Casa Grande, AZ: Lapidary Gems: Emeralds, Rubies, Citrine, Garnet, etc.

Woke up to high winds this morning, only to watch/feel them grow stronger throughout the day. Our home on wheels has been occasionally shaking & vibrating as the high winds buffet the large flat sides of the RV. Each of the RV's slide-outs is covered by a small awning, called a slide topper, that keeps the sun and the rain away from the seams that surround the slide-out. When the wind is up you can hear these slide toppers 'flapping in the wind'.

Living in an RV means we live closer to nature than we ever did in our stick-built home. Keeps you in tune with what's happening in the outside world and this is a good experience.

RV's, even the best of them, have relatively small amounts of insulation relative to the land-anchors we lived in previously. Consequently very little happens outside the RV that escapes your attention. Some possible observations:

• Cold inside the RV? Means it is/has been cold outside.
• Warm inside the RV? Means it is/has been warm outside.
• Noisy inside the RV? Means it is raining outside or there is a party next door.
• RV rocking & rolling? Means (usually, but not always) that it is windy outside.

As a result, Mary Lynn and I spend much more time outside enjoying nature and exploring our 'local' surroundings than we ever did when we lived in a 'normal' house. And since our 'local' surroundings change frequently, spending time outside is almost always interesting and exciting.

Today was incredible. Strong winds blowing all day, moving huge clouds back & forth across the sky, some of them dragging ominous layers of black & gray clouds hanging from puffy towers of white clouds. Absolutely beautiful.

In the distance you could see some of these beautiful clouds dropping their precious loads of life giving water on some parched piece of Arizona real estate. And yet, even with clouds dropping rain literally all around us, our little patch of desert stayed completely dry.

Continued cool weather is the forecast for the next few days. Mary Lynn and I hope to pick up a few games of Pickleball and maybe go exploring on the motorcycle. Might even head over to the gem & mineral show taking place in Tucson.

Speaking of gems and minerals, MLA received her box of 'rocks' from Maryland today. I say 'rocks' however its really about 30 pounds of gems, minerals and rocks which MLA 'mined' from several mines in North Carolina, after which we carried them all over the US in the RV.

I estimate those 'rocks' have about 10,000 miles on them. While in Maryland over the holidays I unloaded said 'rocks' and (somehow) failed to load them back into the RV. Boy, did I ever hear about that from MLA.

So, we had Kasey mail us the 'rocks'. Turns out you can ship anything that fits into a US Postal flat rate box for only $11.00. The lady did ask Kasey why she was shipping 'rocks' to Arizona because she was under the impression there are plenty of rocks in Arizona...

Well, there are lots of rocks here, just not the right ones. When MLA went to the RV parks post office, four women (remember they are volunteers & somewhat elderly) helped move the box of 'rocks' to the counter. All of them wanted to know what kind of rocks justified shipment by mail, so MLA spread her 'finds' all over the mail counter. The women loved it.

When MLA got home, first thing she says is she is going to show her Lapidary partner, Dave, her 'rocks'. So we pedaled over to Mary Anne & Dave's home where Dave proceeded to examine MLA's 'rocks'. He was able to confirm the type of gems & minerals we had labeled and even helped us identify a few unknown bags of 'rocks'.

MLA is so excited I'm afraid she going to hurt her smile muscles. I'll try to get a few pictures of the rocks for you. Some of the types are: Quartz, Rose Quartz, Emeralds, Tourmaline, Ruby, Aquamarine, Gypsum, Kyanite, Red Garnet, Amethyst, Topaz, Unakite, Fluorite, Smoky Quartz, Beryl, Horne Blend (hey, you can't make this stuff up), Citrine, etc.

At least we think that's what we have. Tomorrow MLA will take them up to the Lapidary shop and have the gem specialist confirm what she has in her collection. Then we can determine which one(s) MLA can cut, shape and polish.

See Ya!