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After a day on the beach collecting small sharks teeth (Florida part 1), I was up to a more exhilarating experience. To help with this, I employed a guide and old friend from the Fossil Forum. His name is not to be mentioned. But if classified United States government leaks are OK, I should be fine mentioning his forum name begins with J and ends with ark. You can figure the rest out. There was to be four of us on this outing, Unfortunately one member of the group which I had the pleasure of hunting with before, needed to visit his ailing mother. Chris, my thoughts are with you and mom, and I hope she is doing well. Also, congratulations on the antler/ skull you found in our secret hole!! Weather was perfect and water levels low making what I thought would be a great day hunting in an interior river of Southern Florida. When we parked our vehicle after a 40 minute drive, Jeff informed us we had quite a hike into where we would be sifting. Unfortunately, it is for this reason, I have no in situ pictures of our excursion. I kept the camera in the car. Initially, Jeff placed me in a spot that he had previously found some nice material at. I think so I could resift what he had done before!!!! However, he missed one nice tooth. Hah! Kidding aside, I did abandon this site in short order as sand would cover the gravel as quickly as I had it exposed. Much labor for little love! My mind convinced me to sneak down below some deadfalls and sift closer to where Jeff was. Jackpot with regards to turtle shell. Many large pieces at 1 inch thick were collected. My hopes were that the pieces came from the same shell and I could maybe reconstruct it at home. No such luck!!! They must have been large turtles/ tortoises!

The Plan: A small group was planning to go fossil hunting on a certain NC river for my birthday weekend this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, we knew the rivers had been running high, some hadn't crested yet and by Tuesday we gave up hope on a boat ride along the river to one of our favorite places. The (Modified) Trip: Given we all already had the 3 day weekend off (and it was still my birthday weekend) we adjusted our plans, a few folks dropped out, and five buddies, my wife and I instead made the trek southeast for some fossil hunting in Greens Mill Run. Included in the group was TFF member Daleksec. Talk about a HOT weekend, in more ways than one. Yes, the temps were in the mid to upper 90s, humidity was above 70%, the heat index on Friday was around 105 and Sunday was around 110, but we are all experienced fossil hunters and used to summer time in the Mid-Atlantic. Of the 7 of us, we had 3 different places along GMR where 1 or 2 of us had collected successfully, so we made a plan to hit all 3 spots over the 3 days. Turns out, 1 in the group has hunted GMR for over 25 years with considerable success, which he failed to mention until we all got there. :-) He inevitably became "The Guide." Of the 7 of us, there were at least 10 different methods to successfully find fossils this weekend. Now, you have to get a real feel for this group, no pun goes unintended, no innuendo or double entendre goes unchallenged and nothing obvious is really that obvious, without complete clarification and confirmation of the clarification. To say that we had a blast would be an understatement. I'm positive that everyone had sore stomach muscles at some point in the trip from laughing so hard. There were quite a few instances where the raucous laughter actually interrupted the fossil hunting so a person could regain their breath and composure. I will say, at least we didn't get accosted by Pokemon Go players this trip, like we did on our last trip to GMR. :-) The Spoils of the Screen: We started out after lunch Friday by picking 1 of 3 spots we wanted to try and "moving in." Anyone who saw us heading to the creek would have just shaken their heads. Here is part of the group getting going. For the record, the chair is mine. Here is a small tooth my wife screened, which will end up being a give-a-way since she wanted more than a 3/4" tooth for her efforts on this hot/humid day. (For scale, screen size is 1/4"). At least we didn't get skunked and it broke the ice. This 1" tooth made her a little happier and gave her the energy to keep digging. (Screen size is 1/4") One of my buddies from MD who volunteers in the fossil section of a large, famous museum in DC, has a unique method for fossil hunting at GMR. He sits down and basically "noodles" under rocks, in holes, in the mud, etc. for whatever he can find. Here is a photo of him "staying cool" while hunting. Apparently, his method works fairly well because he came away with this awesome vertebrae. Another close up view sitting in the screen. After the excitement of his very nice find we took a break, which involved much story telling, chiding and laughter. More to come..........