Friday was a long day at work. The plans were to head to Twin Falls, Idaho after work and spend the evening with my folks before heading to Pocatello, Idaho the next morning for a gem show. Everything went as planned and by 8:00 Saturday morning I was on the road. I arrived at the show just after 10:00.
Upon entering the building I was greeted by some friendly folks from the local gem club. When they realized I was from Nampa, Idaho they asked if I was there for the horse show that was happening at the same location. They seemed surprised when I told them I was there for the rock and gem show. There must have been many visitors that came by just because they were there for the other event.
After talking rocks for a little bit and promoting this site I started to check out the vendors and displays. There were many dealers that had a good assortment of finished items. What I was hoping for was some good rough or slab materials. About half way through the show I found a few slab bins but felt the prices were a bit high. It is hard to buy slabs at prices I would not be comfortable charging if I were to sell them. The second to the last dealer I visited had great slabs at a great price. I ended up buying many slabs of cobra stone and rain forest jasper plus two slabs of chip board rhyolite. I was not familiar with the chip board rhyolite but it looked nice and the price was even better. This purchase made the trip worthwhile.
After checking out the dealers it was time to take a closer look at the displays. There were many good displays and many of them with Blue Forest petrified wood from Wyoming. Pocatello is not far from the Wyoming border so the Blue Forest is almost a local trip. There were many rounds of this petrified wood on display and they were my favorite item.
Blue Forest Petrified Wood
My favorite display was presented by Chuck and Sharon Strom. It was a mixture of Blue Forest petrified wood, Grassy Mountain petrified wood and Texas Springs pink limb cast. I had a nice chat with Chuck about all these materials. The mail discussion was on the Grassy Mountain wood. This material comes from Eastern Oregon not far from the Idaho border (my neighborhood). We talked about how this material was previously known by an offensive name (n*@#% wood) and what lead to its current politically correct name (renamed decades ago). Chuck then explained that the material is no longer available which I found amusing. A few weeks ago I went exploring with a couple of friends and we stumbled upon the old digs for this material while looking for something else. The reason we knew what we found is one friend found a piece on the surface. I explained that there was still material to be found but it would require a lot of digging. Only one piece was found the day we found the location.
The total time spent at the gem show was less than an hour. I left the show and immediately headed towards Twin Falls. On the way back I did decide to hunt down an address I had for a rock shop in Paul, Idaho. I found the address but didn’t find a rock shop. What I had was old information. As I headed back to the freeway I got pulled over for doing sixty-five in a fifty-five mile zone. I couldn’t believe it; this trip was about to get expensive. To make things worse my insurance card was not up to date. The officer let me off with a warning on the speeding but gave me a ticket for the expired card. Luckily that ticket will be dismissed when I send in a copy of an up to date insurance card. The funny part is when I got home I found the updated card was delivered in Saturday’s mail.
Once I returned to my folk’s house in Twin Falls the family decided to go to Balance Rock which is located near Castleford, Idaho. I was hoping to find some collectible rock there but found nothing. It was a nice trip however and it was nice to spend some quality time with my folks at a beautiful location.
Balanced Rock
The next morning I left Twin Falls and headed to Gooding, Idaho to meet up with Tony Funk (idahorockshop.com). The rest of the morning was spent digging through his rocks piles. I ended up purchasing about seventy pounds of awesome material. At about 2:00 we then headed to Tony’s house where we ate lunch.
After lunch it was time to head home to Nampa, Idaho. The freeway entrance was about ten miles away. About five miles down the freeway I blew a tire. I felt the tire problem coming a few miles before and had already slowed down and had the hazard lights on. I was pushing hoping to get in the nearby rest stop. The tire blew about 100 feet before the exit to the rest area. I tried to get my spare tire put on but had a problem getting one of the lug nuts off to remove the wheel. Tony had to come recue me. He thought it was going to be a simple project but I had custom wheels that required an insert to get the lug nuts off. This insert piece and the lug nut were both stripped. He ended up having to pound a steel rod into the lug while I twisted the rod with a wrench to get the lug nut off. (Thank you, Tony) After the spare tire was on I then had to drive the rest of the way home at fifty miles an hour. I pulled into the drive at 7:30 that evening. The next morning I purchased new tires and wheels. Yep, this trip got expensive.
Blown Tire
Even with the unplanned adventure and expenses this was a great trip. It was nice seeing some different places and spending time with family and friends. I am already thinking of the next trip.
