The only constant thorn in my side is the cost of filling my gas tank for the 4 hour round trip every week.
Ouch!
And I drive a very small pickup truck. At least the rest of the hobby is inexpensive.
I am trying to capture the mural painted on a grocery store in Wauchula but there are always trucks parked in front of it so I will share it in segments.
Part 1
So I had an amazing day on Friday and it was made possible by friends who shared knowledge and experience and access to an otherwise difficult to reach part of the river. I am serious when I say, "I would be nothing without them." I did have to paddle in a canoe and I think I've made my feelings regarding paddling abundantly clear, but it was a small price to pay for a stellar day.
We got to the area where the guys were going to dig in holes they had already started. Hmmm....Where to dig? Since they had previous success, I moved a little downstream and tried to imagine the line of gravel they were working. It seems funny now that Steve kept telling me to go to another area and I know he was doing it to improve my chances of finding good fossils but as usual, I stubbornly stuck to my guns and got to work in my chosen spot.
And it really paid off...
A baby mammoth tooth!
It's so tiny and perfect and even has some of the root. Hard to believe how big the teeth were in adults by comparison.
That is my hand on an adult mammoth tooth; not one that I found as I have yet to find anything that big, but I'm cleaning up on the little stuff!
I also upped my meg game by finding my NEW best river meg to date. This one measures 2" on the diagonal and has almost perfect serrations all the way around. Two perfect tapir caps exactly doubles my collection of tapir caps (being a newbie, I only had 2 in the fossil cabinet). There is also a lower mako in the above photo but its root is damaged.
I could have ended my day right then and there but I aspire to be a human excavator so I kept digging gravel and had a full bucket of goodies for the first time this season.
Variety is the spice of life and my Friday was plenty spicy. Glyptodon scutes, turtle puzzle pieces, TWO horse incisors (one with most of the root) as well as other horse, deer, and camelid teeth, loads of various armadillo scutes, garfish scales, a tiny toe bone (not sure which animal it came from), tortoise spurs and foot pads...
...and lots of other goodies including loads of smaller shark teeth.
What a banner day! I don't know when the opportunity to return to that area will arise again but I'll jump at the chance if it comes.
The perfect day was rounded off by the discovery of the last 2 bottles of $5 clearanced (but excellent) wine, languishing on the bottom shelf of a rack at the Wauchula WalMart.
No complaints.
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