Not My Greatest Moment Metal Detecting

I've shared the two silver rings I've found so far this year, so it's only fitting I also share this story.

My wife was going out of town this weekend to see her sister and both my daughters were working, so I thought this was the perfect morning to go out for an extended hunt.

I dropped my younger daughter off at work at 8:00 a.m. and drove to a town 25 miles away to a park with a baseball diamond I had driven by several times. It looked like an older park right next to an old house. It was a cold and windy morning with temperatures in the mid-30s and some scattered snow flurries. I made sure I dressed warmly.

I had only been detecting for about fifteen minutes when my Garrett Pro-Pointer started squawking that the battery was dying. So, I got up and walked across the field back to my car, opened the trunk to get out a fresh battery, closed it and started back. I had taken about ten steps when the awful realization hit me that I had just locked my keys in my trunk.

So, as sheepishly as I could, I called my wife, who was just about to leave for her sister's house on the other side of Wisconsin, to tell her what I'd done and to ask her to bring me the spare set of keys (No "ON Star" for us). She was just on her way out but didn't have the spare set. They were with my daughter I'd dropped off at work.

To make a long story short I got to metal detect another hour and a half in a very cold park that turned out to not be old at all. I found a couple of clad quarters and some Memorials.

My lovely wife showed up. (Did I mention she's the best wife in world?) She gave me the keys, told me she had a headache and that I was taking her out to lunch before she left.

I am nearly sixty years old and have never before locked my keys in my car. What a lousy way to do it for the first time.

The only good thing from the hunt was as I sat on a picnic table, having just checked with my wife on her estimated arrival time, a mom with two little boys came by. One of the boys asked what I was doing. I gave them each one of the dirty clad quarters I'd found and they were thrilled.

Oh yes, my wife says I owe her. Big time.