(no subject)
Sunday night we got back from our trip to find rocks in North Carolina. It was a fun trip. We went to 4 different mines, they all had different pros and cons. The first on we went to was way way up in the mountains. The entire place was very muddy and they had mostly native dirt. It was pretty cheap, but we found almost nothing which is apparently very common. It was also very hard, very messy work. The rocks were covered in very thick clay and it was rough on your fingers trying to get it off.
The next place we went was a little closer to the main roads. You only had to walk down a small hill from the parking lot and you were there. This place had mostly native dirt, but it was also "salted". Salted means they get precious rocks and put them into their buckets. This is done because most places like this only have two or three kinds of rocks that are native to their soil, so it makes it more fun to find other stuff.
The second and third place were pretty nice, not anywhere nearly as muddy. You also actually found stuff. we came away with a big bag of rocks from both places. More than half of it isn't really worth a lot, but it's still fun. You tend to find a lot of quartz, rose quartz, smokey quartz, citrines and amethyst all of which really aren't worth much, but they're big and fun to find. You also can find much smaller rocks which could be topaz, garnets, saphires, emeralds and rubies. Then of course there are all these crazy stones you've never heard of like labodorite, amazonite, adventurine, and lots of other crazy stuff. These are the not clear stones, but they come in pretty colors.
So the first you don't really find much, but they had star saphires and rubies which are really rare, so rare that you don't even find them there. The second and third place were more touresty, they were nice but they make most of their money off of cutting the stones so they really gouge you on that. The last place we went was the biggest and was very popular. We found the best stones there and they have low low prices to cut the stones. You pay a little more for the buckets of dirt, but if you spend a little more you get coupons for free cuts. It's also nice cause they have flat rates, most of the other places charge you per karate, which can become really expensive.
Other random stuff that happened included going to an indian casino, it was huge, but it was a dry county so we couldn't get a drink with dinner. Also you had to get a club card or it wouldn't let you gamble. On the way home we went to Charlestown and while Sam and I were waiting for my mom and grandmother we were sitting by the door. Then Sam grabs me and starts kissing me, and then a woman walks by, hits me on the head and mutters something in spanish. It was one of those, "did that just happen?" moments.
I also read Howl's moving castle. I'd seen the movie and the book was pretty neat. All the parts of the movie I didn't like or thought didn't fit with the rest of the plot turned out not to be in the book.
The next place we went was a little closer to the main roads. You only had to walk down a small hill from the parking lot and you were there. This place had mostly native dirt, but it was also "salted". Salted means they get precious rocks and put them into their buckets. This is done because most places like this only have two or three kinds of rocks that are native to their soil, so it makes it more fun to find other stuff.
The second and third place were pretty nice, not anywhere nearly as muddy. You also actually found stuff. we came away with a big bag of rocks from both places. More than half of it isn't really worth a lot, but it's still fun. You tend to find a lot of quartz, rose quartz, smokey quartz, citrines and amethyst all of which really aren't worth much, but they're big and fun to find. You also can find much smaller rocks which could be topaz, garnets, saphires, emeralds and rubies. Then of course there are all these crazy stones you've never heard of like labodorite, amazonite, adventurine, and lots of other crazy stuff. These are the not clear stones, but they come in pretty colors.
So the first you don't really find much, but they had star saphires and rubies which are really rare, so rare that you don't even find them there. The second and third place were more touresty, they were nice but they make most of their money off of cutting the stones so they really gouge you on that. The last place we went was the biggest and was very popular. We found the best stones there and they have low low prices to cut the stones. You pay a little more for the buckets of dirt, but if you spend a little more you get coupons for free cuts. It's also nice cause they have flat rates, most of the other places charge you per karate, which can become really expensive.
Other random stuff that happened included going to an indian casino, it was huge, but it was a dry county so we couldn't get a drink with dinner. Also you had to get a club card or it wouldn't let you gamble. On the way home we went to Charlestown and while Sam and I were waiting for my mom and grandmother we were sitting by the door. Then Sam grabs me and starts kissing me, and then a woman walks by, hits me on the head and mutters something in spanish. It was one of those, "did that just happen?" moments.
I also read Howl's moving castle. I'd seen the movie and the book was pretty neat. All the parts of the movie I didn't like or thought didn't fit with the rest of the plot turned out not to be in the book.