Post by drocknut on Jan 25, 2014 13:16:26 GMT -5
Since Jim (Wampidy) mentioned the cactus story on the BBQ thread I figured I'd better get cracking and post about it. Don't want to get on his bad side ;-)
I don't think I have any pictures of the field trip but I do have a few to share along with the story.
A group of us went out to rockhound at Brenda which is a little bit east of Quartzsite. I'm sure Jean will post her pictures of the trip on here later. We stopped along one of the many trails/roads out there to look for rocks because Jean saw some nice jasper along the road. We all got out and scattered around the area in search of agate/jasper treasures. Jim wanted to try to get a picture of the cactus he saw and was having some trouble so I was called in to help. I got distracted on the way to the location though when I looked down as I was coming across the side of the road. I screamed to Jean, don't know why but she was the first person I thought of, then did a double and triple take of what I picked up . It was a piece of gem silica. I had never seen one so large in that area. There had been a thin vein of the stuff found by Jean's husband on last year's trip but nothing really good sized. After a lot of ooohs and ahhhhs we all spread out along the road looking for the small piece that Jean's husband pointed out probably broke off recently from the piece I had picked up. After about an hour we had found nothing so I got called back to getting Jim's picture. I took the picture and headed back to the road when I stopped to talk to one of the guys (sorry but I am terrible with names). He moved his foot and I just happened to look down and see the lost piece of my find right next to his foot in the track in the road. I wish I could have bought a lottery ticket that day since it seems like it was my lucky day. I did my happy dance all the way back to the truck. Jim said he deserved a piece of it since it was because of the picture he wanted to take that I even found it at all but I subscribe to the rockhound rule...FINDERS KEEPERS...lol. I also got offered several avocados for the piece but since Jean didn't have the tree with her it was no deal.
I just took a few pictures of it with my phone so I could post them. Enjoy.
I don't think I have any pictures of the field trip but I do have a few to share along with the story.
A group of us went out to rockhound at Brenda which is a little bit east of Quartzsite. I'm sure Jean will post her pictures of the trip on here later. We stopped along one of the many trails/roads out there to look for rocks because Jean saw some nice jasper along the road. We all got out and scattered around the area in search of agate/jasper treasures. Jim wanted to try to get a picture of the cactus he saw and was having some trouble so I was called in to help. I got distracted on the way to the location though when I looked down as I was coming across the side of the road. I screamed to Jean, don't know why but she was the first person I thought of, then did a double and triple take of what I picked up . It was a piece of gem silica. I had never seen one so large in that area. There had been a thin vein of the stuff found by Jean's husband on last year's trip but nothing really good sized. After a lot of ooohs and ahhhhs we all spread out along the road looking for the small piece that Jean's husband pointed out probably broke off recently from the piece I had picked up. After about an hour we had found nothing so I got called back to getting Jim's picture. I took the picture and headed back to the road when I stopped to talk to one of the guys (sorry but I am terrible with names). He moved his foot and I just happened to look down and see the lost piece of my find right next to his foot in the track in the road. I wish I could have bought a lottery ticket that day since it seems like it was my lucky day. I did my happy dance all the way back to the truck. Jim said he deserved a piece of it since it was because of the picture he wanted to take that I even found it at all but I subscribe to the rockhound rule...FINDERS KEEPERS...lol. I also got offered several avocados for the piece but since Jean didn't have the tree with her it was no deal.
I just took a few pictures of it with my phone so I could post them. Enjoy.