UAE: Abu Dhabi | Dubai

Just made it back!

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

IN THE NEWS: Military MDs and MD Burglary

I have a couple new metal detecting related news stories for you all. The first regarding a stolen vehicle in Corpus Christi, TX where the owner was a retired police officer. He had his metal detector in the back, and trailed the suspects.
Read more HERE.

The second is about the military using new technology toys to help combat IED's in Afghanistan. The picture above shows a soldier with a government issued MD.
Read more HERE.
Image credit to David Gilkey/NPR

All day hunt, two locations with two buddies

It was another late night last night, not sure why, guess insomnia just setting in. But I woke up at 645am to get ready with all my gear, and to drop the kitten off at the vet to get spayed and de-clawed. Poor kitty.

After that I still had two hours before it was time to meet up in Portsmouth with Hollis (foreverRich on FMDF), so I swung by McDonald's for the first time in forever to eat breakfast. By the time I was finished I headed out to the Portsmouth Rec Center (used to be the old Cradock High School) and was now an hour early for the meet, but decided to start a bit early.

By the time Hollis showed up at 930am I was already a dollar deep in clad. I was pretty hopeful when my first coin hit was a 5" deep quarter... a '65, so close. After exchanging a few words for a few minutes we both went on our way, staying relatively near the football field. I worked all the way around the near side by the tot lot towards the road, then down next to the sidewalk on the street (George Washington Hwy). I dug my fair share of trash, and by the time I was leaving around 11am I hand wrangled up 36 coins @ $3.32.

I left and headed home to clean up a bit, get some dry gloves, and grab a bite to eat. Hollis stayed behind and ended up scoring a '51-S Rosie... good for him!

After brewing up a pot of coffee to take a cup for the road, I made it out to Lakewood Park in Norfolk. From what I had heard from some old timers I was pretty sure this was one of the bigger parks that gets hammered by hobbyists. I was meeting dfxing virginia from FMDF here shortly, and as usual, started a bit early while he was in route.

In the trees above I scored a wheat, my only "old" coin for the day. I was all over this park. Recent silver finds from this location include various silver dimes and even a 1700s 1/2 Reale! I was really hoping to land something good. My last bit of hunting at the park, I managed to swing the coil a bit through the wooded trails in the rear of the park, and then down at the small "beach" which is accessible through the treeline. Actually scored a few state quarters in those spots.

My buddy was hitting coins few and far between until he managed to nail a '50-D Rosie not far from where where he landed a few other silvers in the past.

We spent the last hour and half hitting randomly in a street median and behind a school, not amounting to much. Before we left the park we saw another guy just suiting up to swing for a bit before dark... wonder if he found anything? But it was a nice day of hunting, be it chilly and wet all day. Ended this half of the day with 49 more coins @ $3.49 and a Chuck-E-Cheese token.

MD News Briefs

Here's a bunch of news stories from the past week or so that are hobby related. I've started a brief of each one with a link to the full story if you are interested.

Hobbyists love metal detecting
This article is about an ex college professor turned MD hobbyist who founded the ONSMD, a group of hobbyists in North Carolina who offer free recovery services and aid in all sorts of historical research.
Read more HERE.

Verdict at the Little Big Horn
Metal detectors are used to find personal items as well as artifacts relating to the battle and it's combatants.
Read more HERE.

Metal detecting group reunite precious bracelet with owner
UK MD club finds a heirloom lost shortly before owner dies, meant to be handed down to the youngest boy in a family.
Read more HERE.

Divers Search Swan Lake On UConn Campus
In the wake of the death of UCONN football player, Jasper Howard, police divers use metal detectors to search lake in an attempt to find evidence.
Read more HERE.

Mystery surrounds gold ring find
UK hobbyist finds a 17th century signet ring with an unidentified crest on it, but maker's mark matches one in museum.
Read more HERE.

Man punched during attempted robbery on beach
Hobbyist assaulted while hunting beach in South Carolina.
Read more HERE.

Ghent and Taylor Elem

I found myself just waking up a little past noon today. I had gotten a pretty good night's rest, so I finally rolled out of bed and cleaned the kitchen. When I came to the computer I saw a message from my buddy Hollis on FMDF shaming me for not being out metal detecting every day I'm home, since I have nothing better to do. I took his advice and loaded up.

I did some quick research and made a list of 7 places in Norfolk to hit up when I have some free time, and decided to head out to one. My location was the small neighborhood park at the corner of Leigh and Westover in Ghent. On the way I texted "dfxing virginia" to see if he could meet there when he got out of work... which he would.

After about 30 minutes of hunting, and scoring a little bit of clad I found my first wheat. I proceeded to text my buddy the play by play, as I pulled 2 more wheats in the next few minutes. Then in the grassy area between the sidewalk and street I scored a 3" +81 I would have sworn was a clad dime, but nope... saw the glint in the hole... a '47 rosie! Sent him a pic to gloat :) One note about the wheats, one of them was a 1919, which is now my oldest dug US coin, beating out my '20 wheatie last year.

It was a very overcast day and there was a slight drizzle when my hunting partner showed up. We chatted for a min and got back to the task at hand. As I was covering the middle of the park, an older woman and her dog came by. She asked if we were filling the holes, as lots of children play here. We were of course. She then told me that a lady had been here a week or so and had not found much... that confirmed my assumption the place had been hit before. It was nearing dark and we decided to head a few blocks down the street to a school.

Here we found ourselves at what I learned was Taylor Elementary School. Surely been hunted, but it has lots of play areas for kids and a decent field that goodies would surely show up in, old or not. We hunted for maybe just under an hour before it got too dark to be efficient without a flashlight (both mine were dead). But for my last signal of the night I swept over a target that bounced from a +89 to +91 and only read about 1.5" deep. Figuring it was either a soda can, or maybe a couple quarters, I dug. I couldn't find the target at first, but eventually wrestled it out of the ground and was shocked to in my hand my first half-dollar coin. I walked over towards my buddy with a smile on my face and said, "Guess what I found?" He had that look on his face that said, "If it's a Walker I'm taking it and running!" I plopped it down in his hand and said, "It's a half, a Kennedy."

And so ended the evenings hunt. Headed back to his place to chill over coffee and chat about MD'ing, met his wife. Great time. Total pull for the few hours was 24 coins @ $2.02 and lots of trash... as usual.