2008 Paso Robles Rock, Gem & Mineral Show Pt. 3

Part One
Part Two

Since we were entirely set up for this show by this morning and this was a Sunday morning we slept in until about 7:30ish and then got up and had breakfast and headed for this year's Paso Robles Rock, Gem & Mineral Show.
We arrived in time to find things pretty quiet and despite getting there about 15 minutes before the show began at 10 a.m. we were ready to roll when the show opened for the day.
There was a surprising amount of activity early on albeit still fairly quiet compared to yesterday morning at the same time. Over the course of the day Mike would do quite well in contrast to yesterday and we would about equal yesterday which means this year we did great and beat last year's total.

I picked up a gorgeous specimen of Elmwood Spalerite for a very reasonable price from Tom DeMaris which I will turn around and offer for sale at a significant profit at my shows and on Ebay.

Yesterday we picked up from Tom and his wife a couple of T-shirts commemorating the fires up their way in Trinity County this past Summer that they picked up for us at our request when we last talked to them at the Nipomo Show last Summer.
That marks the second time this year they have remembered to bring something to a show months after I requested it at a previous show. As you may or may not recall they brought that Canyon Diablo Meteorite to the Nipomo Show in August that I had placed a hold on at the April Bakersfield Show. With all they have to think about I'm duly impressed!

Later in the day I managed to track down Wes Lingerfelt to give him my membership application and dues to the Orcutt Mineral Society.

Yesterday, the Carmel Valley Gem & Mineral Club's Matt Biewer who is the dealer chair of this coming weekend's Monterey Show dropped in to visit yesterday while the Antelope Valley Gem & Mineral Club's Vivian who is the dealer chair of their April show dropped by for a visit today.

We received Santa Lucia Rockhound's President Gene and his wonderful wife Barbara Bilyeu at our booth this weekend (albeit at different times) which was really nice.

Two years ago Gene purchased a thick, large slab of silver-laced onyx from Mule Canyon in the Calico Mountains (old collection stuff I got years earlier from Tom DeMaris).
A year ago Gene purchased from me a nice-sized chunk of Mexican amethyst which he polished with his wet grinder and now sits in his home.
I had hoped this year he'd grab something else but alas he didn't which really hurt me. ;-p
Actually, he got something from us following the Nipomo Show and Barbara gave us a handsome purchase so they have actually been very faithful supporters of our business over the the past few years of this fledgling enterprise for which we are extremely grateful.

Santa Lucia Rockhounds club member Dennis Vance dropped by to visit us and talk meteorites for a short time. He had originally been slated to sell his meteorites in our booth but had to back out as he is preparing for some upcoming craft fares. This is now the third consecutive year he has visited our booth at this show.

We also had the privilege of being visited by another esteemed member of the Santa Lucia Rockhounds, to wit Jr. Director Ralph Lawless for whom I'd been holding some choice obsidian pieces since getting back from our Alturas trip last Summer.
As those of you following this blog may remember I picked up some choice pieces from Frank Newman at the rock shop at the CA-OR border.
Anywho, Ralph gratefully accepted them and purchased a few others which I offered him for free but he insisted on paying for them.

Throughout the weekend there was this black kid of about age twelve or so hanging around the show who I believe was there last year, too, who clearly lives in the neighborhood.
Anywho, later in the day he came and hang out with us after earlier in the day or yesterday receiving some freebies from us. He even purchased an inexpensive stone with what meager monies he possessed.
He turned out to be one cool little kid and even helped us break down our booth at the end of the day. We repaid him for his labor in stones. I'm sure we broke a child labor law somewhere. ;-p
We came to find out his name is Ronnae and he lives a few blocks away and had to leave us to go home at a certain point but he promised to try to make it back next year although he doesn't think he'll be living in the same part of town.
My heart goes out to the kid and I hope is life works out despite the broken home he comes from which we learned of from talking to him.
I have hope for him as he showed a good deal of character to us.

I tried to get an earlier jump breaking things down and getting them back to my storage unit this year. I loaded up all the lapidary rough first and got down to my storage unit only to discover they close earlier this year than last so I still just missed the cut-off which was frustrating but then drove home and dumped everything in front of my house and drove back up to Paso.

While doing all of that I received a phone call from an unfamiliar phone number and answered it.

Apparently, I had agreed to pick up the contents of the display case the San Luis Obispo Gem & Mineral Club used for their display at the show but I had forgotten and the Paso people were waiting for that stuff to be removed from their case so I agreed to get up there ASAP.
By the time I did they had already boxed it and left it at your booth.
Not realizing they had done that I went into the Pioneer Museum to remove said items and found it done so I took the opportunity to belatedly sign up for the cool members-only field trip up to a ranch at the top of the summit of Highway 46 to hunt biconoids early next month.

To my surprise we were able to squeeze everything into our pickup and thus avoid having to make a third trip between Atascadero and Paso late in the day.
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Part One
Part Two