The dark side of fossiling: Etiquette

Whoo, lawdy!

 Did I ever get caught in the middle of a Peace River blow out!!!

     Let me see if I can explain without going into too much needless detail...

     Fossiler #1 found a good digging location and for a week, the fossiling friends (minus me) dug together there in perfect harmony.

     Finally, it's Friday and fossiler #2 tells me to just meet them there for the day since it's been a good spot.

     Keep in mind that I have fossiled several times with fossiler #1 and was looking forward to digging with him for the first time this season.  I arrived at the location with fossiler #2 and when fossiler #1 arrived by kayak, I immediately ascertained that he wasn't waving and calling out a greeting; he was gesticulating angrily and cursing...at me and about me!!!

     The gist of the situation was that #2 hadn't called #1 to ask if I could dig there and the tempers FLARED.  I was confounded by the cursing (and I admit to throwing out an F-bomb of my own although no one remembered that, after the fact) and started to get in my kayak and leave but fossiling is supposed to be fun so I turned back into the war zone and attempted to smooth ruffled feathers.  I'm not a diplomat, I'm notorious for putting my foot in my mouth but I did my best.

    Once everyone calmed down, #1 assured me that it wasn't about me; of course I was always welcome, but it was a breech of river etiquette for someone else to bring me to a location without an invitation.

     There were also a few other issues simmering under the surface so perhaps it was some much needed venting among old friends who spend 2-5 days in the river every week during the season but #1 pointed out to me that I had also broken the unwritten rules by not inviting him personally to my honey hole (no double entendres, please! lol).  I profusely apologized for my oversight.  

     Lots of lessons learned that day.

     With all the commotion going on around me, the main thought in my head was, "I've only got today.  I want to find something!!!"

     I found a few large megalodon fragments which I always keep because I love imagining them in the mouth of a 2 million year old monster.  It's hard to find big megs in the Peace River anymore because it's been dug for so long.  For people who can scuba dive, there apparently are still plenty of big beautiful megs off Venice Beach, Florida.  Here's a photo of a recent find:

     I don't scuba but when I see photos like this, I consider it...for a minute.

     But back to me!

     I don't keep as much fossilized turtle material as I used to but if I find a scute in good condition or a nicely textured piece of shell, I'll throw it in my bucket.  I also found a very nice giant armadillo scute (right side of the photo).

   

     I collected a couple of nice, fat, tiger shark teeth, one of which I immediately turned into a necklace for my Etsy store.  Beauty!

    Projects in progress

     Meanwhile, Jack and I continue the quest for the tiniest megalodon tooth.

     Here's Jack's entry:

     Here's my entry:

     Hmmm...width vs length?

     AGAIN!

No double entendres, please!  ;-)

Back in the saddle

'Tis the season...

     The water level in the Peace River has dropped so I pointed the old Ranger south and started driving.  Even though my truck was made in 1995, gadgets are still being produced that allow people like me to enjoy all the modern conveniences without the convenience of a modern car.

     These cassette deck adapters are easy to find and enable me to listen to iTunes, Pandora, audio books, etc. through my car speakers.  Makes those hours driving back and forth to the river fly by.

And since I planned to start my season with 2 full days of frenzied digging, I invested in this sweet little number...

     I can plug it in to a power converter that is, in turn, plugged in to the cigarette lighter.  I've had hamstring issues (whatever that means) for years and the heating pad minimized the stabbing pains I get after fossiling all day.  Now if I can find a way to plug this thing in to my kayak.

     My weekend began with a visit to the Fossil Club of Lee County which was great because one of the members fed us loads of Italian food and regaled us with amazing stories of sneaking into the phosphate mines pre-9/11.  Security is a bit tighter these days.

     When I drive to Ft. Myers for a fossil club meeting, I get a cheap hotel room for the night and set out  before dawn the next morning towards the Peace River.  Unfortunately, I spilled my instant oatmeal this time and it made a horrendous mess that closely resembled vomit except that it smelled deliciously of cinnamon and brown sugar.  

     Karma is a bitch, right? So I tried to set things straight by cleaning what I could and leaving a tip for the housekeeper who had to deal with the rest.

     I met up with Pam and towed her to the honey hole from last season.  The returns had diminished sharply in proportion to the difficulty in getting to the spot.

     I took this picture just as we started out but an hour later, dealing with an underpowered trolling motor battery, my smile turned upside down.  Shoulda listened to the guy at Batteries Plus.  I'll be visiting him sometime this week.

     After an uneventful day, we headed over to Highland Hammocks State Park for the night.  I love this campground!  I've never been to any other campground where my campfires are so routinely praised.  This time it was a 6 year old girl on a pink scooter ("Great fire!!!") and later, an older woman walking her little dog.  

     I considered this campfire adulation and surmised that since this campground caters mostly to RV's, the campers don't usually have fires and when they do, don't spend much time gazing at them before they hightail it back inside to watch satellite TV.

     Pam and I both clocked 10 solid hours of sleep then headed to Arcadia to do it again.  On the way, we stopped at a diner for a "town meal."

     Yes, I ordered the peanut butter pie for breakfast but I'm not a fan.  Maybe it's a southern thing?  The bacon and eggs were yummy, though!  I didn't realize this product still existed...

     The location we went to for our fossiling on Saturday is always referred to as a "walk-in" site.  After wading for a mile through black water, feeling around in front of me with my shovel, I think the only reason it's called that is because there's no boat ramp.  If I go back, I will lower my 8' kayak down on a rope and haul it back up with my truck when I'm done.

     Wow.  Could this get any more unattractive, lol?  At least Pam, on the right, keeps its sporty with the slacks.  I routinely covered my hair in that buff all last season but for some reason, on this day, my hair was one big frightful dreadlock when I took the buff off at the end of the day.  

