Hello Everyone, Sorry no photos this year. Was having camera problems.
Denver 2003 Report By Mark Bostick I usually choose to fly and then have one of my brothers meet me in Denver with a car to get around and get things home with. This year I chose just to drive in. Armed with the help of my brother, Johnny Bostick. I left Thursday evening choosing to stop along the way for the night close to the Colorado border. We made our way to a small motel in Colby, Kansas. Denver to Wichita is only a little over 500 miles, but our hotel reservations were not to Friday anyway. The bathroom had a sign telling guest not to clean kills in the bathtub. There was a location behind building 9 were kills could be cleaned. West Kansas is completely flat and a popular area for bird and deer hunters, I don’t imagine it took the motel long in business before drafting the sign. Colby was also the location of a meteorite find once, a small stone of only 2.4 kg. But it was enough to make me toss around the ideal of hunting in the morning. Instead we chose to get an early start Friday morning on Denver and getting to our hotel, the Radisson Greystone Castle. The Castle is located about 10 miles from the Holiday Inn - Best Western hotels were all the meteorite events are centered. It is also one of the better hotels in the area. But I think next year I will follow the lead of my fellow meteorite sellers and stay at the Holiday Inn. It will make getting back to the hotel after a night of possible drinking easier. Just use the elevator. Usually when I go to the mineral shows I don't make too many major purchases the first day. So other then a couple dozen mineral flats, I didn't buy much and non-meteorites don't really count. That made most of Friday a hello, hi, how are you doing, nice seeing you again day. My brother and me walked around the Holiday Inn and the Best Western rooms and tents looking for things to catch my eye while pricing minerals and fossils. Mostly, I just hung around Blaine Reed's room. Everyone can usually be seen at one time or another coming in or going out of Blaine's. He is the center point of the meteorite world at shows and to make it easy on us, always has the same room every year. Besides keeping us entertained and with a beer in hand if wanted, Blaine also does a good job at keeping his tables full of stuff to amuse us and tempt our pocketbooks. I walked away with a few meteorites and meteorite books including, Nininger first book, Our Stone Pelted Planet, and a platter size slice of Northbranch. This room was also temporary home of the Garza stone with all its glory. You really have to see the stone appreciate it. To me, it kind of looked like a giant Bensour, only kicked around a couple hundred times. Surrounding the stone were pieces of the house torn apart by the meteorite impact. The Garza stone was presented by Adam and Greg Hupe who also had a collection of riker mounted meteorites and Garza Impact Kits for sale. Adam and Greg gave out "Lunar Rock Team" badges to a number of people including myself. Complete with a Marvin the Martian photo and job titles. Mine noted me as a "Meteoritics Explorer", that I was a "VIP" and that the pass was for "All Access". Complete with a cord to put around my neck. Before the show was over, most of my fellow sellers were temporary members of the Lunar Rock Team and some of us would find out this was a good thing. AL Mitterling (of Mitterling Meteorites) is usually at the Denver show, and this year was no exception. Al and me had gone in together on a large end cut of SAH97095, a few months before the show. This is a nice H5 with shock veins and one of the first classified African desert meteorites. I picked up my slices at the show and they are just stunning. Several slices show on both sides a metal vein, up to 2 inches long and wide enough to be seen on of 5 slices. Thanks again Al for the nice work. I will have some photos of these metal veined slices soon. Until then, I have several very nice slices, some with lots of shock veins on my Website right now. (Sorry, had to squeeze a little Spam in here). Late Friday was the Comets/Michael Blood auction. Michael was the auctioneer and brought with him, his usual entertaining comments and auctioneer style. In the auction were a few things that caught my eye, including a handcrafted necklace. Sterling silver with a large wrapped moldavite as a pendent, and moon stone beads. This necklace was one of several that were entered by a cute young blond in her twenties. While only two of the necklaces sold in the auction, she did sell all but one while people were waiting to check out. These necklace sells had her obviously excited and made me smile a little. For my purchase I also got a hug. Lets hope she returns to our fold, our hobby could use more of a female presence...:-) Like the previous years the Comets provided a keg of local beer, along with wine, chips, and other snacks. Anne Black was kind enough to hang around the auction room (Dave Bunks Mineral Showroom...or something close to that), so that people could enter items earlier then in previous years and have the items on display before the auction. The Hupes entered the most items and many went for well under retail. A multiple hundred-dollar bottle of wine was sold with the proceeds going to the Comets. A kind gesture that was much appreciated. And even more so when the winner opened the bottle and shared with all. The final bids on my items were low, but it did manage to pay for the items I bided on, helped fund the Comets and gave me an extra $50.00 so I won't complain.
|
