Docia and I drove down to Marion, Kentucky last weekend for the rock and gem show Saturday and Sunday, which was our first show this year and attempt at selling some of our druse quartz and poker chip calcite crystals. I also wanted another chance to get down in the pit of the Eureka Mine and dig for some more beautiful fluorite.

Docia and Floyd arrived early afternoon Friday and got checked into the Relax Inn at Kuttawa so Floyd could get a good nap in…he had driven home from New Orleans all night Thursday night from his workplace there…I called Docia on the way down and told her I would prob arrive about 3 pm and we could go over to the museum and check in with Tina on what was happening for the weekend, and see where we could set up our booth outside…we wanted plenty of good natural light hiitting our druse specimens. I then called Tina to make sure she would be there when we arrived.

Docia and I got to the museum about 3:30 and met with Tina and decided we would set up our booth near the front door of the County Museum where the vendors were going to be set up for the show. We picked a nice shady spot along the sidewalk and then took a quick tour of the museum, so that Docia could see what world class specimens looked like behind glass.

We took off and headed for the steakhouse at Oasis Bar and Grill and had the prime rib, which was the special Friday night. We both like prime rib and were not disappointed at all. It was great !

Next morning we met at the museum and set up our booth at the front of the building, where the sidewalk corners as you walk between the County Museum and the Clement Museum…I had brought along a canopy to set up for shade, but we got lucky and had two excellent shade trees there all day long, one on each side of the sidewalk….so we were fortunate to be in the shade all weekend long.

this is Foh`s Hall, which is now the County Museum, but has also served as a hospital and the school, in the early days of Marion, and then a community center as well. The theatre area was the main hall where vendors set up inside in the air conditioning…we chose natural air conditioning and natural lighting.

this worked well as we caught most folks walking up from the parking lot to the front of the show building or coming from the museum and walking to the show building, and walking back as well most of the time.

there was actually supposed to be another vendor outside with us, but they got cold feet and moved theirs inside, thinking it might rain the first day there. As it was, the weather was quite nice both days, cooler with less humidity on Sunday. Crowds were a little light this year, though, for both the digs and the show. Most of the time when I wanted to shoot this next photo, there were several people at our booths but I couldn`t shoot then…

Saturday night, Docia and I took Floyd out to the steakhouse and we had great steaks once again. Afterwards, I drove over to the lakeside, and shot a beautiful sunset from the Kuttawa City Park, which is located right on the water…was even fortunate to get a nice red and white speedboat zipping across the water against the fluffy pink and white clouds…

and the sky even without the boat was quite nice to shoot above the water….

and as the speedboat drew closer to my position, it scared up some white birds just ahead of it…

after shooting this one, I drove over to the city park and shot this next one with an even deeper color to the sky and water…

absolutely beautifullllll……

Well the next day we arrived at the museum way early…the rest of the vendors decided to sleep in and weren`t going to arrive til 11 am, so I took advantage of the lull and decided to go do some digging. Docia and Floyd decided to stay at the booth just in case and I took off for the Eureka after signing in. Now, I didn`t take my camera into the pit with me, but I can tell you that I filled two bags full of some nice small clusters and a few medium sized ones…also helped a little girl with her merit badge for 4H, she was working on a mineral project, needed to gather eleven minerals and so a few of us there helped her find some nice stuff to take home with her.

I hit a nice pocket above the vein near where I was digging back in April with members of the Memphis Club and after three hours, I drove over to the Hickory Cane Mine tailings to check it out before heading back to the vendor show…

and even more tailings….