Friends with Talents

It's so good to have friends with talents.

I can't brag enough on Roger Hostetler,

my favorite knapper.

He makes such pretty things out of the coral I find.

But his talents are not limited to knapping.

Remember the Bear Grylls WalMart survival knife found in the river?

I felt certain that Roger could breath new life into it.

Check it out now!

Your eyes do not deceive you:  that is the same knife with a...wait for it...

ELK ANTLER HANDLE!

In exchange, he requested a little of my time with my lapidary saw.

Glad to do it!

Now, what kind of scabbard do I want...?

Another good kind of friend to have on your side

is a friend who lives in heaven or almost heaven.

I went to visit my friend in West Virginia and hunt for weapons of an older sort in her fields.

Lots  of interesting rocks to be found,

as well as a fossil or two.

West Virginia isn't that far from Florida but the difficulties with flights in and out of her rural area might make you think you were traveling to Papua New Guinea.  On the way there, the airline tried to land us in the fog then turned around, went back, and drove us there on a bus instead.  On the way out of there, the airline had all 4 passengers (FOUR) racing to the plane to beat a lightening storm.

My next trip will be back to Salt Lake City and I'm thinking the journey will be a 4 hour, non-stop, fog-less pleasure.

There I'll meet up with another great friend to have:

A friend with 4 wheel drive.