The Bar 2014 Edition

[Simon of the Playa]

EPLAYA PARTY IN ST. CROIX!!

[VultureChow]

I'm actually serious. I really need to start using it more often.

Nothing fancy. One king, two twins, a couch. But the location is great.



Also, some of the best wall diving in the Caribbean is a 5 minute boat ride away.

[ygmir]

*wanders in, makes CCC*
hi gang!
Just talking with a friend, who is going to Peterson Peak, (have you heard of this place, Rhino?), a large mountain just north of Reno, mostly pegmatite, and full of smokey, amethyst, and scepter quartz crystals. He gets to go with the guy who has the actual "claim" on it and has an excavator up there to really tear into stuff.........
and then going to Colombia, to visit an emerald dealer friend.........what fun.

[ygmir]

EPLAYA PARTY IN ST. CROIX!!

*runs out to buy outboard boat motor and outriggers for Frankencamper*

[AntiM]

I'm actually serious. I really need to start using it more often.

Nothing fancy. One king, two twins, a couch. But the location is great.



Also, some of the best wall diving in the Caribbean is a 5 minute boat ride away.

Lovely. I want to go too! But not in the schedule.

I have a Mexico and a Worldmark "timeshare", points system. Mexico has five locations, and Worldmark/Wyndham is all over and trades into RCI. I had two weeks in Cabo in January booked, but sold them to friends as we have a chance to go to Portugal in March. Off season, but still, never been, so am going.

Oh, I can't get every resort every season unless I preplan, but if anyone wants to visit Utah, give me a shout. Park City, Wolf Creek, Bear Lake and St. George. Wolf Creek is 20 minutes from my house. Three in Vegas. Hawaii too, but I have to jump on that 13 months out. They're all condos with kitchens.

[^Rhino!]

*wanders in, makes CCC*
hi gang!
Just talking with a friend, who is going to Peterson Peak, (have you heard of this place, Rhino?), a large mountain just north of Reno, mostly pegmatite, and full of smokey, amethyst, and scepter quartz crystals. He gets to go with the guy who has the actual "claim" on it and has an excavator up there to really tear into stuff.........
and then going to Colombia, to visit an emerald dealer friend.........what fun.

**perks up a little**

Haven't heard of it, but we get our scepter quartz from the big areas in Arkansas, along with magnetite crystals. Amethyst - some new deposits found in Georgia I'm acquainted with have good sized crystals, and the North Carolina emeralds from near Spruce Pine are well known to me.

I have a buddy in Rolla Missouri who has a 2-foot long aquamarine crystal from South Carolina and uses it as a doorstop (??!!)

Tomorrow.....the express elevator into Viburnum #28. Gowing DOWWWWWWWWWN. I am SO looking forward to this, 1250' under the surface.

The last mine I went to was Victor-Cripple Creek, and got to sample gold telluride as it came up from below. THAT was fun. Now you see why geologists love professional meetings.

[Elorrum]

I had a good Burn, too, Simon, though I regret not finding you out there.

Let me have a virtual drink here, folks, one of many over the next few days I hope, because as of 12 noon EST I go on duty for the next 90 hours, at which point I get a 4-hour break from 8 am to noon on Monday... yikes.

*goes looking for the "Lucky" thread*

I think I'm on a two on; two off cycle with seeing Simon on playa. Next year will prove that theory right or wrong.
MDF, you do get to sleep, when? Are you on call and they can wake you at any time? yikes, indeed.
Keep lighting flares or dropping crumbs so we can track you somehow.
Drinks will be here, for certain.
Looking at maps for around the country, across the country driving soon.

[Sunbeam56]

I had no idea North Carolina had emeralds !! Are the gemmy?

[lucky420]

I saw Eric's (slightly) younger doppelganger one day. Though I think the facial hair was from an iteration or two ago.

Decompression sucks for the first time ever. Having your best burn ever and then coming home to various work crises is not what I would recommend. So I'm biting the bullet. Going to go to St. Croix in January for a few days of drinking on the beach at our condo. Anyone want to join me? The airfare is expensive but the lodging is free.

