Tucson: Day One, Part Two

Looks like a good idea, right?  We all thought so, and hopped on the shuttle bus for a short ride from Electric Park to JOGS.  There we checked in  at the front desk and headed through the building toward the food.  We weren't the only ones with that idea; it was a few minutes past 1:00 and the line for the buffet was already down the aisle and doubled back.  The ants had come to the picnic!  Of course, time spent in line is prime for conversation and show-and-tell, especially when the line moves as slowly as this one did.  We did meet one interesting character while in line, but none of her pictures turned out; it was a service cat named Pushette Tudie, and she was holding court like royalty from her owner's wheelchair wearing a hat, dress, and glasses.

When we finally made our way to the head of the line, we were floored by the food.  We didn't know where to start--does one go for the scorched nacho cheese, the sweating cold cuts, or the soggy, sagging egg rolls?  We persevered, and were rewarded with pizza, fruit and cheese toward the end of the table.  As promised, it was accompanied by champagne and chilled wine (which we were more than ready for).  Of course, Dad is an unrepentant smart aleck and asked if he could take the bottle.  The reply:  as long as he didn't expect the cashier to help carry him out!

We finished the day by visiting the bead show at the Holidome, where I found some really fine untreated Sleeping Beauty turquoise.

Tucson: Day One, Part One

We came up with what we thought was a pretty simple plan:  see as much as we could as fast as we could.  We decided to ride the free shuttle buses and start with a show at Tucson Electric Park, since it's known for some pretty good cabbing rough and a couple of really good tool booths.  We had only seen the tip of the iceberg from the highway.  When we got to the show we couldn't believe the crates and pallets stacked as far as we could see, with more stuff under the tents.  Wow!  It was going to be even harder to stick to our budget than we originally thought.

Most dealers of rough stones provide water bottles to wet the rocks with so you can get some idea what it might look like when it's polished.  Our first stop was at Redtail Mines for some Brazilian opal, Black Mt. turquoise, and rainbow turquoise.  I have a couple of cabs started from the Black Mt. rough and it looks very promising.
Next we stopped by J2B2 Stones for some pre-slabbed jaspers.  When you buy cabbing rough, this costs a good bit more but it's worth it.   Slabs might be sold by the gram or square inch and big hunks are usually sold by the pound, but you can really see what's inside the stone if the dealer has already gone to the trouble of slabbing it.

We ended our stay at Electric Park with a purchase of something called Sonoran Sunrise, a beautiful mixture of chrysocolla and cuprite, and a visit to Alpha Supply, the hosts of the Facette demonstration crew.  

It was about noon, so we headed back to the shuttle bus and ride to our next stop:  JOGS.  We had been given tickets for a free champagne lunch and it sounded like a good deal to us. 

What a trip: Tucson 2008

We've completed the annual pilgrimage to Tucson, and we're back home with new rocks and funny stories.  This is what it looks like driving into town; these are all tents, and they're all over town along all the major freeways.  With limited time we knew it would be difficult to see even half what we wanted to, so we checked into our hotel and worked on a plan.