Rock Party, Day 2

I took MLB with me on Saturday, October 15. He was excited to go! We weren't able to find a close parking place, because a bunch of folks decided to Occupy Big Spring Park.

Of course, he had to have his own dinosaur egg. We looked at this critter and at the list of possible dinosaurs; we came to the conclusion that it was a "protoceratops." This was good, as that triceratops are one of his favorite dinosaurs. He has named this little guy "First Horn" (apropos.)

Our first stop was the area with activity pages and dinosaur rubbings. That was quickly followed by a trip to the Rock-dig.

The club outdid themselves. Not only had they raked into the churt donated scraps from slab cuttings, but they'd also bought big buckets of quartz points and iron pyrite. Those quartz points were only thing on MLB's list to buy. Check that off! These are the boy's fabulous finds.

We visited the phosphorescent minerals and glass booth while we waited for space to clear at the gem-panning slue. I had no idea

what we'd be doing at the slue, but I was game, as was the boy. Let me say right here and now: I had WAY more fun than my son. I would have gladly paid over another $5 and rinsed rocks until my fingers were too pruney to pick anymore. Here's the setup: the club rents the trailer with the panning trays, collection buckets and panning bags, along with the slue. Then the club orders and buys mine tailings of various gemstones; in a large tub they mix scoops of tailings with dirt and fill the burlap bags.

If you know what you're looking for, you'll find a ton of stuff. MLB was good at finding the big stuff like quartz points (citrine, crystal and amethest) and more pyrite. I also showed him which were the garnets. (These are his "big" pieces.) He got bored while I hunted the smaller garnets, rubies, emeralds, the dark sapphires and the un-gemlike fluorite, aventurine, calcite, sodalite, corundum and agates. When I got through with that bag, there was not much left in the pan besides dirt. I learned all this while talking with one charming member who also works at the Burritt. She and I marveled at all the good pieces that ended up with the silt at the end of the slue (she said I could help myself!)

The poor boy entertained himself with repeat visits to the glow-in-the-dark tent and the activities area. I think his ADHD meds were wearing off, so we took a lunch break (& meds break.) We sat to eat by the Society's information table, and after we ate, I purchased six tickets for the drawings. He helped me chose what to register for; I insisted on trying for both sets of garnet earrings, while he preferred some mineral and fossil samples. After that we went to look at the vendors and other educational exhibits.

He loves animals and he loves turtles. We looked at several vendors who had dyed and carved Mexican agate before we settled on these little nik-nacks: the blue turtle is his, the green turtle is for his sister, and I figured the turtles needed some place to live, so the purple mushroom is mine. The "boulder" is a South Carolina garnet. One of the more enthusiastic vendors (who sold everything from raw stone & finishing machines to designed jewelry) had a bowl out that he was starting to polish. I saw them and pointed them out to my son, telling him they looked like "craisins." The gentleman was proud to tell us about
those gems and invited MLB to handle some stone samples and to chose for himself a garnet. Wow! As I said, rockhounds are a great bunch! I showed my son the fascinating things I'd found the day before-- the stalactites, the fossils, rocks bigger than him, the sparkling geodes of every size and composition. I showed him the magnetic rocks. These he liked, so I let him chose a round (and strong) one for himself and a freeform (and weaker) one for his sister. Some vendors called them hematite, some called them magnetic rocks (since my research has shown that they are most likely a manufactured item and not a mined one, but are modeled after the real thing.)

Speaking of hematite, I've wondered about the composition of my son's geode. His Godmother's niece gave it to him. The quartz is apparent, but the outer matrix has had me puzzled. It almost seems metallic. It took us a while to get a moment with Bill, one of the founding members (he was running the many merit badge courses.) I was told that if anyone would know, he would.

He and his contemporary sat down & examined it; I admitted that I had no idea of its origin; I listed the places I knew the family had traveled to. After a while with no consensus, they agreed-- with our permission-- to polish part of the cut edge to see if that would be more revealing. MLB was very interested in the different colored/numbered grinding & polishing wheels. I told him what they were doing while four gentlemen discussed our rock. The end opinion was a Mexican geode with a hematite matrix, not pyrite. The man who polished it apologized that he only had his flat-surface equipment with him; to polish the whole cut edge would lose too much geode. I'd be welcome to bring it to a meeting or demo when he had his other equipment running.

We had a great weekend with a great bunch of folks. We're looking forward to 2012. Who knows, they might even have a new member family that year.