Gold Digger (the actor)

"Sure, we are ready," Ada said.

"Good just replay your work after your boyfriend returned with the samples," Jerri directed.

"He is not my boyfriend," Ada said.

"He isn't my boyfriend either," Louise said. "He is my uncle. He gave the samples to me. That was before Ada was part of the team."

"Go on Louise show me what you did with the samples and explain it as you do." Jerri commented.

It was the acceptable amount of direction. "Uncle Miles had sealed the core samples in tubes like these," Louise explained. She also began doing the work of examining the core samples as she tried to explain how gold ended up in the creeks in the first place. It was Louise's chance to shine as well as her teaching moment. She did both.

Finally she ended by showing the map she had produced. "This map indicated where the elements that are gold indicators had been found in the samples. She has also rated them from the highest to the lowest concentrations. In other words the most likely spots to have gold. There was no gold in any of the samples but the markers were the best in five of the sites.

My Uncle had been convinced that we should listen to the residents and take into consideration the creeks with the local reputation of having had gold at some point in time. That's when I decided that if we were going to do that, we should have an expert in the history of those mountains, so I approached Ada."

"So Ada, what were your initial thoughts about the project?" Jerri asked.

"I found the whole idea fascinating. I knew that I could do my detailed studies of the areas and for the first time have them sampled and the samples tested. No matter what we find, or don't find, it is a chance to learn from the experience," Ada informed the camera lady.

"So whose idea was it to contact QE2TV?" Jerri asked.

"That was all on Ada. My uncle was against it and I was mildly in favor of it," Louise stated.

"To his credit Miles was so sure that the history of the creeks held the answers, that he went along with the docudrama," Ada said. "We are going to use the payments to finance the research."

"So we know what Louise does and how she does it. Please explain how the historical data mining works." Jerri asked.

"Well first of all every creek has different names as it moves from one place to another the names change. The computer allows me to search each name and put them together to tell the whole story of the creek. Much like you guys bringing all the pieces together to tell the story of this expedition," Ada said.

Jerri spent the day filming different things that she thought would be interesting visually. Then she arranged to spend a day with each of the woman. She also arranged for Louise to show her the town that same night.

After work Louise allowed Jerri to meet her at her Uncle Miles' house. It was also the office for the company, but no one worked there except her Uncle. She explained that he was a retired local police officer.

"So you are a young attractive woman living with your uncle. That must create problems. I mean you date, I presume, so is he okay with the guys you date?" Jerri asked.

"He doesn't usually ask about them and I seldom bring anyone to meet Uncle Miles," She explained.

"I see, so no drama there to exploit," Jerri asked very seriously.

"None whatsoever," Louise replied.

"What about Ada, is she involved with your uncle?" Jerri went on.

"She just met Uncle Miles, so no drama there either. We all just met so the honeymoon phase is still in effect. Well I have known Uncle Miles all my life, but we have just begun working together.

Louise and Jerri went to dinner then to a dance club frequented by the university students. "You don't do this much do you?" Jerri asked.

"No, I mostly do my home work and write emails to friends and family. Uncle miles and I eat mostly take out, so I need to exercise a lot too keep my weight down."

"Ok, do you belong to a gym?" Jerri asked.

"No, but I run on the track at school. They open it from 6AM till 10AM FOR Students to use. I have been running three miles a day for a while now.

"Okay," Jerri said. "We will catch you running tomorrow morning. Tonight lets go out and party. Our researcher gave me the name of a punk rock club here in town."

"I'm sure it will be mild compared to the clubs in New York," Louise said.

While the two of them plotted their club outing, Miles and Eddie arrived at their primitive camp site. Miles hung his lightweight prospector's tent from a pine tree. After the tent was hung, he walked through the woods gathering dead limbs for a fire. Most of the campers purchased wood from the office, but Miles preferred to dead head the trees. It provided a service to the camp, and it kept him warm as well. He harvested only the limbs on the ground, or the ones that popped off the trees. The rangers said they would check to see that all the wood in his wood pile was dead, but no one ever did.

After he had the fire going he sat by it to eat his cold hamburger and fries. He had purchased them at a fast food drive thru window. Eddie filmed him eating the fast food dinner. Miles didn't mind. He had never said that he was going to live off the land.

"So yes I eat fast food when I can. I can also trap and field dress a rabbit. I'm not a gourmet chef, but I can cook a rabbit. I will probably be doing that later." Miles said while he drank his coffee before going to bed. He had bought a huge box of coffee in a brown cardboard box from the restaurant. He and Eddie drank it heated over the fire until most of it was gone.

