Competition!

I headed back out to the Metroparks today and decided to hit up the other baseball diamond that's just across from the one I searched yesterday.  The weather was decent, and I wasn't out there 15 minutes when I noticed another guy metal-detecting the ball diamond I just did yesterday!  We had a pretty good amount of space between us, but right then and there I knew these parks were gone over with a fine-tooth comb.  Even with the finds yesterday, I really had the impression that someone had been there before...the beeps just weren't as steady.

I decided to just let him be...and me be...and turned around a bit short of the walk I would have done.  But he kept searching the very areas I did yesterday, and I began to wonder if he had searched my area yesterday, too!  After finding a quarter and a penny, I decided to make the walk over and introduce myself.

The guy was as nice as could be and was more than talkative.  We talked about detecting, about our experiences, and about our detectors.  I have a $215 detector and his was $1549.  Needless to say, his has a lot more bells and whistles to it.  He told me he has been detecting for 30 years!!!  He and his brother detect, and his brother just found his 1300th silver coin!  This guy hadn't found that many yet, but he says he finds them all the time.  We talked for a good 15-20 minutes and ended up exchanging numbers.  He has an extra metal detector (the expensive type) and invited me to go with him sometime.  He also told me that I was swinging my detector too fast.  I wasn't sure I agreed as I had found over 175 coins by this point, but I listened to one who has gone before me.

This is the first time I've seen another guy detecting, so it was interesting to me.  I'm glad he was nice as could be, though, and I'm actually looking forward to digging with him!  I headed back towards my baseball diamond after our talk, but I was kind of getting restless with the weather.  So I decided to take the detector with me down by the river along the trails.  I searched for a few minutes there and found a penny, but I was ready to call it a day.  It was just too nice to be metal-detecting!  I was pretty easily distracted by a cute little girl out for a run, so I stopped by to say hello to her.  Long story short, I traded in my detector for a pair of running shoes.  Cute girls do that to guys.

27 more cents.  Maybe a half hour of actual detecting if that.  And a sun that needed to be enjoyed in other ways!