Friend #34

Cowboy Bob. That's my latest friend...Cowboy Bob.
My in-laws are in town from NY and the one thing on their list was to pan for gold while they're in Arizona. Cowboy Bob was our scout on our $500 mission for gold this morning. That's right - $500 for four adults and two children to take a two-hour Jeep trip into the desert and sift for gold in the 100 degree heat.
We arrived at what was a very tacky "Ghost Town" place that advertised themselves as "authentic" but was obviously built for makin' money. We loaded into the no-door-having Jeep and off-roaded it for 30 minutes of me grasping my 5-year-old with one hand and the side of the Jeep with the other.
We all were disappointed (especially the father-in-law) to find out that this would be a dry wash gold panning excursion. This means that we loaded our pans with dry sand, added water from a bottle, and swooshed and swooshed and swooshed. No river, because (duh!) we never get rain here and all the rivers are dry. For $500 we each found tons of Fool's Gold, which the boys coveted all afternoon. In the first ten minutes, I found ten gold flakes and that was the highlight. Cowboy Bob was an excellent teacher.
Cowboy Bob is from the Midwest. He retired in 2008 and moved out to AZ to give 6-shooting a try as a Hobby. Not a hobby, but a Hobby. He loved learning about old western lore and soon found himself working part-time as a gold panning scout. He was great with the kids, pointing out that Isaiah's pan was filled with Garnet, something I didn't see since it's naturally very plum colored.
Cowboy Bob entertained alllll of Jackson's questions about bein' a real cowboy. He was patient and fun and possibly a bit sneaky, but also possibly very smart.
As we were driving the intensely bumpy road back, my father-in-law asked if anyone ever pans in the other dried up washes. "Not really, but this wash right here? I'm gonna bring m'wife here this weekend...a guy found somethin' here last week...." Is Cowboy Bob trying to entice us to spend another $500 to return, piquing our curiosity and treasure-seeking minds, or just being a jerk for not showing us the really great "fishing" spot???