Madman Across the Pungo

I headed up to da f0ssZ's crib so we could ride together on the bi-annual pilgrammage to Aurora, NC, home of PCS Phosphate and some killer fossil collecting. DF gave me the personalized tour of his fossil room just before we left to whet my appetite. Looking at fossils is always a good warm-up for hunting for fossils. We all have our rituals, whether we notice them or not, but mine actually started last night when I watched the Discovery Channel special on prehistoric sharks that features PCS. Anyway, I digress. We made great time and were the proud occupants of the last two bed room at our home away from home, "the roach". True to form, our rooms were outfitted with the finest in second hand linens. My bed spread only had about 4 burns in it, so I counted myself lucky. This time, the ice machine that was bolted shut had a handwritten message giving directions the operational ice machine. So no one would remove the message, it was written in permanent ink on the useless ice machine. For a second, I wondered if they considered putting the good ice machine in the place of the old, bolted shut one. Then, I knew the folly of my ways. If they threw away the old ice machine, the map to the new one would be lost and then, WHERE WOULD WE BE?? 6:00 AM, we awoke and flew out the door in less than 30 minutes. We stopped at the gas station to appease DF's java addiction, and we were among the first at the parking lot to wait for the bus. We knew we were going to the same spots as the last two years, but the recent downpours from hurricane Isabel were the talk of everyone in the parking lot. No one knew what to expect, but everyone knew that something good would come out. Finally, the bus pulled up and we piled on, signed the forms, and we were on our way. We were delighted to learn that the mine had cut a road across the area, so at least there would be some new deposits exposed in a small percentage of the mound. Everyone had the same idea. Hit the road first. Sure enough, that's where the best stuff was found. DF found a huge, killer chub right away and mere feet from him another guy found a nice 4" Yorktown meg. I didn't score so quickly, but my methodic searches ended up turning up some really nice teeth. It never ceases to amaze me how much you can find when you get in a nice section of Pungo. I was on my hands and knees most of the morning crawling that stuff just vacuuming up every tooth I could. I couldn't pick up half of them because they were just everywhere! Its so much fun to just pick up tooth after tooth. After I crawled as much as I could crawl, though, I started digging in the Yorktown. 3 hours later, it was the end of the day, and my dig turned up little. I wished I had just done the Pungo crawl a little more, but I have no regrets. Hunting the mine is always great fun! I wanted to thanks George Powell, John Everette, Becky Hine, and Curtis Ormond. It was great talking to you all again! Every time I come up there, I learn a little more. Oh, and I almost forgot - I visited the Aurora Fossil Museum for the first time. I've never had time before, but this time, we made time! It was well worth the trip, too. There are some great displays in there - I was blown away by the Walrus skull! DF and I bought T-Shirts and left for home. On the way, Taco Bell embraced our appetites like only it can. For the forseeable future, I won't be able to eat a burrito without thinking about how fun this trip was.