I have been to St. Croix. It was a long time ago. A man there asked me for my chicken and told me he liked my breasts. Was a good day. It is beautiful and if I had the funds I'd be there in a heart beat

[sadie]

I was in St. Croix in 1978. It was so beautiful. The color of the water was like nothing I had ever seen before.

It was the last family vacation before we all started growing up and venturing out on our own. I remember Mom asking a local how to prepare papaya? plantain? A banana looking fruit - was delicous!

We snorkeled at an underwater National Park - all the vivid colors of fish and coral... Great memories!

Wish I could afford the time off...and the plane ticket..sounds like fun.

[^Rhino!]

I had no idea North Carolina had emeralds !! Are the gemmy?

Yep. I've seen the results in the form of a a stunning tennis bracelet.

Why they call it a 'tennis bracelet' is still beyond me.

[Sunbeam56]

Rhino - yoy hunka lovin' pachadrem...
I am going to have to reassess my entire love of Columbian gems ...
Hey, whatcha find in Wyoming?

[^Rhino!]

Agates - 'Turritella' agate, to be exact.

The genera name has erroneously been IDed for years as Turritella, but it'as actually the genera Goniobasis. Knowing that is a tidbit the rockhounds won't tell you.

I have a complete suite of goodies from Wyoming when I attended field camp, and years later during a collecting trip in the Eocene-aged Green River Formation margins, even including a rare cephalopod from the Cambrian-aged Tensleep Sandstone I know the stratigraphy there pretty well functionally, having mapped on Derby Dome and Hudson-Lander Dome as well as in the igneous-metamorphics of the South Pass area.

Louis Lake is a favorite quiet haunt of mine.

[Madgirl]

All this travel talk has me itching to go somewhere. Unfortunately, I'm clean out of vacation time except for a short trip to Florida later this fall. Guess that next road trip will have to wait til next year. In the meantime, should any of you ever find yourselves in northwest Colorado, let me know...I'll buy ya a beer

[sadie]

Looking at maps for around the country, across the country driving soon.

Road Trip!! WooHoo!! Saddle-up, adventure girl!

[tattoogoddess]

Make it jan 15th and I'm down! 30th bday. Ikes!

Should know Friday night if I landed my new job with Nordstrums. Wish me luck! Needs it badddd!!

[trilobyte]

Got all my hats and boots de-playafied and properly treated and cared for. Looks all fancy and new again (woohoo for the wonder balsam), ready for future adventures. The girl and I have been in a really badly executed "bin race" - but with both of us pulled in 17 different directions on other things, we've actually been terrible with getting stuff knocked out. I'm way ahead of her on clothes, but I have more tool and gear bins to go through than she does for kitchen gear, so it's neck and neck it would seem.

Meanwhile, technology achievements unlocked all round. On the annoying side, google apparently had 5 million gmail accounts compromised by russian hackers and posted online. While nothing shady's happened with my account, I got a note from a site whose tech team was proactive enough to grab the posted list and run it up against their user accounts. They were letting me know that my gmail account was on the published list... d'oh! So a late afternoon game of password shuffle ensued, juggling and updating devices and machines to make sure everything's got the right credentials.

I also got through a bunch more pictures today, woohoo. It's taking me much longer to go through the pics because with the new(er) camera I was able to take more pics and the pics were significantly better shots... so I have a lot more usable stuff. Hooray for that, I really enjoyed the time I got to spend on 'photo safari' this year. I posted a couple short vids (rain from Monday and a skydiver on Thursday), and have a couple slightly more ambitious video editing projects I'd really like to get to in the near future. Need. More. Time. In. Day.

[Thecatman]

morning al!
Starting a 3 day weekend

Peterson Peak, (have you heard of this place, Rhino?), a large mountain just north of Reno,

I heard of a Petersen Mountain range. Sounds like it might be the same mountains. The range is just east of Hallaluja Jct (395 and 70). Between 395 and Red Rock Rd.

[chuckularone]

I lucked out on the timing. I'm leaving for a conference on Sunday. I'll be in New Orleans for the week. This will hopefully be just what the doctor ordered to slow down the onset of the post playa blues I was worried about. Incidentally it will be post playa Blues that keeps me happy! (See what I did there? )

[ygmir]

I saw Eric's (slightly) younger doppelganger one day. Though I think the facial hair was from an iteration or two ago.

