Friday, June 28..
I received a call from Brett asking me about The RingFinders and if I’d be able to search for a ring lost in a swimming hole out in the country.. He told me the water was no deeper than 5 ft., which is right at the limit before requiring diving gear. I told him that I’d be willing to give it a try hoping it would be in shallower water. His wife Natalie called me had with a few more details. Her daughter Amanda was wearing her grandfather’s 55 year old wedding ring. While swingging from a rope swing over the water her friend threw a ball at her. Well, she tried to bat the ball away with her hand and the heavy ring went into the murky water.
We set up a meeting place for Sunday morning and took off for this secret swimming hole. It was about 12 miles out in the boondocks. A real pretty country swimming hole including the rope swing. I was using my Excalibur Minelab waterproof detector and waded into the water. Amada and her friends were there and explained how it happened and the direction she hit the ball. Well, the water was up to my neck and retrieving the targets was next to impossible with my scoop. So, the guys offered to dive down to get the targets. I would put the handle of the scoop on the target and they would grab a hand full of sand. After about 20 minutes we started finding fishing weights, coins and sunglasses. An hour or so later, the young guys took a break and Brett, Amanda’s dad took a few dives. It was looking like everybody was giving up hope.. Then I got a nice signal and told Brett we aren’t leaving until we recover this target.. He went down and came up with a big smile saying it’s a ring.. We had 20 or more onlookers and there were cheers and tears, also smiles. It was certainly a family affair with Mom setting it up, Dad making the great dive and all the friends helping. I could not of done it myself.. On my web page I say. “I’ll try anywhere” .. I’m starting to have second thoughts about that.. The search is a challenge, the real experience is meeting such nice people and being able to help them..