"It's a two mile walk to the bathhouse, so if you are fastidious about showers, you need to keep that in mind. The showers are not heated either. Personally I choose to hold off as long as possible before I shower. I do change my underwear often though. Damp underwear chaffs the crotch and that make it hard to hike. I guess that might be too much information, but you have to learn to deal with all kinds of crap out here."

Eddie pitched a really nice pop up tent. He could pack it around since he didn't carry any tools, other then a few lightweight battery packs.

Meanwhile the Camera lady and Louise were out drinking and carousing. While they caroused, Miles and Eddie lay on the ground trying to sleep. It wasn't the most miserable night either of the men had spent, but it wasn't totally pleasant either.

The next morning over the last of the coffee, they broke camp. They stopped for more coffee and biscuits at the same fast food restaurant. While there Miles said, "Eddie I can retrace my original moves for you, or we can run the same tests on some new ground. You can edit it anyway you want," Miles suggested.

Let me step out in the parking lot and make a call. Let Silvia or Roger decide," he suggested.

Miles just nodded his agreement. Either way he was going to run the test before he left the mountain. It was only a matter of when.

Once Eddie returned he said, "Silvia said go for the new ground."

"So, you told her how boring this was," Miles said with a laugh.

"Something like that," Eddie agreed with a laugh of his own.

"Good, then they won't be expecting anything exciting. Get ready for a hike. We are going to have to sleep in a cold camp tonight. Remember we aren't suppose to be in there. There are likely to be land owner, game wardens, sheriff deputies and moonshiners near our dig site," Miles said.

"Why is that," Eddie asked.

Moonshiners need fresh water that means fast moving water. The cops of all kinds will be looking for them. None of them will probably care about us, but sometimes getting your driver's license will get you shot by accident.

They hiked in eight miles by Eddie's GPS. Since it was on an over grown trail, if there had ever been a trial at all, the going was slow. Just about when Miles was about to give up and swear the GPS was wrong, he heard the rushing water.

"Obviously no one has mined this site since the advent of trucks. There are no roads in or out. If there had been any modern mining, there would be roads. So that's a good sign. Louise says the Sample downstream had good markers so there might be some gold here.

I am going to get Louise a couple of core samples, then I'm going to take some samples of my own," Miles said as he collected his sample gear, then waded into the water. He took a sample from the start of the rough water, and one at the middle and end of the rapids.

Then he went back into the water to use his coffee heating pot to scrap some silt from the start of the rapids. It was surely the slowest possible way to test the buildup at the rapids, but it would work. He poured creek water over the sample so that he could wash the small dirt back into the pot as he pulled the pebble sized stones from the sample. When he had the larger stones out of the pot, he poured the contents over a piece of fine nylon screen wire. He also cleared the dirt from the screen. Miles hoped to find at lest one gold flake. He sampled four four or five spots before dark and ran them through the make shift sluice. In the end he came away with nothing.

That night they slept on the ground under a very lightweight tarp. The tarp kept their body heat in, which was uncomfortable half the time. In the end of the night they both were thrilled to see the sun.

"Let's pack up and move upstream. We should find the next spot to test about five miles upstream," Miles suggested.

What he found was a set of small rapids just below the entrance of another creek. He went through the same procedure as the day before, with more or less the same results. But on day three he chose to gather all the sample dirt then run it all at once. He thought it might be more efficient.

He washed the sample down to tiny gravel, then ran it through the screen and found nothing. In his small wash cloth type trap, under the wire screen, he found it. The one flake of gold wasn't going to make him rich, but it did suggest to him that he was on the right track.

"Son of a bitch," he said. "It's right where Louise and Ada said it would be."

"It's a good thing because we are going to play hell finding our way out, if we stay here any longer," Eddie said.

"Don't edit this out please. Let them edit it at the studio if they want, but I think the real story should include you. Some of the interesting shit will be our interacting with the camera, not trying to pretend it isn't there. Even the dumbest member of the audience knows it is." Miles said.

Then he went back to trying to give the illusion that the cameraman wasn't there.

While Miles and Eddie had been working on the second site, Jerri was working the girls. Louise had enjoyed her evening out, even if Jerri did have to drive her home. The were both a little drunk, so Jerri proposed that she sleep in Miles room.

Louise said,"Definitely not. You can have my bed. I can sleep on the sofa bed in the living room."

"Why don't you sleep with me?" Jerri asked.

"Because I'm not gay," Louise said.

"Nothing will happen. I will even sleep in most of my clothes," Jerri agreed.

Louise realize it was all part of the plan designed by QE2TV. They wanted drama, but Louise wasn't playing into it. "You know on second thought you need to go. You can make it back to your motel," Louise said.