It's good I know a few folks on here, two of which I met recently when I was in Abu Dhabi. There is a pic from my Abu Dhabi/Dubai post of me and two other guys, they are Ray and Randy, both are here now. Also, a guy I worked with on the Odyssey, Dave Johnson is here now too. It's nice to see familiar faces, helps you not feel like a stranger. Dave showed up with the coolest shirt ever, and he knew I liked it so much he gave it to me. It's a blue shirt with a gangsta Popeye on the front and it says, "I'm On A Boat!" How perfectly awesome is that!? Well, back to work, hope it's a good one!
I took her out of her carrier to take her cone off and weigh her, but she couldn't wait to get back in her little pink home. So I snapped a pic of her looking cautiously our the little holes in the side.
Anyway, they took her belly stitches out, and she is out of the "cone of shame" so hopefully she'll be back to her springy, feisty little self soon.
Wouldn't you know, I found nothing. Not even a single modern clad coin! I found some big trashy items scattered about, but nothing worth my time there that day. I don't think I've had a completely skunked day like this in a long time. It was sort of depressing.
On the way out, I drove past my local gun shop, The Armory. I usually buy ammo from the spot, but had never actually purchased any of my weapons here. Today that would change. About a year ago I stopped in and they had M4/A3 style AR-15's for between $550-$700, a sweet price range. Sadly, deals like that did not exist on this trip. But I did manage to pick up what I wanted, a Rock River Arms (RRA) LAR-15 with a 2-stage match trigger and Tactical Rail/Handle. I got it in a .223, mostly because it's the same as my M16 from the Army days, and it's relatively cheap to shoot compared to a .308, actually 5x cheaper. While in there I saw something else that had caught my eye, and felt I just had to have. It looked like a miniature mash-up between a AR lower and an AK upper... and in reality, that's what it was. They had one bored in .223, but this thing was a "pistol", and that seemed a little much so I picked it up for $200 cheaper in a .22LR. It's a Kel-Tec PLR-22. It used a modified AR clip and holds 27 rounds, which is pretty sweet. And being a .22LR, the rounds are like a penny a piece, so it's going to be really fun to shoot.
We headed out that way and hunted the area around Memorial Baptist and pretty much found nothing but trash and clad, it was rather disappointing for a turn of the century neighborhood. If there was good stuff around, we completely missed it. Though in our defense, this is home turf for the Hampton Roads Recovery Society, and I'm sure they've hit up much of the old neighborhoods. We left the place scratching our heads, but thankfully I had another place up my sleeve.
Next stop was the area off of Witchduck Rd. in Virginia Beach where the city bought up all the homes to tear down for road expansion. It's all grassed over now and ripe for the picking. We rolled up, geared up, and got to swingin'. And what do you know, in the first 20 mins, I pull two silvers. A '44 Merc and a '57 Rosie. The Merc was my very first plug dug on the site.
Anyway, we covered a lot of ground, possibly quicker than we should have, because out of the next couple hours, those two silver dimes were the only ones to come outta the ground. We both managed a few bucks in clad, and I fished out 6 wheats, but overall I felt there should have been more.
We found lots of odd and ends as well. I know I found a automotive thermostat and a few fence post tops. Landed another couple keys, that's 6 in my last few hunts. I've given them all to my hunting partners son. I also found what I thought was a gold bracelet, but it turns out it's "gold toned". It's made by Monet, an antique costume jeweler.
So that's the day, 60 coins $4.13.
Yup, I've spent the past week in the UAE participating in the first Advanced QC course in the new WesternGeco building on the Schlumberger compound just outside Shamkha City. Traveling was exhausting. My scheduled 14 hour direct flight from Chicago to Abu Dhabi ended up being a 21 hour flight with a emergency stop in Milan, Italy because a passenger had a heart attack in flight.
But anyway... I stayed in the Al Maha Arjaan in Abu Dhabi, a very nice hotel, one I would recommend if you ever visit the city. It was close to everything, malls, street shopping, restaurants. Close to everything... except the damned compound. Every morning and afternoon it was a freakin' hour and half drive to and from, horrible.
Temperatures hovered in the low to mid 90's the whole trip, and unfortunately, travel was very limited. I did get one good night in Abu Dhabi or shopping for some touristy gift type things, as well as a framed UAE coin set. It's a perfect tourist gift for a person in the MD hobby, or coin collecting in general. I also scored a sweet middle eastern style hunting knife, a glass light up sculpture of the Burj Al-Arab, a couple magnets and a shot glass for my chica friend who is out on the Tau right now... I'll be seeing her Thursday for Crew-X.
My last night there, which was Thursday night, which in the UAE is their Friday night. Two buddies (Ray and Mauricio) and myself hired a private chauffeur to cart us out to Dubai and around the city for 8 hours. Dubai is AMAZING! Go there, if you can afford it! I went everywhere... Atlantis on Palm Island, the Burj Al-Arab, Burj Al-Dubai (World's Tallest Building), Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates... lots of cool places. I snapped a sweet video of the water show in front of the Burj Lake Hotel, check it out at the end of this post.
I ended up getting a 91 in the class, met lots of cool folks from the company, and saw a sweet new world city to add to my travels... enjoy the pics!
Abu Dhabi
DUBAI
Quotes update on refresh :)
