I came back from a dig two weeks ago and on the way home, I began to feel like I was coming down with something… something that felt like a sore throat,  so I stopped at a truck stop on my way home and picked up a bottle of Robitussin cough syrup…thats usually the only non prescription stuff that seems to work on me. Once I arrived home it felt like cold and sinus pressure coming on, so I got the hydrogen peroxide out and put a few drops in my ears, that usually takes care of things for me if I can catch it soon enough…well this time I didnt catch it soon enough and it blossomed into a full blown cold within a day or two…so bad at work that others said I sounded rough on the radio and Tuesday night I actually wound up going home about midnight…….in all honesty, I felt pretty good when I started that night but felt myself deteriorating and my supervisor told me to go home and get better, so I did…went home that is…the get better part took longer to accomplish….in this day of better technology and medicines, one would think that there would be something out there that one can take and get over a cold much faster, like in one day at the very most….not….we are just spoiled these days I guess.

By Thursday, I had firmly started on some allergy/cold medicine and decided to drive back down to Kentucky and help the newcomers find some great fluorite, so I took off mid morning and by 10 am when I stopped to gas up in Festus, the sinus pressure was so bad I felt like I was driving under the influence…had to hold on to the side of my truck for balance… and prayed that if I got pulled over, the police officer would have a clue what sinus pressure was like and how it made one feel…..I had drank some black tea for the caffeine to keep me alert for the five hour drive down there, but in this case, prob mixing with the cough syrup, it gave me even more pressure and one terrible headache as well.

After filling up the gas tank on a great price, 2.49 a gallon, I started south on 55 and began drinking copious amounts of bottled water and a couple of tylenols for my headache. Within twenty minutes I felt the pressure start to subside and the headache dissipating as well. By the time I drove thru Cape two hours later I was feeling much better and continued south, hoping the pressure was gone for good.

I arrived at the museum about 2:30 and visited with Tina for about thirty minutes and then headed over to check in at the Relax Inn in Kuttawa next to Interstate 24.

The next morning I headed over to the museum to meet up with everyone with the McRocks Group and the Memphis MAGS Club that were joining us on the group dig this weekend,  and get signed up… and my sinus pressure had returned immensely, so I knew then and there it was going to be an interesting day for me. I let everyone know that I was like Janitor in a Drum and would be with them in spirit but wasnt sure about the physical part of things, but would do what I could to help them find some nice material no matter what. I was confident that we had left enough material behind the week before that everyone would leave happy, but its always a huge plus if you can dig something up on your own as well. It just makes the trip that much more worthwhile.

After a short safety talk we drove out to the mine and found Mike Royal from Ohio out there already and getting things ready to dig. Mike had been there a day before and was a newcomer to the McRocks group. After pointing out the piles and the material left behind, everyone began circulating around and checking things out on their own.

Mike and Mike and Opal got down into the pit and started working things over to see if anything could be found. Opal wasted no time getting into the pit water and checking things out to her own satisfaction. Opal enjoys chasing after sticks thrown into the water or rocks that simply fall into the water, she loves the water and the mud equally. 🙂

Bill was a great host, as were all of the museum folks and he came back frequently during the day to check on us and help newcomers find some great material and point out areas to look for and find material as well. I remember one day last year when the weather wasnt so great, storms were around us and Bill drove up to the top of the hill above us as we dug and kept watch on the area south of us to warn us of any storms that might approach us…I dont know of too many people that would go above and beyond to watch out for rockhounds like this…luckily this year we had great weather and didnt have to worry about such things.

Pretty soon everyone dug in and found some spots to work and began finding goodies….

and rolling boulders around to see what was on the bottom side and attached…

and even the little tykes had fun looking around for goodies, we created an area with goodies for them especially….

Robert Duncan decided he wanted to get dirty and find some nice big goodies, so he got down into the pit with Mike and Mike and began helping Mike Royal move some big boulders around in order to find some pockets. Within a hour or two, pockets were found and some nice specimens were found….

and then Robert found a really big and heavy one…and Mike graciously decided to muscle it out of the pit for him…

….that thing was heavy, prob chockfull of galena lead…later on Robert went to his truck and retrieved his dolly for it, but Mike just picked it up and carried it up to Robert`s truck instead…no wonder he was a little tired that day…

As the day wore on, some nice goodies were found all over the mine area…I didnt get any pics of it, but Bebe found a nice palm sized cluster of cubes in one of the dirt tailing piles and shortly afterward, a large chunk with deep purple fluorite cubes all over the top of it as well. She was one happy camper after that. She had to get a little muddy finding it, digging it out of some deep dark gray clay mud about two feet down into the pile….I walked around the first few hours trying to help folks find some nice stuff as did Chrissy…who did alot better hands on while I just walked around in a daze and tried to keep my balance most of the time…although I did manage to find a couple of smaller clusters in the parking area.

Mike Royal found a nice pocket down in the pit where he and Robert and Mike Streeter were working, we heard at least one yell of ” Eureka ” from him at some point during the day and I took my camera over to record the moment for him.

Shortly after Mike started finding some nice goodies with cubes, alot of people decided to get down in the pit to see what could be found and it got crowded quickly.

Even though we had the pit widened with the track hoe the weekend before, it wasnt wide enough to accomodate everyone that wanted to get down there at the same time and so we had to exercise some crowd control procedures. We dug another hour or two and then stopped for the day. After cleaning up, several of us met at the Oasis Bar and Grill for supper and enjoyed some nice steak dinners. It began to rain around midnight but cleared off by 9 am which is about the time we arrived at the mine again the next morning.

As I was driving to the museum for the 8 am meet, I spotted a few wild turkeys running into the woods near the road and stopped to photograph them in the ending rain showers…

 

Robert had driven over to southern Illinois to meet up with the Marlers and visit with a mineral collector over there and so didn`t return to the mine til about noon, but once he did, he promptly joined those of us in the pit who were digging out several goodies from the banks above the vein. I even felt so much better that I decided to put on my hip wader firemans boots and get muddy myself. Steve Gibbs teamed up with Mike Royal and they proceeded to dig into the bank a bit, finding a few nice cubes before returning once again to the boulders at the end of the pit.

I began digging into the bank where Chrissy had started digging the day before and I began finding a few small cube clusters…and while digging, I didn`t take any pics either….I was soon joined on my left by Bebe, and on my right by April, and April was joined later by Robert when he arrived, and boy did we find some nice material in the banks we had been standing on the day before…I`m going to add some pics of my cleaned up goodies to give you an idea of what we pulled out of there and here are some pics of some pretty happy rockhounds before we left for the day….

On the way home, I spotted an unusual cloud about 7 pm, it was positioned a little east of the setting sun and appeared that the west end of the cloud was on fire…I snapped a quick photo of it as I was driving and sent it to one of the local weathermen in St Louis the other day to inquire about it. I talk to Mike Roberts, of Channel Five News alot for my work in St Louis, and he told me that what I saw and photographed was ” the cirrus blow-off from the anvil of a thunderstorm….the cloud is made entirely of ice crystals so you are getting in impressive halo.”  It was quite impressive to me, have never seen anything like it….

 

Another great trip and looking forward to returning there in June for the annual show.