We stopped at Crater of Diamonds National Park, one of only 8 places in the world diamonds can be found, and the ONLY one open to the public. It was a rainy morning, but actually stopped while we were prospecting. Diamonds can be found just lying on the surface of the muddy field! Or you dig and sluice, like we did. We had no luck with finding a gem, but 3 other people did! It was fun, but can be quite strenuous if you do it for hours on end. Or, you can be unfortunate like Darrell, and strain your back after only a few minutes. He has been in discomfort for the rest of the day. I was helping him with learning how to post, but he needed to lay down.
We took the beautiful Talimena Trail through western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. (Yes, there are mountains in eastern Oklahoma.) Just after crossing into OK, Nancy spied a black bear just on the other side of the guardrail!! He had turned to check us out as we sped by.
In Heavener, Oklahoma we saw the Heavener runestone, which is the largest runestone in the US. Runestones are ancient inscribed rocks, which are pretty conclusive proof that the Vikings were in north America by 800 AD. Translated, it reads, "Glome's Valley". Taken with the other stones, they must have been staking a boundary line. Of course, not everyone is convinced, but at the very least it is fascinating to me to think that the Vikings came to middle America WAAAY before Columbus.....Spending the night in McAlester, OK, a change in the itinerary.
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