PCS and a Road Trip to Remember

This last saturday, my wife, thA duDe, da f0ssZ, j of the golden shovel, mrs. of the golden shovel, and I went to Aurora. But when you live in SC, you don't just "go" to Aurora. There is 6 hours of driving involved. ROAD TRIP! Our first noteworthy stop came in the Myrtle Beach Fuddruckers. If you've never heard of it, its the best burger joint anywhere in my opinion. We parked and saw two Klingons smoking outside the front entrance. Ok, so they were people dressed as Klingons, but its just as strange. We went inside to order and we noticed that there were also Vulcans and Starfleet officers. We had happened upon a Star Trek convention. I must say that I have never stood one urinal away from a "Klingon" before today. Worry not! I observed the obligatory one urinal buffer zone. It seemed logical in my mind that on the Klingon home world, they would have the same unwritten rules as us earthlings. About an hour later when we were passing through Wilmington, my wife tells me to stop at the next gas station and I obeyed. I pulled into a gas station with bars on the windows and doors. There was this homeless lookin dude outside washing windows. We saw him approach a car and start washing its windshield. Then the driver of the car opened his window and the window washer dropped in a small plastic baggie in exchange for a wad of bills. A drug buy. CLASSY! This was the kind of place where the key to the fetid slop hole of a restroom is chained to a toilet lid, a tire rim, or a cinder block. We ditched the crime scene and arrived at the roach like 9:30. I didn't think it was too bad, but my wife didn't agree. She said it looked like the kindof place that has hourly rates. Our room was ok, but we couldn't get any ice. The ice machine was chained shut. Why do we go get ice at hotels? That's like the thing that every guy does when he gets there. We get ice. I don't know why, I just know I always do it, and so did my dad and all my uncles and relatives. I mean, it was like 40 degrees outside. Then, when we went to bed, my wife noticed that there were burn holes in the sheets. Hmmm… The ice cream on the cake was the truckload of hunting dogs parked outside our room. Everytime a car passed by or a door opened… "barrrrrrrrrooooooowwwwwwrrrrrrooooooow!". I may search for alternate accommodations next time up ;-) Anyway, we hit the mine early and did some hunting in the parking lot while we waited for the bus. Little did I know that my biggest tooth of the day would come from the parking lot!! The bus came and we hit the pile. A welcome bit of news delivered on the bus was that we would go to a different spot at noon. I don't know what it was called, but it wasn't good. The guides even said that there had been 2 inches of rain since the last time it was hunted. I walked all over that thing. I hit the Yorktown everywhere I saw it. Nothing. The Pungo was still fun, but at this spot, it took me a while to find where it was. There were bunches of little teeth, so at least I could pick up some little ones. We got back to the bus hoping for something better in the next place. The best find of the first spot was mrs. of the golden shovel's killer 2 inch+ mako. It was tight, and all who saw it got renewed hope. The second spot was a little more productive. I still didn't find anything, but thA duDe found two nice 1 1/2" makos. da f0ssZ found a 2 inch chub and a small meg in matrix. We couldn't tell how big it was. There were some nice teeth found though. One 3" meg and one of the baddest benedenis I've ever seen. the thing had to be 2" wide, 2 3/4" long, and 1 1/2" thick. It was an anterior tooth in fabulous condition. My wife got frustrated because she didn't find anything. I did a lousy job of explaining what to look for in the Yorktown, and it took me forever to find the Pungo again. But the time I found it, she didn't want to hunt anymore. I packed up a bucketfull of Pungo (see the Special Features section) and dragged it down the hill to the bus. Then we headed on home in search of a Taco Bell. We found one in Greenville, and it was the best Bell I'd had in months. The food was so good I wish I was eatin it right now. One gigantic, multi topic conversation dominated our ride home. A road trip at its best! Among the topics was why certain people don't have special names on my site. Like obviously, "da f0ssZ" is not da f0ssZ's real name. But "my wife" doesn't have a special name. She will be the cuLverT fErRet. Now, since she has such a cool name, she must hunt fossils again someday. Maybe not soon, but someday. Such is the way of things. Actually, she said she'll go one more time - and that's when the weEzlinG finally goes for the first time

Later, cuLverT fErRet and I were just talking about the day, and the whole time since we'd left the mine, she thought she didn't find a single thing up there. It was really bothering her. But I remember while we were out there, her telling me that she thought she found something there, but that she had set it on the ground next to her stuff. She wanted me to look at it before she kept it. Well, I moved the stuff before she told me and we never saw the mystery find again. She described it to me, and what she found was a ray spine. She seemed so relieved when I showed her a picture of one in a book, and she was convinced. She really did find something! It didn't matter that she didn't have it. She was just happy to have found something. It changed her whole outlook on the trip. "It wasn't bad" was more than I hoped for!

You know, I didn't find a bunch of teeth either, but I still had a blast on this trip. cuLverT fErRet asked me why we drove all the way up there when we didn't find more. She had a point, we find way more at home usually, but that's not the whole deal. Quantity is good, but there is more to it. Its hunting someplace new, its hunting someplace different, its hunting where you have a shot at finding the best there is. I mean, where else would you rather go? Where else are the teeth so pristine and found in such hypothetical abundance? I'll always go, because everytime I'm there I have a shot at finding something great.

I also was able to meet some new people. I really dig it when people introduce themselves to me and tell me they've read my site. Thanks for being friendly!

Be sure to check out da f0ssZ's section. He raked it in!