My Annual Pilgrimage to the Gem & Mineral Show

Every year I make an annual pilgrimage to the Gem and Mineral Show, if I can make it.  In fact I'd have to be on my death bed or so far out of town I couldn't get there in a days drive.  This year was no different and I did make it.  Only this year was different because I went with my Red Hat friends.
    The Red Hatters had been talking about doing this for a couple of years but it just never worked out for them. This year was different and we were finally able to go.  I was suppose to entertain the group in July, but I had to be out of town so the Lady that had August graciously switched with me.  Taking them to this was the perfect solution for me.  They like bling stuff and I liked the fact I didn't have to clean my house to have them over as I would have if I had done  what was originally planned. (I've been gone for a month, and needless to say it needs a good cleaning because my sons and husband were still at home while I was gone.)

Every year I see new and exciting things.  Some things aren't new to me but I still like seeing them anyway.  I think of it like going to a museum only with this museum you can buy the items and frequently you see a lot of stuff that does eventually end up in museums.  So you're seeing the creme of the la creme - what can be more exciting than that?

Here's some of the exciting and wonderful things I saw.  These were so beautiful to look at with the light shining upon them.  The vendor said it was mineral encrusted coral. The pictures do not do them justice at all.

This person had these fishes and other sea creature embedded in shale.  He said they came from China.  I've seen fish from Germany that was orangey in color but not fish like this. The details in it were amazing.   .  I'm always amazed when they can find creatures like that in rocks - when you thing at how soft theirs bodies are and for them to be preserved like this just blows me away.  And because they are so rare they prices reflected it too.  So it was fun to look at and takes its image.  I could tell the vendor was found of it also because he picked it up and tilted it so I could get a good shot of it.  It's nice to meet people who appreciate the same things you do and realize how valuable something is.

 Just look at this shrimp and the details in it.  It kinda blew me away.  It looked almost like you could pick it out and eat it, but it was really embedded into that shale. 

 Here's some other fossils that he had but they were not near as exquisite as those first three were.

These trilobite were at a different vendors place.  They were fun to look at too. Unfortunately when I asked about these trilobites the person there didn't know anything but said if I waited the person that did know would be back shortly - I just looked and took the pictures.It did make me curious as to what it is and if I had to venture a guess I'd say it might be Paradoxides or Ptchoparia if they came from Cambrian age rocks.

 Look at these trilobites and crocodile head.  Everyone was oohing and awing over that too.  I had to look and drool too because as you can imagine it was way out of my price range too.

 And just so you can get an idea of some of the prices I'm including this shot too.  If you look closely you can see these bugs are just a mere 350 to $450.00.   Wouldn't you love to be able to buy all of these and think nothing about it. Its stuff like this that I like to dream about.

This one I really liked because the calyx was so intact on this crinoid.  At least that's what I was thinking it was when I saw it.  Now I'm not so sure - it may be an Echinoderm.  I wished I had asked.  If nothing else if I found the age of the rock then I would have a better idea of what it is. 

 

Mammoth tooth

 I've seen these before on a test.  Luckily for me I was once on a field trip and some of the guys discovered something very similar in a former glacier river bed and found out what it was. The department I was with became the proud owners of it and it was a fun piece to stump people with.  Can you guess what it is?  They had two of them there.  I couldn't tell if it had been sawed open or if it was two different pieces. I was glad I got it right so quickly and I impressed the person who was trying to sell it - Very few people get it right.

 a Mammoth tooth

And here's some of the things I bought.
 I picked this piece up to see if I could figure out what type of trilobite it was.  When I saw it was only 4 dollars I couldn't resist getting it.  Its Diacolymene Qugri Ordovician in age from Morocco.  I got it right from being from the right area but wrong age.  And I'm not sure if the name is right or not, but I had to go with what the vendor said it was.

 Can you guess what this was.  I missed it when I first saw it and the vendor said I bet you can't guess it.  With clues I finally figured it out. 

Here's a different view of it.
I asked him if it was sedimentary - since it didn't look metamorphic at all and it was too light to be igneous.  He said it was from the ocean.  Big clue there.  That through me off because the way he was acting I was thinking it might be something weird like a coprolite, and guessed that.

 Here's some different angles of it. When I took the photo's I forgot the scales at first.
I then asked him if it was a fossil, and he didn't really answer that by saying it could be.  I looked at it some more and said the tiny pores in it reminds me of bone. He said I was right with that and that threw me off.   He then asked me which bone and would it help if he oriented it in the correct way.  He then positioned it like that.  I couldn't imagine any bone positioned like that.  He said look at it closely what does it look like and I looked again and said it looks like an.....

Whales ear

 Ear.  He said Bingo - its a whales Ear.  Its a piece of the inner ear in a whale.  It was only 15 dollars and I couldn't resist getting it since I found it so fascinating to look at. 
I'm sure glad I never got that on a Paleontology test because I'm sure I would have missed that one. 

 I know this isn't the best image but it has the scale on it so you can see how big it is. 
 
 Here's a better image of it. 
 The next piece I liked because it was so pure looking and it was a mineral I didn't own in such a large size.

Schorl or Black tourmaline

 One of my hobbies is to make jewelry/ beads for Mardi Gras.  With the Red Hattes my name is Lady of Love- so I like to give beads away that are heart shape if I can.  So I was pleased to be able to get so many heart shaped beads. 

Howlite and Moonstone

 Here's some more:

 Here's the list so I can keep track of what's what.

      Blue- died Howlite, to look like lapis
      blue - sodalite
      green - she said green quartz but it sure did look like Aventurine to me.
      blue green - died Howlite to look like Turquoise
      red- Red jasper
      tan - picture jasper
      brown - tigers eye
      black -Onyx

 And finally is this last piece I got.  I think this is by far the most fascinating thing I saw.
When you first look at it you think its a burrow of some animal.  But what animal?  

Fulgurite from Kermit Texas

 You notice the tube that runs threw it from top to bottom.  You can see the pieces of sand sticking to it. But then when you really look at it closely in spots its shiny - almost like glass. In fact it almost looks like a glass bead.

Fulgurite from Kermit Texas.

 Finally the vendor tells you that it is Fulgurite from Kermit, Texas.  Fulgurite is formed when lightening strikes the ground and goes into it.   The heat is so intense it melts the material that it goes into.  Out where this came from there is a lot of sand and so the sand gets melted and forms these tubes.  The vendor was telling me that he's seen some that are are a couple of feet long.
   I just got this small one because it was in a price range I could afford.  He had others that were a lot longer but of course they were way more expensive too.
   I just thought it would be a fun piece to have.  I like coming across these head scratchers items.  It make the show so enjoyable to go to.  I spent over two hours there and could have spent more but I did have other things to do with the Red Hatters and so I had to go since I was the host of this outing.


For some reason the Red Hatters picture didn't down load - I guess it was more pixels than whats allowed.  Is that a hint we might need to start dieting??? 

I muse:  I was planning to go again the next day.  I was going to take more pictures and maybe some other things but my son had a swim party to go to and it took longer than I thought it would, so we didn't make it again.  I'm just grateful I got the images I did get and the things I did get.   Maybe next year.....