22nd Annual Rockhounds Roundup - Day One

Day One of the 22nd Annual Rockhounds Roundup Gem, Mineral, & Jewelry Show hosted by the Santa Lucia Rockhounds is now complete. As chairman of this show for the second year in a row I put a lot of work into this show before this weekend as did my wonderful rockhound family who journeyed with me to this point and without whom nothing I have done would amount to anything without. This year went even smoother than last year from a logistical standpoint.

However, the elements one again played a significant role. Whereas last year saw the show for the last time being held on the third weekend of September and we experienced a heat wave during which it peaked at 105° on Saturday of that show, this year we had nice temperatures as one would expect in the merry month of May but we had wind. We had wind so strong as a cut-off low approaches that we were under a wind advisory during the afternoon following a calm but warmer-than-expected morning. This wind actually caused one vendor booth to be toppled by the wind (Naturals From The Earth). Quite fortunately nobody was hurt and damage was limited. Winds got worse tonight so I hope all is quiet overnight. Winds will be as bad or worse tomorrow with a possibility of gusts up to 40 m.p.h. by late tomorrow afternoon around the time of breaking down the show.

I was too busy to take as many photographs as I'd like and I am borrowing a camera to which I'm less familiar than my own so I took fewer images. Below are the best of the batch.

For more images from today please check HERE. 

Check out the action from Day Two.

One of our sandwich sings on Riverside Avenue

Our big sign leaned against the side of the Pioneer Museum.

Morning shadows shortening in Pioneer Park as Day One of the show wakes up.

First-time vendor Jack Daggett's booth... where's Jack? Quite possibly he was at a safety meeting!

The show started slower than I would have liked...

... and never got up to the levels of foot traffic I was aiming for.

Our friends at the Native Sons of the Golden West (San Miguel Parlor) did their usual rockin' job as our primary food vendor serving their delicious Santa Maria-style barbecue tri-tip and chicken and all the fixin's. That's SLR's member Craif Rambo working in the Native Sons booth as he's a member of their club as well.

At least this year we have essentially a full compliment of dealers unlike last year's roughly 66% capacity show.

Club member Mike Judy bringing down the hammer on a hapless geode in our mini-geode guillotine.

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