SusanLouise

Hello Homefire, I appreciate your reply...thank you Thanks for keeping me grounded in reality...just trying to find a fun way to keep the painful of the expense of our trip to a minimum. Since we live in Nebraska, the only thing to even bother to use a metal detector for here are meteorites...

Hello All, My husband and I would like to try panning for gold the next time we take a trip down to visit my elderly father in Florida. I had been doing some searching on the internet for any public mines somewhere in the locations between Nebraska and Florida. I realize that the best locations are on the west coast and up in Alaska, but since our travels take us to the east coast, I'm trying to find the best "hot spots" if any. After reading all the expenses that need to be paid up-front...ie...pans, equiptment, buckets for $10-$15, Nugget bags $25-500...OMG! (I need to find out the difference between these and buckets) So I have 3 specific questions: 1) Has anyone on these forums panned for gold here...if so, did you find enough to pay for expenses and then some...worht your time, so to speak? 2) Although I realize we are not going to make thousands of dollars in the 2 days we'd like to spend there next year, but is it still out of the realm of possibilities to at least pan enough to have $100-200 profit after all expenses are paid?...or am I dreaming like trying to win the lotto? We're just trying to help pay for the gas and expenses to visit my Dad in Florida...especially when gas will be up to near $5 by the end of 2011 :( 3) Is there any other public mining location worth stopping at other than the one in North Carolina? Ok, back into reality...guessing if it was that profitable, everyone without a job would be panning for gold there...big sigh. Any insight would be greatly appreciated...TIA Susan