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Hi all. I'm still learning the names of rocks and see these in landscaping all over Illinois, but can't figure out what they are. I visited my parents in the Chicago suburbs this weekend, and found them in a rock garden just outside of their home. One has banding in a few areas on it. Three others have druzy pockets. Any idea what they are?

I think some of you will get a laugh out of this. I certainly had a good laugh at myself. I hope I’m not the only one to occasionally pick up some mystery item only to realize it isn’t mysterious at all and have to laugh at myself. Saturday I went out fossil hunting to NSR. I drove out a mile or so down some unoccupied dirt, hayfield, farm road to get close to a particular spot on the river without having to hike there. I nearly got stuck in the mud a good hours hike to the nearest paved road, but thankfully my daddy taught me how to drive and get out of a few pinches. I backtracked about a mile and parked along a lessmuddy part of the dirt road about a mile from the paved road. When I got back to my car, after hunting it was after sunset. I was totally worn out from hiking. Anyway, I saw this rock on the ground near my car with bright yellow on it. There were a few scattered around. At first I thought it much be some strange lichen or moss. I saw one with yellow sandwiched between two layers of rock so I ruled out lichen and moss and thought it might be some weird sulphur. I had never seen sulphur quite that yellow though. But I was by the Sulphur River after all. I had smelled something I thought might be sulphur a couple times, but thought hog sewage was more likely. So today I found the rocks and it suddenly dawned on me what it was in full light. Doh! Asphalt with yellow reflective paint! No mystery there. Being dog tired, after sundown and a mile from the nearest asphalt or paved road it didn’t initially occur to me what it was. I can only laugh at myself. It isn’t the first time I’ve picked up something wondering what it was only to have a good laugh at myself later for having picked it up. This past summer I picked up some mysterious item in the Pennsylvanian, it was one of my first times ever collecting there. Many things were new to me. I picked up a mysterious cluster of something and brought it home only to realize it was some form of scat, mammal poop that was nearly fossilized, but not quite. LOL It looked a bit like decomposed bunny poo all flattened. I picked up other clusters that were remaines of crustacean burrows or the likes that had similarities to the bunny poo stuff. So what odd or mysterious things have you picked up and brought home only to realize what it was later and you had to laugh at yourself?