The sad story of Joe

Hi Friends,

I saw a call for help on a local gold prospecting group page from a man named Joe. He had come west (with his cat) in his van and was hoping to strike it rich. He told me he was enamored with gold mining after watching the show Gold Rush, and figured he could come out, make half an ounce per day and get rich.

However, he had been to three sure fire locations where gold is and only found one flake. His call for help was two fold: 1. help me figure out how to get the gold, and 2. help, I’m running out of money and have been living in my van for two weeks.

I saw this sad story and said I was in his area and could come meet him (he was almost out of gas and had no money to fill the tank). I gave him my take on prospecting (see NOTE below), and, more importantly, gave him some cash to help him keep going. We discussed how he could start to get a foothold here in California so he can land on his feet, as he came west with $2,000 and it is essentially gone and he his golden plan has not “panned” out.

Unfortunately, Joe will need to make some hard decisions and get some traction fast, otherwise; he will be homeless and living on the streets soon. My prayers are with Joe and I told him to reach out to me if his situation turns dire.

NOTE: Yes! there is gold in the hills! BUT… you would almost certainly make more money flopping whoppers at BK and will probably die early from a snakebite, a loose Boulder, a broken arm/back/leg, cancer from sunburn, bear attack, getting robbed at gun point, etc - but maybe one or two people could get lucky and hit the jackpot!

Thanks for coming by and hearing this story.

Brian