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DANCES WITH SNAKES

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"CONSUMER ACQUISITION SITE"

 

 

 

The All New Adventures of Dances With Snakes

Lincoln, MO, Hamilton, IL, and Canton, MO

May 5th - 7th, 2006

Another McRocks Field Trip Perspective

Keokuk Geode Hunt

    Let's start this trip in Lincoln, MO with a visit to the Gilded Lilly where we meet up with Mike Bates of the Mozarkite Society of Lincoln, and Dale Lawrence of Dale's Creations. Both gentlemen are jewelry designers and feature their work for sale at the Gilded Lilly in Lincoln.

    Mozarkite is an attractive, highly-colored cryptocrystalline variety of quartz appearing in many colors and shades of colors such as red, blue, brown, pink, white, yellow, black raspberry, salmon and green which is very scarce. The formation of the stone created a "swirling" of the various colors. When the stone is "cut open or sliced", (using a diamond edge saw blade), the exposed surface often reveals pictures. It takes little imagination to find faces, mountains, lakes, trees, waterfalls, etc. One such piece is displayed in the Truman Library in Independence bearing the likeness of a Missouri Mule. Mozarkite has a hardness of 7.5 to 7.75 on the Mohs scale (diamonds are 10), which qualifies it as a suitable material for semiprecious gemstone. The hardness allows the stone to be worked to a high polish. (Source: Mozarkite Society of Lincoln Website, http://www.mozarkite.com/).

    Myself and Floyd Speck met with Mike and Dale at the Gilded Lilly just after 12:30pm on Friday. Mike had talked with the owner of the Mozarkite locality, eighty year old Linville Harms of Sedalia, whose 56 acre farm is virtually the only place you can go to collect good quality, un-fractured Mozarkite. Mr. Harms occasionally rips a new trench with a backhoe to expose a  fresh supply of Mozarkite, usually for the annual Mozarkite Society Dig. Despite the fact that the last time this was done was sometime last year (2005), there was ample material to collect in virtually every color combination, including some deep reds from a special "spot" of Dale's. If you have an interest in collecting this material, which incidentally is also the state rock of Missouri, contact the Mozarkite Society of Lincoln. They will be happy to help.

    The next leg of our journey takes us to Alexandria, MO, and the site of now abandoned, and soon to be demolished, Sheffler's Rock Shop. We decided we should take a picture or two before this historic place meets it's final demise. the huge boulders of collectable stone that make up the outside of the shop are astounding. Rose Quartz, Aventurine, Potosi-stone, Quartz lined geodes, Serpentine, Lepidolite, Feldspar, even Lapis, make walking around the building a real adventure!

    We spent just a short time here before continuing on to Keokuk to meet up with the group at Hickory Haven Campground, just outside town. When we arrived, we found Everett Harrington, his mom Celia, Carole Poole, and Donna Templeton socializing over a bucket of fried chicken and sides, and cracking geodes they had already been out collecting that day at ESP and Geode Glen. They graciously shared their chicken, biscuits, mashed taters and slaw with Floyd and I (Thanks guys! It hit the spot!). It was like it always is when getting together with folks who share a common interest in rocks, like we have all known each other for years!

    I tried to get a shot of one of Everett's small geodes from Geode Glen that has Marcasite and Pyrite scepters, and a wonderful little "star" comprised of Marcasite needles and Pyrite Cubes all intersected by a single pyrite cube. The formation is tiny but beautiful, hopefully Everett will be able to provide a clear microphotograph of the specimen soon. It was difficult to try and get a good picture using a flashlight... To the right you will see a Pyrite cube impaled on a Marcasite needle, and a tine hair of Marcasite protruding from the top of the cube. To the left is the "star" of the picture. All sitting on a bed of fine quartz crystals.

    Saturday morning found us at the All American (formerly Keokuk Family Restaurant) on the bank of the Mississippi River in Keokuk. Here we met up with other members of the group including Cori Nelson from Wisconsin, Bill Clark from Connecticut, and Rich Ewick from Massachusetts. Altogether we had ten individuals in the group. Our destination of the day was to be Gary Jacobs geode mine across the river in Hamilton, Illinois. After breakfast we headed out for the day's adventures. the following pictures tell a tale of mystery and intrigue beyond the imagination...

The road leading up the hill to the mine, and looking back at the creek crossing.

Everyone is happily digging away!

Dig organizer Everett Harrington says: "Oh, now that wasn't fair!" Everett taste tests a petrified "muffin" he dug out of the wall... "A little gritty..."

Continued on page two... 2

                               

 

 

HAVE YOU BEEN THE TARGET OF A SCAM LATELY? DON'T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!

