jamesp favorites-Rio Grande #2

[captbob]

Nov 4, 2016 13:17:34 GMT -5 @shotgunner said:

jamesp

I hope you didnt break every single one!

He was a rock windowing machine! It was killing me.  He will just grind them back into round to tumble.

I went for not breaking whenever possible. Jim probably kept less "meh" rocks than I did by checking the majority of them. If the skin was cool looking to me, I kept it. Finding what is inside will be like opening Christmas presents, or a box of chocolates. Many I will never see inside. Will tumble whole and hope to save "cool" skin.

[Garage Rocker]

Now that's a bounty! #36 is incredible! Nice work captbob.

[Sabre52]

Holy droolrags Batman! Daaaaaaag Bob, you really nailed them agates and jasper down there! That first Rio poppy is the most colorful I've ever seen and man that last yaller plume is freaking awesome! No imagination need to define the plume there at all! Matt Dillon will be jealous over that one for sure. Noticed several other plume agates in there too so be careful how you orient them when you chop them up. #8 looks like Woodward red plume. One thing for sure, I think maybe you've got Rio hunting honed to a real fine edge now. Thanks for taking the time to take all those great pics....Mel

[Deleted]

captbob

I will start by saying thank you for the efforts in making that post. It is sincerely appreciated.

Further, major props for having the energy and gumption to even make such a trip. Wow.

I'm all about that bloodstone one. Fantastic! The north Cady plume agate #36 is really special too.

But, I would be proud to own any of them. I'm sure you are too.

Thanks again!

[rockjunquie]

captbob, It was worth the wait! You have some really nice stuff there. Loving the colors. That one plume is out of this world and I love the orbiculars. Thank you for sharing.

[captbob]

Thanks Scott, it really is a PITA taking 100 pics and then resizing all the ones I want to post. I ought to take a few minutes to reacquaint myself with my photobucket account - don't need to resize anything if I just store them there.

Hundreds more pictures to take Tela, That didn't even make it through one bucket. I need to put something in some of the pictures to give a size gauge. Many of these rocks are baked potato sized and some much larger than that.

I need to work on my picture taking. Some of these rocks you can see down into, and are far cooler than my pics show.

It was fun looking at some of these again. Amazing variety from that one chunk of land.
Will do more pics this weekend, gotta give folks something to stay entertained while Jim is on the road heading home.

[meviva]

captbob My faves are #'s 4, 5, 12, 14, 16, 21, 27, and 36. Ok I love them all but those stand out to me.

[jamesp]

Thanks for posting rock pics captbob. Between the two of us we may have a record number of rock pics for any trip board thread.
The first two days Bob had basalt and rhyolite family rocks.
That third day we connected in the field and he had his catch laid out in P/U bed. About everyone a trophy agate.

Scott, I did not take many photos of rocks that were not windowed.
The rocks that were windowed were done on a protrusion that would probably get ground off before tumbling.
Many biscuits were worn dead smooth a if tumbled in coarse grit, left them alone.
Many are slab/specimen size and windowed discretely to avoid carrying/sending home a dud.

Many of those moss/plumes are broken from nature or quarry process.
And those I converted into tumbles right in the field. Reducing rocks for tumbling has a waste factor, so I saved weight.
The highest grade agates and cherts would flake with a light hit.
If it had to be hit hard with the hammer it was grainy and about always of lesser quality.

[jamesp]

Nov 4, 2016 12:16:20 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

No rhyme or reason not surprising. When I took geology I learned the way to tell river gravel deposits from seashore deposits is the river gravel is unsorted while ocean deposits are sorted. I supposed the large lake acts somewhat like the ocean as far as sorting goes but those upland river deposits would not be sorted as to size.

I suspect concentrations of palm and other woods in some areas might be the result of tributary streams cutting through the petrified wood beds northwest of the Rio ie. Nueces and Frio and depositing wood along some sections of the Rio grande way back when. But then lots of petrified wood in the west Texas parts of the drainage too ( Stillwell Rch is full of wood). I also find wood in the Carrizo Springs and Eagle Pass gravel and I have a slab from a well rounded cobble from the Rio that is a dead ringer for AZ and New Mexico rainbow wood. So man there is wood from all over in those Rio deposits.

Fossilman: Texas flash floods most every time it rains more than a few inches and here in Texas, that rain falls very fast, sometimes inches per hour. Creek behind my house can go from dead dry to a raging torrent moving large rocks in minutes sometimes.....Mel

That lake gets pretty rough. It has about 3 shorelines exposed when it is low.
Each shore has 1 inch rocks at top, 2 inch rocks a few feet down hill and on and on by size as ascending.
Efficiently sorts rocks by size, not sure if it has enough mixing action to sort by density.

That 100 foot circle of palms sure was at the end of a wash that wasted onto flat land.
I thought about that wash depositing those palms there.

I think Matt Dillon hunted years in Mexico when it was safer. He has a lot of experience and knowledge of the agates input from Mexico.
Lots of hours all over Texas and drainage states to the Rio
Mexico may have more slopes feeding the Rio than the Texas side.
Must have been a cataclysmic movement of rock and soil.

Many of the vertical walls of caliche are right wave level of the lake.
Chunks full fo stones like giant conglomerate boulders release from those walls.
Many of the vertical walls have flood water running off from upland sources.

[jamesp]

Last day. Gonna miss the ole Falcon Lake area.

Favorite cow



Panorama views for the day



yes, my car is missing the front



This is the tip of the next point up captbob. Too much to cover in a day. Rock side parking...



