The Gold Rush!

Yesterday, I went to Riley's Farm, and did a gold rush "adventure". If you haven't ever been to Riley's Farm, you should go... it's cool. I went with my friday school group. When we got there, it was like 45 or 50 degrees!!! COLD!!!!!! I was glad I brought a jacket :-) (thanks mom!) When the thing finally started, they told us some facts about the gold rush, and stuff about that time period. Then, they took us to this place where you could pan for gold. They told us how to use everything, and then told us that there was a store type place where you could exchange your gold for money, and also a place where you could get work. Then they said "go," and you could then go to whatever spot you wanted to for gold. My friend and I teamed up, and we first went to a spot where you could stake your clame, but you had to buy one! We didn't have any gold, so we couldn't get in. I forget how we first got some gold, but we did, and then we went to a place where you panned for gold while water was rushing in this aquaduct thing (don't ask me what the name was!). So, to get a pan, you needed to give the person gold. I asked how much, and the guy said all the gold I had, and I declined. My mom told me to go away, and then go back in a little bit, and say I lost my gold, and offer him one piece, and say I would do a day's work of laundry for the pan. I did it, and I got a pan. My friend Emily got one too. When we had a decent amount of gold, we went to the store type place to exchange it for cash. It had started at $20 an ounce, and by the time we were there, it was at $10 an ounce. We watched as it dropped to $10, to $8, to $6. We thought it was going to drop to $4, but it didn't. I think we had 2 ounces at that point. It was good though how they did the supply and demand thing. If there was a lot of gold, it wasn't worth much. If there wasn't, then the price was higher. At one point, the price an ounce was 50 cents! Emily and I went to every place that there was to get gold. We combined our money with my brother, and his friend. We got more gold for $1 an ounce, and then, right before it closed when it was still $1 an ounce, it went up to 3, and then, it went up to $6, and we were the last people. It was a very fun experience! After that, we went to this one room, and they showed us what kids of instruments the miners played. After, we went to the general store, and bought stuff. I bought a rabbit pelt (so soft!!), and some candy. Oh! They have the BEST apple pies there!!!! They are 5 pounds!!! Oh... by the way, the "gold" pieces were just gold spray painted rocks.