     Slim pickin's for 2 full days of digging.  My standards are a lot higher than when I started out last year.  I also found several fragments of things that aren't in the photo.  The best fossils I found this weekend are a very nice tooth from a 3-toed horse and a perfect little mako.

     Friday can't get here soon enough!  I want to try again!

As Kanye says...

...Please, no photos.

     The reality is, I don't want to post anymore photos from last season. 

 I want to post photos from THIS season,

 and this season starts this weekend!

     I am amused but also a bit nervous that I can't seem to get it together in regards to packing my gear.  Oh, I remembered the pint of gin for the campground, but I almost forgot to throw a shovel in the truck!

     I repositioned my trolling motor battery box to the front of the kayak in the hopes that shifting 25 lbs from the stern to the bow will give me a little more clearance when the water really gets shallow but now I'm trying to remember what else goes on the kayak. 

      I learned that when water levels are higher (as in the start of the season), it's a good idea to pack an anchor since tying off on the shore can leave you with a tough slog to wherever you're actually digging.

     It's probably still warm enough for a wet suit instead of the waders, but do I want the farmer john or the step-in jacket?  Decisions...decisions...

One thing I remember from my first visit to the Peace River around this time last year: numb feet.  That's when I was still wearing tennis shoes and wet wool socks.  Now I have heavy dive boots but even those aren't foolproof.  So I throw a couple of chemical hand warmers in my dry bag in case I need to recover feeling in my toes.

     Preparing for the start of my second season on the Peace River, I am once again gung ho in regards to meals and snacks, buying organic apples and prepping containers of chicken and rice, but I know I will quickly revert to a bag of chips from one of the many Citgos on the route, and a dinner afterwards, from McDonald's value menu. 

     Rereading that last sentence makes me want to declare my New Year's resolution right now: 

Maintain your health for better fossiling!

     I think I'm going to add that one to my bumper sticker line.  ;-)

    



A third lung is one lung too many

     Fossil Steve taunted me last season with visions of the amazing things he was finding in a place he fondly referred to as "The Meg Hole", a deep section of the river where, with the right gear, you could potentially recover dozens of megalodon teeth in a day.  All I had to do to access these treasures was use a third lung diving system: the air supply stays above the water (in our case, on a table) and we breath through regulators on long hoses in order to stay submerged.

Easy!

 

If you're not me.

 

     But, of course, I'm me, so, much as I wanted to jump at the opportunity, I dragged my feet. 

     At first, the water was still too cold from the winter but as April crept into May and water temps rose steadily, I had knew I was going to have to give it a go.

     On the appointed day, I launched my kayak and started trolling to The Meg Hole, only to find that one of the nearby phosphate mines had drained a retention pond into the river and the water was completely opaque.

     I met up with Steve and tried to put on a brave face while he tied my regulator to me with string and latched a heavy weight belt around my waist but inside, my anxiety was ruling the day. 

I don't like water I can't see through!

     Steve is older and has seen a lot in his days and he is fairly patient.  He watched me while I dipped my face in the water about 10 times and then waited while I tried to dive to the bottom but for me, it was a total cluster.  You're probably thinking we were diving in 20 feet of water.  It was more like 7 feet of water.  I don't scuba dive and the feeling of the weight belt dragging me down made me want to panic.  I couldn't seem to get my head down and since I couldn't see a thing through my mask, all the meg teeth in the world wouldn't have convinced me to keep feeling around blindly on a river bottom. I managed to get my head above water and gasped, "Steve, help me!" and Steve took my hands and said, "Put your feet down, girl."  I was still in the 5 foot deep section of the river.

     After my initial attempt, I assured Steve that I would try again in a minute and that he should go on about his business of fossil hunting.  He went under water and though I couldn't see  him, I could hear him shoveling gravel into 5 gallon buckets that he would then drag up to a sifting screen on the shore.  Every so often I would dip my face into the water but that was as far as I got and when he emerged about 15 minutes later, his look of surprise was comical.

     "What are you doing?"  he asked me.

     "Hanging out," I replied.  "I think I'm going to skip the 3rd lung for now and head for shallow water."

     The season ended before the water cleared up so I never tried again.  I'm not against another attempt but the planets will have to align before I purposely sink myself to the bottom of the river with a bucket and a shovel.



It's almost time!!!

     In less than 2 weeks I will be back in the Peace River!   I've been emailing Jack, trying to decide where to start and it's a little like being a kid in a candy store, albeit a candy store where the candy is really difficult to find and you don't get to choose what kind of candy you get or even if you get any candy at all, but you know what I mean.

     Time to pull the kayak off the rack and do the general prep work.  I'm still not certain if the new, longer cord for the trolling motor will reach to the front where I want to remove the rod mount and replace it with the battery box.  The shallow water of the Peace River in the winter requires the fossiler to get in and out of the kayak to navigate obstacles and having a battery cable roping off one side of the yak would make that task infinitely more difficult.

     Luckily, I already had the rudder line replaced this summer and had them replace some of the gear bungies while they were at it.

     I'm also feeling a chill in the morning air so I need to remember which wet suit or waders or fleece or...I'll just bring everything the first time.

     I sorted through two boxes of less than perfect fossils and most of them are going to the club meeting to be used in sand box digs for the kids at different fossil functions but I still have a cabinet full of interesting things and the question is, "Where will I put everything I will find this season?"

     My quest for the perfect, affordable curio cabinet continues.  It will be devoted to fossils and minerals and is destined to bore the pants off of my friends but provide hours of enjoyment for ME!

          This mammoth toe bone is one of the biggest fossils I've found so far but this season...who knows?  Get me to the candy store!