Large rocks at the tip of this point



Lots of cows too



From a 30 foot radius upon arrival to tip of point, top row moss biscuits, middle row wood, bottom row jasper



Some wood. Some real nice, some OK. No matter, wood is cool




The rock on the right is a common find. Not sure what it is. Some have healed fractures, many not.
This may be what Texans call stink wood or rot wood. Would make killer sawn specimens.
Purple is common in this jasper on left. Many patterns. Someone Scott? mentioned 25% hematite may be the reason for purple.

[captbob]

You got clouds! The weather gods were being nice to you on your last day.

[jamesp]

Nov 4, 2016 23:26:01 GMT -5 captbob said:

You got clouds! The weather gods were being nice to you on your last day.

Drizzled a good bit too. I think this spot has been hit by collectors.
Seems like they picked up all the saw size rocks. Left me plenty of high quality tumble size stuff like 2-4 inches.
Found real nice windows of palm and wood. They took it all !

[Sabre52]

Wow, nice scenery and beautiful rocks. That is real pretty wood and I think I see a beautiful palm hunk there too. Good thing cows don't crib as bad as horses. If you leave your car alone with the horses here in our pasture, you will be missing a good part of your car when you come back to it. Horses love to chew up your car.....Mel

[jamesp]

Nov 4, 2016 23:45:30 GMT -5 jamesp said:

Nov 4, 2016 23:26:01 GMT -5 captbob said:

You got clouds! The weather gods were being nice to you on your last day.

Drizzled a good bit too. I think this spot has been hit by collectors.
Seems like they picked up all the saw size rocks. Left me plenty of high quality tumble size stuff like 2-4 inches.
Found real nice windows of palm and wood. They took it all !

Note on windowing

Picked up all these prospects for RTH photo:



Only 3 of the woods made the cut, and they were not windowed but judged for a reliable patina



Only three of the mosses made the cut and they were not stellar



The jaspers were good at this location. Maybe 1 out of 5 worth keeping.

Some of the prettiest materials are bleached dead white. Often a sign of high chalcedony content and good solid tumble able/gem stone.
That would include cherts. Cherts are rounder and have larger half moon swirls in their surface. But full of plume structure and will trick the heck out of you.
There are many little surface textures and hints of color to make analysis.
Rocks fresh out of caliche read different than sun burnt surface rocks. Lake stained rocks another set of coatings.
It would be those hidden with a white coating that fool rock hounders. Many white bleached rocks and lime coated rocks.
So windowing is part of the game.

Part of the finds yesterday. Note the coatings. For every rock in that box was at least 5 duds.
Focused on jaspers and woods, mosses a fringe benefit.
No worries, those windows will be ground off along with the entire patina and tumbled with TLC.
The rejects will be tossed for road gravel. Last trip I shipped back 60 MFRB's and half of them were road gravel. Not going there this trip.

[jamesp]

Nov 5, 2016 7:10:20 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

Wow, nice scenery and beautiful rocks. That is real pretty wood and I think I see a beautiful palm hunk there too. Good thing cows don't crib as bad as horses. If you leave your car alone with the horses here in our pasture, you will be missing a good part of your car when you come back to it. Horses love to chew up your car.....Mel

Yes, the yellow green to left is a palm. And one other nice palm from this point.
Decided to figure out a source up north at George West to score best on fine Texas Palm and wood Mel. Attack it at that source.
Matt dillon said there is a dozen guys out on the roads after every rain. Lots of competition up that way.
He said the roads were presently picked clean.

Of course I would go rent a water truck....

My neighbor has a bull that can lick the aluminum trim off the side of his old pick up truck with his rasp like tongue.

[jamesp]

Nov 4, 2016 17:13:18 GMT -5 captbob said:

Thanks Scott, it really is a PITA taking 100 pics and then resizing all the ones I want to post. I ought to take a few minutes to reacquaint myself with my photobucket account - don't need to resize anything if I just store them there.

Hundreds more pictures to take Tela, That didn't even make it through one bucket. I need to put something in some of the pictures to give a size gauge. Many of these rocks are baked potato sized and some much larger than that.

I need to work on my picture taking. Some of these rocks you can see down into, and are far cooler than my pics show.

It was fun looking at some of these again. Amazing variety from that one chunk of land.
Will do more pics this weekend, gotta give folks something to stay entertained while Jim is on the road heading home.

Those rocks showed out just fine. Great photography can make bad rocks look good.
The hotel's connection is super speed. Too nice. It uploaded 50 pics in less than a minute.
The home connection, well, hit the upload and go run errands.

[captbob]

What's your game plan, ya heading home today? Gas up going thru Mississippi, cheapest gas on the whole trip.

Be safe if driving. Don't forget to bring the kittens home with you. Your wife would love that!

[rockjunquie]

captbob, I wouldn't have taken you to be such a softie for little kittens, but I'm glad. Kittens and rocks. Frogs, kittens and rocks. You should have brought a kitty home.

Drive safely, jamesp.

[Fossilman]

Hell of a rockhounding trip James!!!!! As said travel safe,take a much needed break when ya' get home.....
Thanks for sharing the photos and discussions about your hounding and experiences..
Top notch,totally!

[Fossilman]

Bob,your stories and photos were stand up and holler cool too!!!!! After those last photos you posted I had to throw my keyboard into the dryer to dry it out from the droolin'...!!!!!
Hounding of a life time there,with you and James...
Thanks for sharing stories and photos!!!
Top notch,totally crazy cool!!!!!!