On the third of April 2013 I was hit by a car, which broke my neck; four ribs; big toe on my right foot; and a severe brain injury. I was initially knocked unconscious and hospitalized for five days in intensive care. When released I was required to wear a neck brace to support my head and unable to do much of anything that is including standing for much more than ten minutes due to the pain and unable to lay flat on my back because I would pass out.
Thanks to some great friends and a lot of prayers I was able to recover fairly quickly and start to function more normally, but never fully like I once was. I received an invitation to attend the Riverside Treasure Hunting Club meeting and one of the members came by my house and even picked me up since I was not allowed to drive. At the meeting I was still wearing the neck brace and the big annual hunt was coming up and I had attended the year before and did not want to miss out on this one, so I signed-up, never knowing what was in store for me.
The day of the hunt turned out to be beautiful with great weather and hundreds of prizes and many new machines to win. I told another club member who was so kind to come to my house and pick me up how great it would be to win a machine while driving to the hunt, but never once thought I would be walking away with so much more. I won yet another great Minelab detector the X-TERRA 705; a pin pointer; rock tumbler; and the club pin made of gold. I was envied by many I think because I not only walked away with many of the bigger prizes, but the year before while at Minelab’s metal detecting day event I won an Explorer SE PRO while using my Excalibur II.
The amazing things do not stop there. On Memorial Day another metal detectorist and I decided to go to Azusa canyon to test the X-TERRA 705 and a 18 kHz coil I purchased for detecting gold. I had never tried prospecting and he knew of an area about an hour away. We got to the area and while detecting we are finding the typical trash, but thirty minutes into the hunting I am along the wall of the area and got two signals just where a long run of bedrock has a shear drop off of about three feet and some larger stones below. After moving the stones and digging my first signal I found a piece of shot. I was so anxious before and then after seeing it I felt a little let down while digging the next target. But, that was short lived when I discovered the next target was a beautiful piece of alluvial gold. WOW! I was taken by complete surprise, I was jumping around and so excited and my friend was just as shocked.
I show the nugget to everyone that ask me if I have ever found anything valuable and I tell them all about how I used the X-TERRA 705 and found the nugget within thirty minutes. I myself could never have imagined all that has happened as a result of making that initial purchase of the Excalibur II, which was used to find my mother's wedding ring that was lost for forty years.
I have now made an almost complete recovery and owe a great deal of thanks to the wonderful people that have been there to help me through it all with prayers; to the friends that have given me rides during the time I was not allowed to drive; and to Minelab for continually producing some of the greatest machines that have kept this amazing hobby going and at the same time helped me get through yet another challenging time in my life.
Many write about how they find amazing treasures while using their machines, but I have found an amazing life full of valuable friends and memories. Amazing things do happen if we choose to get-up and take the chance.
Mark K. - California, USA