22nd Annual Rockhounds Roundup - Day Two

Day Two of the 22nd Annual Rockhounds Roundup hosted by the Santa Lucia Rockhounds at the Pioneer Museum is now fully accomplished. Below are some of the images I captured throughout the day. The overnight winds last night did not cause any additional damage nor did they at all today. The sky was threatening but the rain held off until early evening when most dealers were already departed. The turnout seemed about the same as yesterday which is to say not as crowded as last years in the mornings before the heat drove everybody indoors. This show the traffic seemed more consistent throughout both days. The people who visited the show definitely spent more money both with our vendors as well as with our club fundraising activities than last year.

Everybody (club members, dealers, and visitors) all seemed to have a blast again this year. Although we actually did more this year the effort required to accomplish it seemed less then last year as we seem to be getting better at this, ergo, better organized and more efficient. After we finished breaking down the show and cleaning up many members met up for a casual celebratory dinner at a Chinese buffet downtown which is a new tradition we just started last year.

For results of our display case competition go HERE.

Check out the action from Day One. 

The centerpiece of our show and big draw this year: a rather large Campo del Cielo meteorite.

Top view of this 1,353-lb (615-kilo) behemoth.

Note the cool thumbprints known as regmaglypts which are caused by vortices of hot gas.

Richard Smithen's "Stone of Heaven".

This 464-lb blue-green nephrite jade boulder comes from the Big Sur Coast of Monterey County.

This boulder was brought up by divers decades ago and by way of Coalinga, CA,  is now in San Miguel, CA. 

The bay in the Pioneer Museum where the large meteorite and jade were displayed.

Richard Smithen's faceting demonstration booth to the left and Cliff Brewen's sphere-making demonstration booth to the right.

View into the competitive display case area of the museum.

Bob Baker's cabbing demonstration booth.

Mike Doherty working the Spin & Win Booth.

Thomas "Dr. Geode" Wylie working his geode guillotine skills.

Tom conducting a geode postmortem with a visitor.

Day Two was overcast and windy but the rain held off until most dealers were already packed up and gone.

One of Ralph Lawless' napping students.

Up and coming jade dude Drew Arnold posing at his booth.

Some of Drew's awesome jade pieces and equally awesome display system.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).