Decompression sucks for the first time ever. Having your best burn ever and then coming home to various work crises is not what I would recommend. So I'm biting the bullet. Going to go to St. Croix in January for a few days of drinking on the beach at our condo. Anyone want to join me? The airfare is expensive but the lodging is free.

I have been to St. Croix. It was a long time ago. A man there asked me for my chicken and told me he liked my breasts. Was a good day. It is beautiful and if I had the funds I'd be there in a heart beat

lets all go!!

[lucky420]

I saw Eric's (slightly) younger doppelganger one day. Though I think the facial hair was from an iteration or two ago.

Decompression sucks for the first time ever. Having your best burn ever and then coming home to various work crises is not what I would recommend. So I'm biting the bullet. Going to go to St. Croix in January for a few days of drinking on the beach at our condo. Anyone want to join me? The airfare is expensive but the lodging is free.

I have been to St. Croix. It was a long time ago. A man there asked me for my chicken and told me he liked my breasts. Was a good day. It is beautiful and if I had the funds I'd be there in a heart beat

lets all go!!

We would have so much fun!

[VultureChow]

I saw Eric's (slightly) younger doppelganger one day. Though I think the facial hair was from an iteration or two ago.

Decompression sucks for the first time ever. Having your best burn ever and then coming home to various work crises is not what I would recommend. So I'm biting the bullet. Going to go to St. Croix in January for a few days of drinking on the beach at our condo. Anyone want to join me? The airfare is expensive but the lodging is free.

I have been to St. Croix. It was a long time ago. A man there asked me for my chicken and told me he liked my breasts. Was a good day. It is beautiful and if I had the funds I'd be there in a heart beat

Live chicken?

The best chicken on the island is not far from us.

Also, you can see the famous beer drinking pigs in the rainforest.

[media]

[ygmir]

*wanders in, makes CCC*
Hi gang!
yeah catman, the Peterson mountains are probably part of the same complex. the state line runs right over PetersonPeak.

@Rhino: I have emeralds (green beryl) from the Humbolt range, just west of Winnemucca close enough to hear I-80 traffic. Some, a fairly dark, opaque green, and some maybe twice the diameter of a pencil. some a few inches long, too. I'm guessing, somewhere in there, gem quality must exist?
We found them in the dump of a mine there, the host rock vein is a snow white rock, where what they were cutting through for whatever ore they were after, is a dark almost black. So, the dump had an ensuing white layer, which we checked and it provided many pieces..........went back in the tunnel and found the intersection, pretty cool really in that you can see the cut off ends of crystals (green beryl) in the floor and ceiling where the tunnel crosses.
I always meant to go back there........never have.......sigh........

What's this news, Elorrum? Road trip? yay!!!


*heads for IBBOD*

[ygmir]

I saw Eric's (slightly) younger doppelganger one day. Though I think the facial hair was from an iteration or two ago.

Decompression sucks for the first time ever. Having your best burn ever and then coming home to various work crises is not what I would recommend. So I'm biting the bullet. Going to go to St. Croix in January for a few days of drinking on the beach at our condo. Anyone want to join me? The airfare is expensive but the lodging is free.

I have been to St. Croix. It was a long time ago. A man there asked me for my chicken and told me he liked my breasts. Was a good day. It is beautiful and if I had the funds I'd be there in a heart beat

lets all go!!

We would have so much fun!

group ticket purchasing power!!

[VultureChow]

I do have an aunt who is a travel agent.

[ygmir]

[media]

[Elliot]

Well, you probably already know what my question will be....

Can we skinny-dip there, without causing too much consternation among the natives?

[VultureChow]

Well probably not during the day at our beach. There are plenty of more remote places that we could make a field trip to.

But at night? Well I've been going there for 35 years and I've never been caught.

[ygmir]

Well probably not during the day at our beach. There are plenty of more remote places that we could make a field trip to.

But at night? Well I've been going there for 35 years and I've never been caught.

the anglers are obviously using the wrong bait!!

call in the masters.........

[VultureChow]

the anglers are obviously using the wrong bait!!

call in the masters.........

The locals prefer spearfishing.