Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

I am sitting at the Sky Harbor Airport right now waiting for my flight. Friends, Gerald and Jill, and I went to see the movie, Descendants, last night. It was OK, but not what I was hoping. We stayed in the parking lot at the mall in Glendale and then headed over to Avondale this morning to turn in my RV. Gerald and Jill are continuing their adventure and have other rockhound friends coming in next week, and their daughter the week after that. I am going home to work on my online rockhounding adventures project. I have only been out here in Arizona for eight and a half days, but there were so many segments of the trip that it seems like a lot longer.

I heard that the number of total show sites in the Tucson area this year did decrease.  There are 39 different locations.  We went to four.  The main venue where I spend all my money is at Electric Park.  Here are a couple of shots of the Village Originals tent.

Outside their tent they have all the large amethyst and citrine towers, amongst other things.

The venue for my speech was at the Tuscon Showplace -- The Gem Shop facility.   I'll include more pictures of the author's event tomorrow.

At the Tucson Showplace, there are several dealers including Paul's Ocean Jasper booth.  Here is a great piece of OJ.

Out in front they have tables with ocean jasper.  Gerald and Jill are in the picture below, along with my friend, Karen Boaz.  She lives in Benson, AZ in the winter and in Au Train, MI during the summer.  We have been shopping the show together for many years.  Thanks to Karen for driving us around so we didn't have to take our RVs.

Here is a picture of a large piece of petrified wood.

I also love the table tops.

Some of the dealers sell rough rock -- lots of it.

The Gem Shop probably has the largest variety of agate for sale.  Here is just one section.