Bluebird Mine

Our rock club had their annual picnic.  This year it was held at the Bluebird Mine on the California side of the Colorado River.  The mine is no longer active so its a great place to go rockhounding.  The rock that they mined was kyanite.  If you look closely at the rocks you can see the blue crystals.  It was used in porcelain.  We also looked for almondine garnets.  These are garnets that are a brownish color and not usually very pretty.   One guy in our group did find some large garnets inbedded in a piece of quartz rock and they were a very crystally brown.     

We are busy trying to find a good walleye lake to fish this summer and hopefully find a job at a resort on the lake.  We are looking in South Dakota, Wisconsin and Michigan but it is kind of slow going.  We found good lakes but not good jobs or good jobs but not good lakes.  I'm sure we will find something soon.

Quartzsite Gold Show

We went to the gold show last weekend up in Quartzsite.  Its a small show but there were a nice assortment of vendors selling everything you need to find gold.  There were even some very nice gold nuggets for sale. There were some organizations represented such as the Gold Prospectors of America and the People for Public Lands.  It wasn't too crowded so you had a chance to ask questions and watch demonstrations. 

Outside a guy had a trailer full of dirt that he had spiked with gold.  You could fill a 5 gallon bucket for $10.  We bought 2 buckets and our friends bought one.  We got about $10 worth of gold out of our 2 buckets but our friend got about $15 out of just their one bucket.  I thought the buckets of dirt were a great valentines gift.  I'm sure I'm the only one that can say they got dirt for valentines. 

Yuma Proving Ground 75th Anniversary

The Yuma Proving Ground is an army base north of Yuma.  They had an open house this past weekend to celebrate 75 years.  The public was invited to see the base, watch a fly over and some parachutists as well as enjoy some food and music.  They showed off some of the vehicles they test.  The proving ground is also used to test missiles and bombs but they didn't demonstrate any of those.   They have a training facility to teach high altitude parachuting.  They also test parachutes for dropping heavy payloads like the Mars rover.   

It was a beautiful day and the turnout was huge.  There was quite the traffic jam to get to the base.  The line of cars to get in was 6 miles long and it took people an hour and a half to get on base.  There was a long line to get tickets for food and then another long line to actually get the food.  It got rather warm and there was very little shade.  So overall I would say the celebration got mixed reviews.