On the way back and just before I got to my room, Joe Dorris gave me a shout and had me come by his room for a late night talk. Joe's a great guy who mines with his boys in Colorado for amazonites and smokies. And they find 'em too, just check out their website by opening the following link Click Here for Link. We talked until it just flat got too late, I was glad we did it. Things get so busy here at the show, sometimes a person just needs to slow down a bit and say hello.
Friday and I'm up early and heading over for another mornings viewing at the TCC. I snapped off another bunch of photos and will likely do the same each day I'm here. I walked with Jim awhile and then headed off. I visited with Randy and his Montana Gem ( http://www.montanagem.com/index.asp ) crew, the incomparable Linda and Randy's wonderful wife Katie. We yukked it up each morning, the smiles were contagious. I stopped each day to visit with Patsy and Henry, with Les, Paula and Steve and on and on, it's always great seeing everyone
Breathtaking serandite and analcime
from Mont Saint Hilaire, Canada.
Spectacular rutilated quartz from Brazil.
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Amethyst in all its glory. Keith Proctor display.
The beautiful quartz calcite
combo piece, awesome!
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Oh ya, quartz my size! From Russia.
And another, I think I'd be happier looking!
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Back at the room, Marc and Deb stopped by again and we talked rocks. We were both looking at a specimen I'd been pondering purchasing and when I mentioned this, Marc generously offered his opinion of the rock and pushed me right over the edge. And thus, I picked up another real sweetie, a great twinned golden calcite on dark purple fluorite which is just such a wonderful little thing. Another specimen came to me in a trade from the nice Russian lady working in the room just next door, the Russian Mineral Company. She'd come over and was very much taken with the soft pinks of the heulandite and the prickly white forests of natrolite from Washington and we started to talk. I mentioned I liked the fossils from Russia with the anapaite, rhodochrosite and vivianite from the eastern part of the Crimea Peninsula and the next day she shows up with a vivianite clam and offers it to me in trade. I thought this just too cool and happily wrapped up a nice little natrolite for her. Another great guy who visited on several occasions during the show was Jim Flora from Georgia. Jim is very active with the Georgia Mineral Society and is their Webmaster to boot. Jim has a great Tucson report which he updates regularly at http://gamineral.org/tucson_update.html . I think Jim is just the best and by checking the link out (among many other reasons) you'll see why! But seriously, Jim gave me a rock this year too. I think he felt bad for me! Ya ought to see this thing, boy is it tough! Black vaguely pointy things he called quartz crystals all covered in warty bumps he calls manganese oxides. And get this, its from a locality he calls Diamond Hill! I love this guy, what a sense of humor! I love it, Diamond Hill... :-D I tried to take a picture of the specimen just to show folks but it was the darnedest thing, each time I tried to focus my camera on it, my camera turned off. I tried every which way, even sneaking up on that ol' black lump and each time, whirrrr and it just turned off. I can't really explain it. That Jim!
Oh ya, another cool thing about today, I found $10.00 on the sidewalk walking to the TCC this morning!
Report continued . . . . . . .
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