RockhoundingVideos.com - From The-Vug.com

So this weekend was a blur of activity, so much so that we didn’t have time to set down and do a proper update. On Friday we got into Dallas, for the Dallas Fine Mineral Show. We were doing
a bunch of live promotion from the show over the course of the weekend.

Hanging out in Chris Wright’s room.

The show was a lot of fun, and it was great to get to talk to our old buddies, and meet some new ones too. Afterward, we high-tailed south of Dallas, to finish filming our “Central Texas Video”. Bright and early Monday morning we are tooling around Marlin, looking for an old agatized fossil bed, in Limestone County.

It turns out is was right beneath us on the road we were driving on!

This area was just beautiful! With all the farms and wildflower fields, we felt like we were back home in Maryland & Pennsylvania.

Old fence row along side the road.

More cows…

…and a donkey.

And how often do you find a turtle this big on the side of the road.

Justin looking for turritella cutting rough at a road cut in Gatesville.

Later that afternoon, it was off to Mason, the home of the state gemstone, Mason Topaz. The day started out hot, SUNNY and humid, but by the time we made it to Mason, it was hot, RAINY, and humid. It started off as a post Mexican War, fort, and is now a quaint little central Texas cow town.

This little statue celebrates the cowboy… Now while it’s okay, it can’t begin to match the
mastery of the “Old Yeller Statue” in front of the library.

Just look at the attention paid to detail.

How about dip in the local public pool? Is that oil in there?

On the way out of town we stopped at the beautiful old cemetary.

And out the other side toward New Mexico!

We stayed at the Super 8 in Van Horn so that I could watch America’s Next Top Model, but it turns out that Van Horn doesn’t get “the new CW”.. so no ANTM for me. Wah…(but Justin did get to see LOST, so it wasn’t a total bust) However, it was so nice to actually get some sleep. Feeling well rested, and full of spunk, we set out for a day of filming for the “Mineral Collecting in Central Texas” Video.

Our first stop was a calcite location in a road cut, off the 10. This place was awesome, there were calcite rhombs just falling out of the matrix. If it wasn’t for all the bees living in the holes created from oh so many rockhounds before us, we could have collected a truck load. lol

Afterward it was off to the quaint little village of Balmorhea. This small Texas town sports a recreational lake and a population of 500. That of course is not counting the cows… So many cows.

Some were happily eating grass beside one of the many agate locations in the area…

…and some were not.

Of course this wasn’t all the creatures to be seen while out and about.

Before heading out we stopped to admire the lovely canal that runs through town.

About 26 miles north of Balmorhea, is the even smaller “town” of Toyah. I use the word “town” in the loosest sense of the word. What it doesn’t have in amenities, it makes up for in excellent petrified wood and multi-colored translucent agates. Justin and I have been to our share of agate locations, and this was by far one of the best, not only for quanity, but also for quality and accessability.

Of course, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” (and Brandy very surely), so on our way out of Toyah, we decided to stop and investigate some of the old abandoned structures.

According to our 1974 guide book, we were supposed to cross over this bridge to get to the collecting spot. Lucky for us, the good people of the Texas Department of Tranpostation decided to build a better way.

Good thing I went in Balmorhea!

Just to prove how many agates are really to be found in Toyah here are two that Justin found. Not the greatest, but hey, they did come from the parking lot of the abandoned, burned out Texico.

Today was the first day of our exciting adventure, and I bet you all would just love to see pictures.. So here they are:

We stopped in the middle of nowhere New Mexico so I could have Dairy Queen for breakfast. Yes, you heard me.

Later on down the road, we saw a sign for Rock Hound State Park, new Mexico, so we decided to stop, being as it is one of the locations The-Vug.com Collecting Page. Justin filmed and I putzed around looking at all the nifty sights.

This freaky spider scared the be-jesus out of me when it ran over my shoe.

Justin filming me collecting agates.

April showers apparently do bring May flowers, in this case, buttercups.

And buttercups lead us to butterflys.

Look I’m king of the mountain!

After a day of driving and trapsing around in the sun, it’s time for lunch.