bags of dirt to take with us. 

On our way back from the crater, we stopped at Buddy's Hawg House for lunch.  The server at the restaurant sure made up for the people at the crater.  She was friendly, gregarious and took really good care of us.  She was astounded that we'd never seen a hush puppy and had the cook make some up for us.  Ever the adventurer, Nui tried her very first hush puppy and a Po'Boy sandwich made with catfish.  Both were delicious!  Sure made up for the turnip greens the other night (another adventure gone horribly wrong).

Thanks also to the guys at the garage next door who came out and reattached Nui's dash board section, which got pulled out when she had to fight to get the brake buddy loose.  Sigh....

Yesterday, we set up at a nice, cozy picnic table in the sun in Texarkana and started digging for diamonds in a more civilized fashion.  We think we've found a couple - one of which is a fairly good size.  For now we'll call it a diamond....until someone with authority tells us it's quartz.