Every few years, Chrissy is allowed by her bosses to take her annual two-weeks of vacation all at once (instead of one week at a time). This allows us time to drive to more far away locations, including the Southwest for its wonderful scenery and bountiful rockhounding potential. This year, we had our sights set on southern New Mexico where I had scoped out a bunch of places to collect.
On our way out West, we stopped to spend Good Friday and the following Saturday in Marion, Kentucky where we had arranged with the Clement Mineral Museum to dig fluorite and associated minerals with a fine group of McRockers. But, I'll leave that terrific experience to another field trip report.
The next stop on our westward journey was Bixby, Missouri where we met up with Docia Lenz, Virgil Richards, James Johnson and Floyd Speck. Docia was kind enough to lead us to a local quarry where a variety of minerals are located. I didn't take any pictures of the quarry and and am not at liberty to tell you exactly where we were, but I can share the following pictures of some of what we brought home.
Click on each specimen picture to enlarge
Ever since being bitten by the cabbing bug several months ago, I have taken to collecting potential cutting material. I was able to fashion the following cabs from some somewhat plain looking quarry rock - this will be a ongoing feature throughout this report.
Cabochon pictures do not enlarge
We had originally planned to collect in two separate Missouri quarries that Sunday, but as we were driving to the second location just after lunch, the sky opened up with a torrent of rain. According to a weather report, the storm extended all the way into the Gulf of Mexico, so there was little chance of it letting up anytime soon. Therefore, we decided it best to take a rain check on the other quarry, but this gave us a half-day jump on our long drive to New Mexico. Thanks to Docia for the great time - we will be back!
Report continued . . . . . . .
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