Hello! My name is Crusty and I am obsessive/compulsive

I figured I'd start another Crusty thread with a cooler name (other than my Pike's Peak Area Finds thread).

So who is Crusty? The most obvious answer is that I'm a Chief Master Sergeant (E9) in the Air Force, with as of today, 3 weeks shy of 29 years of service.

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Since the Air Force will run my off at 30 years, next Oct, I'll be retiring soon, staying here in CO (I'm from WA, but my wife is from Lakewood). "What am I going to do after that?" you ask? I'm thinking after not having gone longer than about 3 weeks without shaving for 30 years, I'll start by growing a beard (but I will still shave my head lol)... beyond that, not much! :)

My wife also served in the Air Force, retiring 3 years ago after 25 years, as a Senior Master Sergeant (E8). Somehow I managed to set a good enough example for my daughter that she followed in our footsteps and has been in the Air Force for 1.5 years now herself! Here's a pic from 3 years ago, when my daughter was in JROTC at Mitchell HS.

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So yes, I have OCD, which is a blessing and a curse. When I use my powers for good and not evil, it pushes me to do things I'd never think possible. I decided I wanted to run a marathon (26.2 miles) before I turned 40 and I did... and have done 2 more, plus a 26.2-mile ruck march with a 35 pound pack.

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I decided to take up endurance motorcycle riding and 3 years later I had ridden almost 100,000 miles, from coast-to-coast-to-coast in under 100 hours, from Canada to Mexico and back in under 50 hours, done 1650 miles in 24 hours, topped off with riding to the lower 48 states, stopping in Mexico, and then up to Hyder, AK, 10,300 miles in 9.5 days. Then I sold my touring bike and bought a used dual sport BMW and took it camping for a week in Death Valley, took 3 weeks and rode up to Prudhoe Bay, AK and all around the Yukon and NW Territories. Then I fell in love with a bright yellow HD and added that to my stable.

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The internet sure has made hooking up with other groups of folks obsessed about stuff; not sure if it is a good thing or bad thing, but given all the friends around the world I have maintained over years who I've met getting out and getting involved, I lean towards good. And that's what brought me to y'all. I was deployed to Afghanistan last year and as I was looking forward to coming home, I was doing some research on new places to come home and dig for smokies and stumbled upon Woody's videos on YouTube. I Googled Woody and this club came up. After reading around, I quickly saw y'all are a bunch of great folk who are passionate about what you do and have a vast amount of knowledge you're willing to share. I appreciate dedication, sense of community, and willingness to share with others and support such initiatives whenever I can, so I became a life member. I look forward to getting to know more of you and someday being able to share some of the smarts I've picked up from y'all!

I just try and live life to the fullest... life's too short to spend it being negative, so I love to have fun, laugh, and spend time with friends and family. That's the Reader's Digest version of, "Who's Crusty." Now on to business...

Got the pics posted; will continue later!

Hey, when you rode from Alaska to Mexico under 100 hrs, did you by chance stop at a gas station in Golden to ask the graveyard attendant to sign a.witness statement?

Can't think of any rides where I'd have needed a witness in Colorado. I haven't done any crazy rides since 2005.

I knew it was a long shot. I bore witness to a gentleman on a bike like yours going from point a to point b in under x hours. Just wondering if it was truly that small of a world!

Nifty Crusty, real nifty. Witty comment goes here - but I just spent all day prospecting and like my body, my mind is beat.

Has been great getting to know you Crusty, your top notch! Love the pictures, especially the one of you, your wife and your daughter. Looks to me like she had two great examples to follow. Great seeing how your drinking this life up like a cold beverage on a hot sunny day....a great inspiration! Thanks for sharing your story with us and thank you again for your service! You rock!!

Not to mention he was technically the founding member of the Afghanistan chapter of CP!

I told you once you found that first piece of shiny stuff you'd get hooked!

Why thank you ma'am! :)



You did indeed... I didn't believe you, but here we are lol

Great pics Chief! I'll also be curious how long it takes you to drop the habit of carrying nothing in your right arm once you've retired. It's been 8 years since I got out and I still catch myself doing it. I was only in uniform for 11 years total though, so I'm guessing after 30 years in maybe you never lose it.

It'll be cool for your daughter to be there for your retirement. I went to Ft. Bragg as the token AF guy when my old man retired after 27 years and still remember it well many years later. I miss the operational aspects of being in, and certainly working with the great people like yourself. I look forward to washing some rocks with you one of these days.

~Eric

I got lucky enough to plan my R&R from Afghanistan around her basic training graduation, which was pretty awesome and then I was home for her tech school grad. "Unfortunately" she just got married, so she no longer has my last name lol

Hope to see you out there some day soon!

Crusty I know NCOs aren't to salute each other BUT I SALUTE your dedication to you and your familys dedication to service to our Country! Plus im like you in a sense , upon getting out of the Army in Sept of 1970 I stopped shaveing and have continued to grow my beard but I HAD to trim it occasionally, more so now that I got remarried!:(

Thanks! I spent 6.5 years in your neck of the woods, up at Whiteman. My practice wife was from Jeff City and my daughter was born in Sedalia. Only thing I miss from MO is the bass fishing ;)

I'm sure I'll have to trim it some... definitely won't be a goatee; I don't get that, you STILL have to shave lol And I will definitely keep shaving my head!

So now that you have added "gold prospector" to your list, there should be a picture of you enjoying that also in this thread.

Crusty I haven't shaved since I got out of the Army in Sept. of 1970. my wife makes me trim it now occasionally so see can see me:)

THat's the plan, but I'm too busy mining ;)



Nice!!

So, back to my story. As I said, my prospecting activities have been limited to rockhounding, so when Swizz put out an invitation to visit his claim, I went with the intention of using it as an opportunity to meet him, Scratch, and see Brandon again, who I hadn't seen since we linked up in Afghanistan last year; as well as to see what cool rocks I might be able to wander around and find. I'd never mined for gold and didn't think much about it.

Swizz's claim is in some beautiful country! It was nice to get away for a few days; I don't remember the last time I went camping... it has probably been 15 years.

On day 1 I did as I figured I would, wandered around the claim, taking photos and kicking rocks, while the rest of the crew worked in the hole. Then on day 2, Swizz offered to let me borrow his Angus Mackirk Mini Long Tom sluice and Brandon loaned me a 1/2" classifier, like a couple of crack dealers giving a free sample... lol

I jumped in the chest deep hole and filled a bucket full of muck, hauled it to the culvert and used the water there to classify the bucket to -1/2 and started feeding the sluice. Being a rock nut, I was pretty darn excited to find the garnets that are also there... seeing all those cool red bits of color was just as exciting as finding gold!

Being a rookie, patience is not a virtue I posses, so I couldn't wait to empty the sluice into a pan (also generously borrowed). After Swizz gave me a quick lesson and a few flicks of the wrist, there was suddenly a blinding light that exploded before my eyes... GOLD!!!

While it was just a little speck, that was enough to give me the sickness... GOLD FEVER! I enjoyed spending the rest of the day with a shovel, buckets, a classifier, and the AM sluice. I managed to go through 5 or 6 buckets on the first day and was rewarded with a bunch of garnets and a handful of gold specks! It was official, I was now a gold miner!

Yep it happens to the best of us! :)

I'm convinced gold is twice as addictive as heroin. At least it won't cost you everything :D welcome to g.a. (gold anonymous) Hi my name is Jessie and I'm an addict!
I'm so happy you're out enjoying yourself! And better late than never : thank you and your daughter for your service!