AUGUST 20TH, 2008 - BROKEN ARROW, OKLAHOMA

 

    If you are not on your toes all of time, you could be the target of a scam or con. Last evening while filling up with gas at QT in Broken Arrow a blue PT Cruiser pulled across in front of my truck. A casually dressed black man stepped out and in a hushed voice asked if I was interested in buying a laptop computer. He proceeded to tell me he had three or four of these for sale for $250 each. Claiming they were brand new Sony Vaio laptops. My first question was "Are they hot?" and I informed him I wasn't interested. He pressed on asking if I would pay $200, then $150. "I don't buy merchandise from the trunk of a car" I informed him. He then asked how much I would be willing to pay, and went back to his car, retrieving a package from the back seat that appeared to be a box about the size of a laptop, wrapped in brown paper, taped up excessively with packaging tape, and a photocopied ad from Office Depot advertising a Sony Vaio for $2099. In the process of getting the package from his car, he covered it with a sheet before bringing it to show me.... A lot suspicious... He handed me the package and returned to his car to retrieve a laptop from the back seat, again covering it with the sheet so no one else could see what he was doing. The laptop was an older Compaq, that he claimed a lady had dropped, but the ones in the packages were Sony. He very quickly returned it to his car, not letting me see more than a glimpse of it under the sheet. Meanwhile, I was hefting the supposed "new" packaged laptop, the entire time suspecting a scam more so than stolen merchandise. I strung him along a little while, squeezing the package (it was too lightweight, and compressed easily) Now knowing I was actually holding a package with nothing substantial inside, I told him I might be interested if he showed me what was in the box. He very quickly retrieved it from me, still trying to get me to pay $150 for it, as he gradually put distance between us getting back to his car. That pretty much ended the conversation. I told him again, "show me what's in the box, I might be interested." No go, he got back in his car and quickly went looking for another mark.

 

    I had meanwhile finished filling my tank, and drove to a strategic location in the parking lot to watch him and his accomplice as they drove about the lot, approaching literally everyone coming and going, I quickly dialed 911 and reported their activity, gave a description of the vehicle and what they were doing, stressing that I firmly believed they were scamming people with empty boxes. I waited for police to arrive, but before they did, the vehicle exited the QT, and drove down the street. I followed at a distance, again calling 911 dispatch to report they had moved to another location, near Chili's and Buffalo Wild Wings. Actually, they had gone to the Lowe's parking lot and by the time officers arrived, had already approached several patrons in the lot. As an unmarked Dodge Charger pulled into the BWW lot, I pointed them to the Lowes. Two other marked units quickly converged on the lot, and as the PT Cruiser approached another mark in front of the store, they hit the lights and surrounded the vehicle! Too cool! I watched from the lobby of Lowes as they talked to the "suspects", and got the passenger out to open the back of the vehicle. After some minutes, a couple came out of the store and saw that the police were questioning the pair, and hollered at them "What are they doin'? Tryin' to sell ya a laptop?" One officer motioned them over and asked if they had been approached, to which they answered yes. The officer asked if they would be willing to make a statement, and a citizens arrest on suspicion of fraud. When they said they would, one of the suspects started cursing at them, this just added resolve to the couple, and they immediately made the citizens arrest. (This was necessary because the officers had no evidence of a crime otherwise.) At this point the two were arrested on fraud charges.

 

    As it turns out, the packages were Fed-X boxes filled with newspaper... They had empty boxes, brown paper bags, tape, scissors, and flyers in the back to make more fake packages. Officers also found bolt cutters and a few personal items in the vehicle, along with three or four bogus packages, and the old, useless Compaq laptop they were using as a prop for their con. They did not find any weapons or drugs fortunately, but the passenger had a felony warrant for his arrest in Florida (the officer said that unfortunately, Florida would not extradite). Officers said they also had a fair amount of cash on them, leading officers to believe they were semi-successful with their con game. Both suspects were from Alabama, and the PT Cruiser had Alabama plates. Both are now sitting in the Broken Arrow jail, the PT Cruiser is impounded, and at least for now, they are off of the street.

 

    Do you think those who paid $150-$250 for a box of newspaper will report it to authorities? Probably not.... Wouldn't you feel a bit foolish for falling for the scam? How about the fact that anyone with common sense would know they were about to purchase stolen merchandise, had the package actually contained a new $2000 laptop...

 

    If you buy merchandise, especially new or near new expensive merchandise off the street, or from the trunk of someone's car, for pennies on the dollar, you should know you are about to buy stolen merchandise, and will be supporting crime. So don't do it! Don't be a victim! Report this kind of activity and save some other fool from making a mistake. These are tough times and if we don't stand up as citizens and do our part, then we are part of the problem!

 

    In all honesty, it felt good to help get these two apprehended! And yes, I gave a written statement, and if asked, would gladly testify against them in court!

 

Virgil

 

 

© 2006 - DANCES-WITH-SNAKES.COM        

VIRGIL G. RICHARDS

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