The Best Laid Plans...

I drove down to Greensboro Thursday night for a business meeting on Friday at 10:00 AM and meeting with a realtor in Fuquay on Saturday at 2:00 PM - driving back to NJ Saturday night. So of course I had to figure out how to squeeze in as much fossiling as possible between my meetings. I figured if I arrived in Greenville early enough on Friday after driving out from Greensboro, I could squeeze a couple of hours in at GMR before dark and then be back on the stream at first light until about ten when I would get back to the hotel, shower and drive down to Fuquay. 4-6 hours on GMR - Sounds like a great plan!! The drive out to Greenville was nice up until I hit I-95. From there on, there were severe scattered showers. I arrived at GMR at around 5:45 PM - the sky was threatening but there was no sign of rain or thunder. I collected for about 30 minutes before I started to hear thunder in the distance and after another 15 minutes the black clouds were closing in. I had picked up a bunch of Belemnites and a decent Goblin shark lateral but not much else - I just wanted one nice find. I began doing the “one more screen” chant after dumping each screen full of spoil, as I could now see the flashes against the black clouds in the not-so-far distance. After about 5 “one more”s I finally scored a really nice mosasaur tooth. Immediately following my find was the first loud crack of thunder/lightning - time to get out of dodge! As soon as I pulled out of the parking lot, the heavens opened up like I’ve never seen and the lightning was non-stop. I found my way to the hotel which as fate would have it, had a Taco Bell right next door - what a sign! I loaded up and headed to my room - the morning awaits!.