Gold fever

We didn't strike it  rich.

(Sigh.)

Despite AJ's high hopes and Jeff's best efforts, we had more fun than success at the Big Thunder Gold Mine. And so - as we learned on the tour - we are leaving South Dakota like 90 percent of gold prospectors: poorer than when we arrived.

The tour into the depths of the mine gave me a new appreciation of the dedication of gold miners. (Translation: left me shaking my head in awe that anyone was willing to do this work.)

 We had the convenience of well-lit paths and clean air. Our young guide, who did an awesome job of telling stories in an entertaining way that held AJ's attention, had to turn the lights off just once to make the point of how dark and different it would be along this path when a candle is the only light source.

The guide was also quite honest in admitting the mine makes far more money collecting tourist dollars through tours than it ever did from striking gold.

Once we made it out of the mine, we got a look at some of the technology of the day. Blowing things up is harder than AJ thought!

And then it was time to pan for gold. It was nice that they provided us pans already stocked with small gold flecks, because what we scooped from the bottom of the troughs was far more likely to contain the fools' version than the real stuff.

Speaking of fools' gold, if you look in the tiny vial we each received to collect our treasures, you'll notice AJ's contains far more of the fake stuff than the real thing.

But the fun and good memories were real, and that's all some of us expected to take away from the experience. It was so much fun that Jeff wants to come back again. With his metal detector.