ScubaInChicago
Contributor
My wife and I just got back last night from yet another amazing trip to the Bonne Terre Mines. This time it was for a weekend of fun starting Saturday with the annual Bonne Terre Mine Treasure Hunt. It was an awesome event and was great to finally put names/avatars to faces of fellow Scubaboard members.
The treasure hunt event couldn’t have been planned better; the entire event seemed to flow as one long day of fun. Our day started at 7:00 AM with a check in and a bit of the usual paperwork. Shortly after the rules and dive briefing were announced, then back to the car to put the knives away as this was claimed to be an unfair advantage. Everyone from our group split up to suit up for dive one and meet back by the mule entrance with gear in hand for the journey into deep earth.
Down and down we went, 68 steps, and I counted, to a graded trail that leads back a 1/8th mile trough dark carved rock with the sounds of dripping water surrounding you. At the dock the wife and I are gearing up with a last minute huddle to go over strategies, then into the toasty 58 degree water.
It was then a short surface swim to the area just above the arena of fun where we descended. Our eyes lit up when we saw the various poker chips sprawled across the rocky mine floor and into action we went. I had a slight problem at first trying to fit fistfuls of chips into my goodie bag and lost about a minute of precious search and recovery time, moments later the signal to surface came.
We ascended and surface swam to arena #2 where the wife and I modified our efforts slightly and when the signal came we shot to the bottom again to claim more chips. This time you could tell the heat was on, people reaching for the same chip at the same time. I’m sure that the referees found it comical to watch as a group of 12+ divers clamored over the remaining chips.
Back on land, but still in the mine, it was time to tally the winnings. Of course the wife outdid me, and by a substantial margin of about $3,000.00. I asked if she had been turning of people’s tanks or what the proprietary secret was.
Topside the wife and I enjoyed a game of tossing washers, reading scuba magazines, and visiting the vendors who had donated prized to the events. These people were a wealth of knowledge regarding the products they represented. We left each booth daydreaming what life would be like winning various trips, an underwater camera, or a new undergarment for my drysuit.
Before we knew it, our surface interval was up and it was time to enter into the mine again to find more of the elusive black chips which had the highest value. Same as the last time, we spent two rounds of 10 minutes underwater collecting every chip in sight. And again, after we were done the wife was a magnet to the high value chips and beat me out again by a couple of thousand points. At the tally table we learned she had scavenged up nearly $9,000.00 worth of chips which put her in the running for a future dive trip.
Topside again, we compared notes with the other divers, feeling out the competition. The food was set out and the lines followed, we sat down and continued talking to others making friends along the way. We both agreed that regardless of the prizes, the price of admission was well worth the amount of fun we had.
After dinner the comedy show began, also known as the auction. Steve did a great job keeping the crowd in stitches. There were so many great prizes to bid on and I would guess that around 40 percent of the people attending won something of substantial value. The wife ended up winning an 8 day/7 night trip to Utopia Utila which looks like a diving paradise from their website.
Since we had driven 6 hours from Chicago, we decided to take advantage of the diving the following day and filled in the blanks on a couple of the lower trails we missed on our previous visits. There is no shortage of amazing things to see on each dive. We both had heard about the train and finally got to see it, a miniature steam locomotive laying on its side looked almost surreal and out of place. These were just another great sets of dives at Bonne Terre to add to the logbook.
My wife and I would like to thank Doug and his wife for hosting this great event and also the staff who made everything down to the small details a blast. We would also like to thank the vendors who we had the pleasure of speaking with who had all donated prizes. We wish more of the vendors who donated prizes had attended as we both enjoy travel and attaining new gear along the way. We will definitely be there again next year.
To Sum it all up;
Cost of gas there and back: $110.00
Cost of admission: $99.00
Value of Prize Won: $1,500.00
Seeing NetDoc in his new flooded drysuit: Priceless
P.S. Let us know if an Easter Egg hunt is in the works.
The treasure hunt event couldn’t have been planned better; the entire event seemed to flow as one long day of fun. Our day started at 7:00 AM with a check in and a bit of the usual paperwork. Shortly after the rules and dive briefing were announced, then back to the car to put the knives away as this was claimed to be an unfair advantage. Everyone from our group split up to suit up for dive one and meet back by the mule entrance with gear in hand for the journey into deep earth.
Down and down we went, 68 steps, and I counted, to a graded trail that leads back a 1/8th mile trough dark carved rock with the sounds of dripping water surrounding you. At the dock the wife and I are gearing up with a last minute huddle to go over strategies, then into the toasty 58 degree water.
It was then a short surface swim to the area just above the arena of fun where we descended. Our eyes lit up when we saw the various poker chips sprawled across the rocky mine floor and into action we went. I had a slight problem at first trying to fit fistfuls of chips into my goodie bag and lost about a minute of precious search and recovery time, moments later the signal to surface came.
We ascended and surface swam to arena #2 where the wife and I modified our efforts slightly and when the signal came we shot to the bottom again to claim more chips. This time you could tell the heat was on, people reaching for the same chip at the same time. I’m sure that the referees found it comical to watch as a group of 12+ divers clamored over the remaining chips.
Back on land, but still in the mine, it was time to tally the winnings. Of course the wife outdid me, and by a substantial margin of about $3,000.00. I asked if she had been turning of people’s tanks or what the proprietary secret was.
Topside the wife and I enjoyed a game of tossing washers, reading scuba magazines, and visiting the vendors who had donated prized to the events. These people were a wealth of knowledge regarding the products they represented. We left each booth daydreaming what life would be like winning various trips, an underwater camera, or a new undergarment for my drysuit.
Before we knew it, our surface interval was up and it was time to enter into the mine again to find more of the elusive black chips which had the highest value. Same as the last time, we spent two rounds of 10 minutes underwater collecting every chip in sight. And again, after we were done the wife was a magnet to the high value chips and beat me out again by a couple of thousand points. At the tally table we learned she had scavenged up nearly $9,000.00 worth of chips which put her in the running for a future dive trip.
Topside again, we compared notes with the other divers, feeling out the competition. The food was set out and the lines followed, we sat down and continued talking to others making friends along the way. We both agreed that regardless of the prizes, the price of admission was well worth the amount of fun we had.
After dinner the comedy show began, also known as the auction. Steve did a great job keeping the crowd in stitches. There were so many great prizes to bid on and I would guess that around 40 percent of the people attending won something of substantial value. The wife ended up winning an 8 day/7 night trip to Utopia Utila which looks like a diving paradise from their website.
Since we had driven 6 hours from Chicago, we decided to take advantage of the diving the following day and filled in the blanks on a couple of the lower trails we missed on our previous visits. There is no shortage of amazing things to see on each dive. We both had heard about the train and finally got to see it, a miniature steam locomotive laying on its side looked almost surreal and out of place. These were just another great sets of dives at Bonne Terre to add to the logbook.
My wife and I would like to thank Doug and his wife for hosting this great event and also the staff who made everything down to the small details a blast. We would also like to thank the vendors who we had the pleasure of speaking with who had all donated prizes. We wish more of the vendors who donated prizes had attended as we both enjoy travel and attaining new gear along the way. We will definitely be there again next year.
To Sum it all up;
Cost of gas there and back: $110.00
Cost of admission: $99.00
Value of Prize Won: $1,500.00
Seeing NetDoc in his new flooded drysuit: Priceless
P.S. Let us know if an Easter Egg hunt is in the works.
